A Tale of Four Clerics

A Reflection on the National Cathedral debacle

First, in this time of falsified credentials, I once again have to state the following: I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. Yet the electrons were barely dry on my post yesterday when that debacle at the National Cathedral occurred, courtesy of Episcopal Church “Bishop” Mariann Edgar Budde. As most of you are aware, she abused a sermon to hector President Trump, in that fake teary voice so typical of libchurchers, on alphabet and “immigrant” issues. For those who were lucky to miss it, your luck is over. Here it is.

Yes, that is a textbook example of what my morning post yesterday warned of — the weaponization of toxic empathy to undermine efforts to defend this country from invasion. But most efforts are not as obnoxious as Budde so hijacking what was supposed to be a non-partisan national prayer service.

It reminds me of an episode I had the misfortune to experience on Remembrance Sunday 2007 at Christ Church Oxford. Canon Marilyn McCord Adams (1943-2017) was preaching the sermon, at Matins I recall. BTW didn’t she resemble Bishop Budde?

Why do so many libchurch clerics look alike? Anyway, during her sermon she practically equated Hiroshima with the Holocaust. Again this was on Remembrance Sunday, a special Sunday in the UK honoring those who died in war, particularly in the two World Wars. And a few Americans were in attendance. There is never a time and a place for such a sermon, but that time and place was about the worst imaginable.

In the long history of Christ Church Oxford, though Ridley and Latimer and later Cranmer were intentionally burnt a few blocks away on Broad Street just outside the medieval walls, there has never been a spontaneous combustion in the Cathedral of Christ Church. But I nearly was the first. I somehow managed to hold my peace and instead began a sharp exchange of emails shortly afterward.

Now I could foam at the mouth about these two episodes — you know I can — but instead I want to put this question out there: what conditions help bring about such debacles.

My answer might surprise you. I do think a libchurch cleric can be one ingredient. Libchurch clerics tend to make an idol out of their politics, some to the extent that they would make such outrageous statements during sermons of import. Yes, some conservative clergy also put too much weight on politics but almost all conservatives prioritize the preaching of God’s word more than libchurchers. That vital priority makes them less prone to obnoxious political sermonizing.

Here is where I may begin to surprise. Although I hold to the traditional view on Holy Orders, I doubt that Adams and Budde being women is much of a factor in those two sermons going out of bounds. I say that from experience.

Quite a number of times from 2005 to 2022, I worshipped at the Chapel of New College Oxford.* During those years, the Chaplains were Jane Shaw and Erica Longfellow. (Dr. Longfellow still is. Dr. Shaw is now the Principal at Harris Manchester College, Oxford.) I think it fair to say the churchmanship of both is liberal, although Dr. Shaw once insisted to me that she is orthodox. Yet I can only recall one time I was the least bit offended by the conduct of services at New College. Early in her tenure, Dr. Longfellow blessed the congregation “in the name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier” or something like that. But since then I’ve always heard her use the traditional names of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And that may to a clue to the situation at New College.

I am not a member of New College, nor privy to its inner workings. But I’ve surmised that there is an understanding that Chapel worship is not the time for controversy nor instrusive innovation. At least during my visits there, they stick to the liturgy. Sermons stimulate mind and spirit, not inflame controversy. And it has always been an excellent place for me to worship. I appreciate both Shaw and Longfellow for that. (Of course, I cannot speak to any changes that might have occurred since 2022. But I would feel comfortable returning.)

So more is going on with Budde’s sermon and Adams’ 2007 sermon, than the outworkings of liberal churchmanship or of women clerics. There is a lack of appropriate boundaries. To deliver such horrible sermons on such special occasions takes a lack of either internal and external boundaries and likely both.

Both Budde and Adams are fanatics. So much so that they either lack the internal guidance that warns them of boundaries or they just don’t care about boundaries if they get in the way of their spoutings. Dr. Shaw and Dr. Longfellow have never come across to me as fanatics, and I’ve had pleasant interactions with both.

If there were any external boundaries in the cases of Budde and Adams, they were not sturdy enough obviously. In Budde’s case, there may be virtually no boundaries as she is the Bishop of Washington in The Episcopal Church. So she presides over the National Cathedral in a denomination where there are not many boundaries other than the woke variety. In Adams’ case, I doubt the authorities at Christ Church were pleased with her sermon, but that is a guess on my part, and I have little idea of what the understandings were there.

So although I much and rightly prefer male clerics of orthodox churchmanship and wise discretion, more than churchmanship was at play yesterday. There was a lack of decent common sense boundaries.

By the way, that is a strength of traditional Anglican worship. The Book of Common Prayer and other traditional Anglican liturgies set boundaries to worship. One can have a cleric with mistaken views, but if he sticks to the liturgy with reference, the worship is still good. And Cranmer even provided Homilies for those clerics who had trouble preaching a good sermon. (Those are rarely used today but probably should be.)

But if you have a high-placed cleric who “neither fears God nor respects man” and lacks internal boundaries, episodes like yesterday are bound to happen sooner or later.

By the way, boundaries also apply to what services laity should attend. If I were President Trump, I would have been loath to attend a service under Budde. His people may have failed him in alerting him to the possibilities.

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*To avoid misunderstanding (none of which I have noticed heretofore), I was visiting Oxford and studying there a number of times during those years. But I have never been a student of the University of Oxford.