This takes the cake

This Bishop in the Episcopal Church in Scotland is an Agnostic. Now, I can understand people having crises of faith and that is painful, but if you are in a clergy leadership position in the church and feel this way do one of two things: Either get pastoral/spiritual counselling or get out of the clergy or both. Nobody should serve as a Priest or Minister performing weddings, baptisms, preaching, or celebrating the Lord's Supper who is an Agnostic who thinks that the rituals are lovely art forms.

Scroll 1/4 of the way down for "Andrew West on Richard Holloway. Believe It or not, the Bishop's an Agnostic."

The retired Bishop says, "I still have my pilot's license." Well, he shouldn't have it because he's flying upside down!!

It's: http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/

"Christians who don't believe in God" Is their such a thing? How can he perform his duties if he doesn't believe in God

Does the Episcapol Church have a similar structure to the RC with regard to their cleregy?

I had brought up a point in another thread regarding priests supporting the gay movement. What do you do? Change parishes?

Somebody responded that the Bishop would bring the priest under control. If a Bishop runs amok do the Espicapalians have Cardinals to keep them in check?

I agree. Having a Bishop declare he/she is agnostic is like treason. It is so dis-honest to have remained in that post or claim to still have the power of the office, I am at a loss at what to compare it to other than treason.

I would guess that he performs his duties by just "going through the motions" ,and thinking as this Bishop, does that the church can be a way of the church family connecting and the ritual is lovely, and I expect he (in his mind, anyway) crosses his fingers when he says the creeds.

Church has Bishops, not Cardinals. They they have a structure for removing errant priests, but IMO, it has been drifting towards Universalism and many priests are not are removed who should be. You can take what I say with a grain of salt however, because I am not Epicopalian. The consecation of the openly gay Bishop Eugene Robinson in 2003 (I think that's the date) caused a huge split in the Episcopal Church and now people and churches are pulling out of the American denomination and coming under the authority of Anglican Bishops from Africa or South America who are more conservative. The denomination is in court suing individual churces. It is a very sad situation. What makes it even worse, IMO, is that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church is a woman. She is the first woman to hold that position and her actions have made some people even more adament against women clergy because they regard her as lacking in Orthodox theology, power hungry and behind making the Episcopal Church into a one issuse denomination-gay marriages in the church.

is a trait I detest. That is what I would think of an agnostic Bishop. I agree with you Austenfan, if he is questioning his faith, he needs some soul searching.

I happened to know a fellow once, an academic philosopher who was also an ordained Methodist minister, and over time he concluded that he didn't believe in God, he was an atheist. Being the honorable fellow he was, he didn't pretend otherwise, and the trustees of his church called him in for a meeting. They asked him if perhaps he wasn't suffering from some doubts, and he happily told them that, no, he had no doubts. He was convinced that there was no God. But he assured them that he could continue on in the job. He was surprised and offended that they disagreed and chose to relieve him of his duties.

He told me this story with a straight face, expecting some sort of empathy, I suppose.

what people think they should be entitled to. Were they supposed to say, "That's fine; You can just pretend to accept the doctrine and do some acting for as long as you're a minister."