ELO: Purpose-driven pastor makes himself a pain in the....

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of southern California-based Saddleback Church and a leading conservative evangelical, has reportedly told a number of Anglican leaders that he is willing to aid dissident Episcopalians in southern California.

"We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans. I offer the campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who need a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County," Warren reportedly wrote recently in a letter.

Kristin Cole, an account executive with A. Larry Ross Communications which is based in Dallas, Texas, and handles public relations for Saddleback Church, told ENS that Warren sent the letter to "30 top Anglican leaders" including many in the global south. The letter was intended to be private, Cole said, and declined to release a copy of the letter and a list of its recipients.

Edited excerpts from the letter were made public by Timothy Morgan, deputy managing editor of Christianity Today. Cole said Warren gave a copy of the letter to Morgan because the editor had accompanied him on trips to Africa, reported on those trips for Christianity Today and helps edit a blog that Warren's wife, Kay, writes for the magazine's website.

In the edited excerpts, Warren referred to a recent landmark California court ruling that the buildings and other property of St. James Church in Newport Beach are held in trust for the Diocese of Los Angeles and the entire Episcopal Church and thus do not belong to the St. James members who left the Episcopal Church.

Read the rest of the article here. Not only do we have to contend with bishops from other countries--not to mention those who like to pretend to be bishops at home-- but those who interfer with the Church and its people but now we have an un-Christlike pastor [supposedly a pastor though I have my own theories about that] aiding and abetting the schisists who pretend to be more spiritual and knowing than anyone else. Makes me sick, to be honest with you. Thankfully he will reap what he sows and I don't want to be around when that happens, because it won't be pretty. Thankfully the true Church can take whatever he and his "followers" can shout at it because when all is said and done, we will overcome.

Awesome about Bishop Gene leading the invocation at the kickoff event on the 18th. Regardless of why he was asked, it will be good to see an ordained, gay bishop from my church leading the prayer for all people in this nation.