My recent experiences with the Episcopal Church

Oh, I remember alright, because it's not that long ago!

In Washington, DC.  Everytime I went to the National Cathedral, I felt at home.  However, the clergy at the Cathedral bid such a person as I goodbye and pointed to St. Albans on the property as a possibility for membership or regular attendance.  At National they're evidently too called to do greater things than ministering to the poor, such as offering their services to the nation rather than to God..  They do support a marvelous thrift shop nearby, but they try to not let on to anyone that they do so.

You know that reminds me of the Episcopal Cathedral in Honolulu.  They don't let on that they support two services:  one regular on Sunday morning for the rich and famous and another for the poor and outcast next door, usually administered to by a Catholic Priest with a sense of humor:  you need one when you see that while the Cathedral dispenses food and clothing for the poor after church services  they don't provide anyplace for the poor to eat it nor sit down.  Get on with you, seems their attitude! But that is all too typical:  fulfilling the Christian duties while treating the poor as social pariahs, whose only religious service is next door. Many rich congregations so treat the poor: don't let on to the rich that they're having anything to do with the poor except as low-class individuals to be kept away from the rest. .Do the poor have leprosy?  Perhaps that justifies the Episcopal Cathedral's Clergy in Honolulu's low opinion of the poor.

Well, everywhere I go, I want to be an Episcopalian, because I love the Eucharist service and enjoy the many members' companionship in the worship of God.  And I don't believe in celibacy.  However, I know that the Episcopal Churches, by and large, cater to the wealthy and just doesn't want poor people around wherever the rich are!  Some places do.  I lived in Los Angeles and went to St. James, when the now Bishop Smith of Arizona was Rector; and I think he was ashamed by the treatment I was being met with by the church Elders, one of whom pressed hard that I should look for another congregation to join.  Well, I did after Father Kirk Smith left to become Bishop..  But where I had to go, they weren't Episcopalians.  It was the International Dream Church of Los Angeles, Assembly of God. There, I missed the Eucharist.  So I vowed, I would just not tell anyone I was regularly attending someplace else if I would show up for an Episcopalian Eucharist.

But I'm not that religious to keep traveling hither and yon just for the Eucharist and Christian fellowship.  I think I'm at home here in Vegas, at least for the time being.  I attend Christ Church, Episcopalian; and the clergy seem dedicated to do God's bidding.  But I'm terribly suspicious of the Episcopalians--too many of the membership are after wealth and social standing to permit the poor at a pew seat among them. You know the Orthodox Jews still insist on a cost for a pew seat during Temple Service.  Woe, if you're Jewish and poor!    Woe if you're Episcopalian and poor!

Addendum (4/12/14):

I've heard from certain administrators at National Cathedral today.  They wanted me to make an addendum and here it is.

I had several times tried to re-locate from San Francisco to Santa Barbara with encouragement from my contacts in San Francisco.  What I found was that the local government was in the process of getting rid of the poor from downtown, where I initially was welcomed.  In one of my attempts to settle there, I ended up at the shelter, another time at the Mission shelter; and yet another time befriended by the Santa Barbara police--a great bunch.. 

Fundamentally, I had no support from the clergy in Santa Barbara (Episcopalian) that I tried to work with there.  Father Asman, a nice guy, really should be retired, if he hasn't taken that step already.  I did have support from a woman in the Bible Class I attended in one of my trips to that city, and she garnered together the Episcopalian sisterhood living up in the hills.  Well, Trinity Church downtown was doing its own thing; and was not helpful in making the idea real.

Then, in Washington, DC, I attended  St. Stephen's in Columbia Heights, the several times I tried to relocate there.  I very much enjoyed the lawyer whom I would talk with before the Sunday Forum.  A terrific spirit!  However, the Priest was a transplant from North Carolina, having his own set of  personal problems.  (I use the term "transplant" advisedly!)  It would have taken his cooperation to get me into the row of housing adjacent to the Church. He was friendly, only psychologically distant.  And there was Russian housing in the same block, but nothing.

So, wealth matters to the Episcopalian clergy; and I have nothing.  Thanks be to God for the Social Services of Clark County here in Vegas, or I'd probably be on my way back to El Paso--which is really a great place to retire to--or still, might have to contemplate returning to in October. .  As I say, the reason I'd like to remain in the Episcopalian denomination is because of the Eucharist service I enjoy so much celebrating.

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To make this a more complete account.  Here are some additions, not quite so disgusting to report.
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I attended Grace Cathedral and re-dedicated my life under Bishop Swig, who probably is not living today.  I heard from Father Bob McNull here in Vegas that Dean Alan Jones died.  He was a friend, not close, but I met him several times when he had his Internet Forum program; and I knew his wife through him.  He was just dating her then.  I became integrated as a member there while living in a fine homeless shelter that the former Mayor of San Francisco Brown had supported.  I met Brown there on more than one occasion. because several years earlier I worked for the Democratic campaign office, interacting with the great Congresswoman from California, Nancy Pelosi.  (She's a bit helter-skelter, and I believe that's what has cost the Democrats the Congress.)  The shelter was the greatest I ever was in, as shelters go!  I had fun that year.

Then, I had a horrible experience at the Cathedral in downtown Omaha, with some interim woman Priest, who was nice but way over her head.  The Elders really controlled that church; and I hope it is not wrecked today.  Previously, when I was in Omaha, there was a wonderful Priest who then retired; and we have several congenial conversations.

I have responsibilities that direct where I can live.  El Paso is on the list of such places.  And, there's a wonderful Anglican church in the downtown that has a deeply devout Christian as its assistant Rector, an older man than the Priest-Rector.  I understand he does a lot of the administrative stuff for the Church.  They just are a great crew of believers with a school next door to educate in Christian values.  If I go back any time soon, I would hope their Church would become part of the US Episcopal Communion (once again).

What I've done for the years since 1995,when I left San Francisco where I lived since 1990, is to travel the country, enjoying each place I lived at for a time; and might then return to. I even went back to San Francisco. 

But the one place I could not find an Episcopal Church to go regularly to was Reno.  The downtown Episcopal church I found artificial, catering to the old, having little regard for Christian outreach or Christian values.  I'm not fond of heathen teachings in a Christian church, even Episcopalian.  So in Reno, I didn't attend any church regularly.  But I had serious problems dealing with international world relations the times I was there, so I don't know much about how churches are in the area.