One Minute Review: The International

The One Minute Review of "The International" is currently on the HajjPod podcast. May I suggest taking a listen before boarding your international flight?

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New Phase

I was driving home tonight thinking of Lent (which begins tomorrow). I was thinking "what AM I going to take on?, what AM I going to give up?, what does Lent meant to ME?" And there, in front of me, was this somewhat bizarre personalized plate: Nu Faz. It took me a second before I came up with what is, I assume, the meaning: New Phase.

The beauty of the Church Year is that we get to enter New Phases. Yes, they are artificial. The seasons are constructs from earlier times, based not only on biblical events but also on European agriculture. But how often in life do we get to enter a new phase? When we move, or change jobs, or get married? Maybe at the New Year?

In the Calendar, we enter new phases at regular times. And not only that, but these phases are marked by different emphasis. They begin ceremonially, and end ceremonially. They have their own color (literally), their own flavor. These are not personal phases, they are corporate. I'm not entering Lent, WE are entering Lent. And not just here in Nashville, but all around the world.

So now is the time for a New Phase: Lent. A purple season, a time for prayer, fasting, and self-denial. A time for looking inward, as well as looking upward.

I, for one, need a New Phase. I need a push into a renewed sense of who I am in Christ. I'm hoping that Lent will do that for me. Actually, it already has. Preparing for this Lent has been a great blessing to me. I'm hoping that God has even more in store.

The Big Read

I got tagged to do this on Facebook. And since I refused the 25 Random things, I figured I would do this one.

Here's the tag: "The Big Read said at some point that on average, adults have only read six books on this list. So: Copy this list, remove my "yes and no" and add your own in a note."

I'm not sure who came up with this list. I don't think it's that great. Why is Dracula on it but Frankenstein is not? Why so much Jane Austen? The "Five People You Meet in Heaven," seriously? Also, some of these overlap a bit. Having read 14 implies 98, for instance.

And one other thing. I was an English major, with a strong focus on British Lit between 1580 and 1880 or so. That explains why I happen to have read a lot of this stuff.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - Yes
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - Yes
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - Yes
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - Half of it, but got bored and quit.
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - Yes
6 The Bible – Yes, duh
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - Yes
8 1984 - George Orwell - Yes, many times
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - No
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Yes
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - Yes
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy – No (I'm embarrassed to say)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller – Yes
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - Yes, proudly.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - No
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - Yes
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - Never heard of it
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - Yes
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - No
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot - No
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - No
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - Yes
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens - Yes
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - No
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - Yes
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - No
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Did my best, but didn't finish. I know. . .
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - Yes
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - Yes, many times (my favorite book ever)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - Yes
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - No, tried.
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - Yes
33 The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - Yes
34 Emma - Jane Austen - Yes
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - Yes (why is this on the list?)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - Yes
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - No
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres - No
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - No
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - Yes
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell - Yes
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - Yes
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Yes, love it.
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving - Yes
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - No
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - Yes
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - Yes
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - Yes
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - Yes
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - No
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel - No
52 Dune - Frank Herbert - Yes, the whole series.
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - No, never heard of it.
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - Yes
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth - Once again, never heard of it
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - No
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - Yes
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - Yes, loved it in high school
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - No
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Yes
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - Yes
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - No
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt - No
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - No
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - Yes
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - Yes
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - Yes
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding - No
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie - No
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Yes
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - Yes
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - Yes (once again, no Frankenstein?)
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - Yes
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson - No
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - Gave it my best shot
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath - No
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome - No
78 Germinal - Emile Zola - No
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - Yes
80 Possession - AS Byatt - No
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens – Yes
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - No
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker - Mp
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - No
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - Yes
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - No
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White - Yes
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - No, and it won't happen
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Yes
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton - No
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - Yes
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - Yes
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - No
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - Yes
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - No, to my shame.
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - No
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - Yes
98 Hamlet – Shakespeare – Yes
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - Yes
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - Yes, abridged

Lent 2009

I made this video for my church. I'm talking about Lent, and how our congregation is going to observe it this year.



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100 Miles Later

Today, I accomplished three pretty cool things. And I'm not talking about finishing off the marriage course my wife and I have been teaching. That went great, by the way. But more on that later.

No, I'm talking about three accomplishments associated with running. Let me set the stage. I started running for the first time in my life back at Thanksgiving (2008). For Christmas, about a month later, my wife gave me an iPod nano and the Nike+iPod kit. This allows me to track my running (I could go on and on about how awesome it is). I did run several times before I got my Nike+iPod hook up. But, since Christmas, I've been able to seriously track my progress.

You may also know that I'm training to run a half marathon. The Nike+iPod site created a training program for me. Today was a "long run" for me. And on that run, three things happened.

1) I ran seven miles. This was the longest run of my life.

2) I broke 100 miles using the Nike+iPod set up. I am the 314,064th person on the Nike website to have accomplished this goal. When I went on the site, a printable certificate popped up. These people really know how to motivate me.

3) I ran the seven miles at an average pace of 8 minutes, 42 seconds per mile. This was my fastest pace ever. My overall average for the 106 miles has been 9 minutes, 45 seconds. My next fastest pace was 9 minutes, 2 seconds per mile.

I am so grateful for this new hobby/sport.

One Little, Two Little, How Many Little Anglicans?

Kendall Harmon has posted a very helpful article about the size of the new Anglican Church in North America (of which my mission is a part). This includes comparative figures of other Anglican bodies world-wide. I post it here for your number-crunching pleasure.

How many Anglicans are there in the Anglican Church in North America?

On every Sunday morning, some 81,311 people worship at the 693 congregations of the Anglican Church in North America. These people and parishes are already outside of The Episcopal Church and The Anglican Church in Canada. The large majority are temporarily under the oversight of six separate Anglican provinces.

The Anglican Church in North America will unify the parishes and membership of a number of jurisdictions:

• The Anglican Mission in the Americas (Rwanda) reports an average Sunday attendance of 21,600 in 180 congregations (40 of which are churches in formation called “networks”).

• The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (Nigeria) has 69 congregations with a average Sunday attendance of 9,828.

• The Reformed Episcopal Church has 150 parishes and an average Sunday attendance of 13,000.

• There are 51 parishes under the temporary oversight of Uganda with an average Sunday attendance of 7,000.

• There are 55 parishes in The United States under the temporary oversight of the provinces of Kenya and the Southern Cone with an average Sunday attendance of 10,000.

• Four entire dioceses separating from The Episcopal Church, with a combined 163 parishes and an average Sunday attendance of 16,483 (The Episcopal Church congregations and members having been excluded from this count) are temporarily dioceses of the province of the Southern Cone.

• The Anglican Network in Canada (Southern Cone) is composed of 24 congregations with an average Sunday attendance of 3,400.

• One congregation is under the temporary oversight of West Africa.

Based on a firm Sunday attendance average of 81,311 people, it is reasonable to very conservatively project that more than 100,000 Anglicans in North America are active members of a congregation of the proposed province (In many cases, total membership often runs at two to three times average Sunday attendance. For instance, The Episcopal Church reports an average Sunday attendance of 768,476 in 2007 and an active baptized membership of 2,116,749.)

While each individual group is small, as a united body, the Anglican Church in North America stretches from one end of North America to the other and has as many or more (in some cases, significantly more) members than 12 of the Anglican Communion’s 38 provinces (Bangladesh, Brazil, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, Indian Ocean, Japan, Jerusalem & Middle East, Korea, Mexico, Myanmar, Scotland, Southern Cone, Wales)

Relative membership of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion compared to the proposed Anglican Church in North America

The Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East – 10,000 (2005)
The Church of Bangladesh – 12,500 (2005)
Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America - 13,409 (2005)
The Anglican Church of Korea – 14,558 (2005)
La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico – 21,000 (2005)
Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America – 22,490 (2005)
Hong Kong Shen Kung Hui – 29,000 (2005)
Igreja Episcopal Anglican do Brasil – 40,000 (2005)
The Church of the Province of Myanmar – 49,257 (2005)
The Scottish Episcopal Church - 53,553 (2005)
The Nippon Sei Ko Kai – 57,273 (2005)
The Church in Wales – 70,353 (province website)
The Anglican Church in North America – 100,000 (Average Weekly Attendance 81,311)
The Episcopal Church in the Philippines – 118, 187
The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean – 120,000
The Church of the Province of Melanesia – 163,884 (2005)
The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea – 166,046
Church of the Province of Southeast Asia – 168,079 (2005)
The Church in the Province of Central Africa – 600,000 (AC website)
Province de L’Eglise Anglicane Du Congo – 300,000 (2005)
The Church of Ireland – 410,000 (2005)
The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia – 584,793 (AC website)
The Anglican Church of Burundi – 625,000 (AC website)
The Anglican Church of Canada – 641,845 (AC website)
The Church in the Province of the West Indies – 770,000 (2005)
The Church of Pakistan (United) - 800,000 (2005)
L’Eglise Episcopal au Rwanda – 1,000,000 (2005)
The Church of North India (United) – 1,250,000 (2005)
The Anglican Church of Tanzania – 1,379,366 (AC website)
The Church of South India (United) – 2,000,000 (2005)
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa – 2,000,000 (2005)
The Episcopal Church of the Sudan – 2,000,000 (2005)
The Episcopal Church - 2,116,749 (province website)
The Anglican Church of Australia – 3,903,324 (AC website)
The Church of the Province of West Africa – 1,000,000 (2005)
The Anglican Church of Kenya – 2,500,000 (2005)
The Church of the Province of Uganda – 8,000,000 (2005)
Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) – 17,500,000 (2005)
The Church of England – 26,000,000 (2005) (AWA 1,163,000)




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One Minute Review: The Reader

I saw The Reader with my amazing wife on Valentine's Day. The One Minute Review (OMR) is now on my HajjPod podcast. Listen here on the blog, or go through iTunes (search hajjpod), or go here.

Due to some problems with uploading via cell phone, this is the first One Minute Review recorded in higher quality audio. With intro music! Very exciting.

Check Out This Conversation

I'm having an interesting conversation over here on Phil's Blog. Check it out, including the comments (which is where you get to hear me pontificate): http://jphilwilson.blogspot.com/2009/02/intellectual-agnostic-experiential.html

Bragging About My Daughters

Today, as you are probably aware, is St. Valentine's Day. It is a day upon which people who have "significant others" do things to demonstrate their love. I think it's a great holiday, and I love to celebrate my beautiful wife on this day (our 15th Valentine's Day together).

But, then again, what if you don't have a "special someone?" Moreover, what if the one you had has passed on? For people who are single this can be a lonely day. And for those who are missing their beloved, I expect it is even more difficult.

I did not share any of these thoughts with my daughters. I didn't speak to them about Valentine's Day at all, other than to talk about their school parties and encourage them to make something for their mother.

So a few days ago, S--, our seven-year-old, tells me that she wants to visit people in a nursing home on Valentine's Day. I ask if her school is doing this, or maybe her Sunday school class; she tells me "no." It's just something she wants to do.

That sounds very sweet to me, but I'm not that fired up about the idea. I have a lot going on for Saturday, including officiating at a wedding, finalizing a sermon, taking my wife out to celebrate, etc. So I don't run with the idea.

S--, on the other hand, keeps bringing it up. She wants to make Valentines and take them with her. She wants to visit people. Her older sister is not so excited about this idea, but she does show some willingness to go along.

I decide to take the girls on Saturday afternoon just after the wedding. I called a wonderful lady who goes to our church. Sally lives in a beautiful retirement home, a village really, that does have an extended care section. We made the arrangements.

This afternoon, Sally met me, S-- and E-- at the door. We had 50 valentine cards with pictures of puppies on them, and the same number of heart-shaped lollipops. Sally introduced us all around her building. The girls got to meet 20 or more residents and give them the cards. At the end, as we were beginning to run out of time, they carefully arranged the remaining cards on the dinner tables in the extended care building.

You should have seen my awesome daughters. They were dressed all in red, and looked ridiculously cute. Everyone wanted to stop and talk to them. The girls introduced themselves, said they were here to wish them a happy Valentine's Day, and gave them the little presents.

We had a couple of funny experiences. The girls' favorite was a lady who invited us into her room and didn't seem to want to let us go. S-- was carrying her cards and candy on a sort of tray, and the lady bent down to take an extra one (she had already been handed one at the door). S-- shrugged her shoulders and said "I guess you can have one more." And the lady said "I can have three more." And that's what she had.

Sally was a wonderful host, and the girls spent a pleasant hour and a half making new friends. I was so proud of them, and especially of S--. They were polite, but so full of life. They gave out hugs as well as big smiles.

At one point, a gentleman who had been told I was a pastor asked me if this was a church project. I said "no, it was her idea (indicating S--) and we're just along for the ride."

I'm blessed to have daughters who are like this. I could learn a lot from them. I hope they never lose their compassion.

My Longest Job Stint Ever

A thought came into my head very early this morning: "I've been doing this a long time."

Specifically, I have been pastor of Church of the Redeemer longer than I have held any other job in my entire life.

• Pastor of Church of the Redeemer: 4 years, 7 months, 1 week and counting
  
• Assistant Rector, St. Bartholomew's: 4 years, 6 months, 3 weeks
• Youth Minister, St. Stephen's: 3 years, 6 months
• Assistant Rector and Youth Minister, Christ Church: 2 years, 8 months
  

I've worked lots of places, including IHOP, a hair salon, a TV station, a newspaper, and two summer camps. I've had jobs teaching continuing education, interning in a Church, tutoring, landscaping, and lifeguarding. I worked for my dad forever, but I don't think that really counts. The most I ever had those real jobs was a couple of years (the newspaper). So I have now had this job longer than I've ever had any other.

I have to say that of all my jobs, I really do like this one the best. I loved St. Bartholomew's and St. Stephen's (Christ Church was problematic), but I'm so blessed to be part of this incredible church.

OK, that's all.

Slow Ninja Sets Ridiculous Goal

As many of you know, I started running back around Thanksgiving. You can check out my posts about that here.

I've been going strong since then. The only two weeks I've had to let it slide was recently when it was just too darn cold to run at night, and about a month ago when I got crazy sick. (If you are really interested, you can track me by checking out "My Running" in the right hand bar here on iHajj.net)

Yesterday I was at Crockett Park and busted out 10 kilometers in less than an hour. Of course, elite runners can do 13 MILES in an hour, so I'm not exactly a speed demon over here. However, I'm really enjoying this running thing. Given that I'm 37 years old and NEVER ran more than half a block in my life until recently, it's kind of a strange feeling.

I'm not saying I enjoy every moment of it. It sometimes hurts like crazy and wears me out. It takes a lot of time. Also, I know I won't be able to do it forever. Age and injury will surely get me sooner or later. My lovely wife ran strong for 17 years before a back disease stopped her. This makes me grateful for whatever time I have.

OK, that's all build up. Today, here on iHajj, I am officially announcing that I am training for the Country Music HALF Marathon. You can check it out here. Wooo Hoooo!

I run using the Nike + iPod thing. I can not recommend it highly enough. It is super cool. It monitors me while I'm running; and it gives me feedback about speed, distance, pace, and calories. And you don't need to wear Nikes to make it work. I have a pouch thing my wife got for $6 that holds the sensor in the laces of my New Balance shoes. You just need an iPod nano or touch and a $30 sensor kit from Apple.

The reason I tell you all that is that the iPod updates a website which tracks you running. The website also allows you to design training regimes for races and other goals, based on your level. So, this website has designed a training program for me. I officially started training just an hour ago with a 4 mile run. The program will keep me going at it, increasing distance, then backing off, resting, etc., until I hit 13.1 miles on April 25th.

According to what I've read, you can train for a half marathon three different ways. Train to win, train to put up a good time, or train to finish. Me, I'm training to finish. That's it. Thinking I can run 13 miles at all is crazy enough, I'm not suffering from any grand delusions about speed.

OK, that's it. No challenges to join me, no admonitions to start running. Just telling you what I'm up to.

Driving With Half of Her Body

So I'm driving south on Franklin road a few days ago. An SUV on the right is driving pretty slowly, so I pass it. As I do, I glance over and see the driver is driving with half her body. No joke.

My camera is on my passenger seat, and as we pull up at a traffic light I get right next to the SUV. Thankfully for me, she is still in this odd position. So I take this picture.

I don't know if you can make it out, but in her left hand she is holding her cell phone. She is talking on the phone, obviously. And if you look carefully you will see that her left foot is up on the dash, right by her window.

So this lady is driving down Franklin road with just her right hand and right foot, the other half of her body being engaged in either talking or relaxing. I assume she is driving with half of her brain, but that might be giving her too much credit.

I guess she figures that her giant SUV will protect HER from any accident. The rest of us are not so safe.

I don't like it when folks talk on the phone and drive. It distracts the driver and leads to more accidents. But if you must give up one of your arms to talk on the phone, at least keep your other limbs where they should be.



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A Story About Exorcism

This week I preached about casting out demons at my church. You can find that sermon here, if you are interested.

Earlier last week, I had listed to a great story from Andrew Solomon via the Moth podcast. This story is also about casting out demons, but from a very different perspective.

I have recorded a short introduction and placed Mr. Solomon's story on my own podcast. I encourage you to take a listen here. I do not know if what I have done is legal, but I hope that it is.

I forward this story on to you for a few reasons. First, you really should listen to The Moth's podcasts. Seriously, they are great. Second, Andrew Solomon's book looks really cool, though I have only begun to read it. (Now if I have violated any laws, at least I have done so in a helpful way). Third, it's a really good story.

But mainly I forward this story on to you because I think it raises a lot of good points about liturgy, worship, and community. It helps me think about my own engagement in healing, especially healing of non-physical wounds. And it gives me encouragement that the modernist, talk-therapy way is not the only solution (as helpful as it has been sometimes to me and countless others).

OK, enough said. Have a listen. It's up on HajjPod right now.

I Refuse to List 25 Random Things About Myself

Over the past week or two, I have been "tagged" in numerous notes on facebook. For those of you unaware, facebook notes are kind of like blog posts. In fact, I have my blog linked to facebook so every post I make becomes a note. This allows my facebook friends to read my blog posts without going through the agony of actually checking my blog. www.iHajj.net

These notes I'm being tagged on have nothing to do with me. Rather, they are part of some sort of game that is currently happening. Facebook people are encouraged, by what entity I am not sure, to write a list of "25 Random Things" about themselves. Then they "tag" 25 of their friends. These friends are supposed to write a similar note, tag 25 of their friends, and the wave of random factoids continues. Eventually there will be millions of lists of 25 little-known items of information.

The people who have tagged me in this way are good people. I take it from their tags that they want to get to know me better as well as allow me to get to know them better. I think that is a worthy goal.

However, I am not going to play this game. I don't like games like this, pass it on games. More than that, I don't want to list 25 things about myself in list form. It feels narcissistic to me. Which is a funny thing to say, coming from someone who blogs about himself. Regardless of my hypocrisy, this just feels like a line I don't want to cross.

More than that, I don't want to list random things. I want to know and be known in context. I prefer narrative to raw lists. I prefer relationship to guidebook. I would prefer to hear one good story from your life than 25 one-off facts. I don't believe in your facts, anyway. Facts do not exist in a vacuum. Even mathematics doesn't work that way.

So, go ahead and tag me all you want. I'm not giving you a list of 25 facts. I will, though, do my best to share who I am in other ways. How's that for a good deal?



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Overheard in Our House

At our house, we have devotionals most nights after dinner. We sit around the table and read from a "though the Bible in a year" kid's book. The material is sometimes lame, but it gets the job done.

Tonight we read the story of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dream. The book pointed out that Joseph gave glory to God for the ability to interpret dreams. After the story, there are some questions. We take turns answering them. Some of these questions can be a little pointed.

The last question tonight was this: "when you do something great, do you give God the glory or do you keep it for yourself?" See, pointed.

That question fell to S--, my seven-year-old. Her response? "We split it."

Awesome.

Stuff I Don't Like to See

A report just hit the internet about the suspension of the pastor at an Anglican congregation in Vero Beach. The reason I clicked on it is that my aunt and uncle live down there during the winter. Fortunately for them, they go to a different Anglican church.

I hate to see this sort of thing happen. A congregation leaves the Episcopal Church due to that denomination's immoral and heretical behavior. Only a year later, they discover that their pastor is having an affair. Not good. In this case, the Anglican bishop seems to have immediately suspended him when he found out.

In an Episcopal Church I served in, a head pastor (rector) who had an affair and abandoned his family wasn't disciplined at all by his bishop or the denomination. The bishop covered the whole thing up. Instead, this man is now serving as the pastor of an Episcopal Church in another state.

I believe that human sinfulness is evenly distributed. We're going to find stuff like this in any church. However, the way denominations handle such behavior varies widely.

Here is the story that came out today. And, if you are interested, following is a YouTube clip that features the now former pastor. I happened to use it on this blog while speaking of something else about a year ago.

By Elliott Jones, tcpalm.com

VERO BEACH — Citing allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct, an Anglican bishop has suspended the lead minister of a year-old church that broke off from the national Episcopal Church, church officials said Monday.

The Rev. Lorne Coyle, of Christ Church of Vero Beach, was suspended effective 2 p.m. Sunday because his bishop received an out of state woman’s allegations that she and Coyle had an affair, said the church’s senior warden, Jim Reamy III.

On Sunday, Coyle stood in front of the 500-member congregation and confirmed he had sexual relations with the adult women over a period of years, Reamy said. Then Coyle left the building.

“This is very overwhelming,” Reamy said.

For now, Coyle is suspended from having contact with his congregation — he helped build – and from using the church offices at 920 14th Lane. In his place, one of the church’s other ministers, Robert Stull, will head up the church.

Coyle led the establishment of the church in response to what he said was the national Episcopal Church’s straying from Biblical scripture.