Somehow This Does Not Add Up ...

  A resigned (retired) Episcopal Bishop was arrested and tried on charges of trespass in New York City. His offense? He joined (actually led) a group of protesters in their attempt to take over and occupy a vacant plot of ground that was owned by Trinity Church on Wall Street—ECUSA’s wealthiest parish.

How does he react to his conviction and sentence to five days of community service?

Trinity did not have to pursue the charges, but it opted to “protect fiduciary interests,” Packard told ENS. “It’s pretty sad. I mean, this is what our church has come to. You don’t have enough pledging units to sustain many places. So we depend on the cash flow of corporate investment. It’s a caricature of what the gospel is… It’s bewildering to me that Trinity has gone ahead with prosecuting these arrests. I fully thought they would just drop the charges,” Packard said. “I don’t put ‘trespass’ and ‘church property’ in the same sentence, somehow. Maybe I’m just naïve. I have a long history with Trinity Church.”

Now, just imagine that the shoe was on the other foot, and that Trinity Wall Street had voted to withdraw from the Episcopal Church (USA), but remain in and continue to occupy their building, which they have paid for and maintained for over 200 years.

Whom do you think that Bishop Packard would be calling “trespassers” then?