Matt,

Upon review of your application, the credentialling committee has declined your request for credentials.

Neva Rae Fox

Can’t have the truth come out!

Stay classy, Neva.

The Episcopal Church Welcomes You! But only if you’re not a priest who actually believes all that ‘God’ stuff.

Can we expect “pink slips” for Sarah and Greg too?

Matt has thrown in with a group of Continuing Anglicans—the ACNA.  The TEC is looking for a house organ to slant the news in a revisionist way.  This is no surprise.

I guess they won’t credential you unless you are part of TEC Pravda Press.

What are they afraid of?

I was wondering about that when I saw that Matt+ was going this morning.  His reputation precedes him (go, Matt!), but I wonder if they are giving credentials to other non-TECers….What if you are Baptist, Presbyterian, etc?  Freedom of the press, anyone?

Cretins…
Kudos to Susan Russell…
Intercessor

What it shows is how inept the TEC press people really are. A good PR flack would see to it that the SF’ers get credentialled and that they get help. That is a staffer, or at least a volunteer stays with them, gets them everything they need (batteries, coffee, kleenex) and monitors what they do. Were it me, I’d have recruited Lisa Fox or some other party loyalist to stick to ‘em like glue.

I find it impossible to believe that TEC actually cares for anything so ... bourgeois ... as freedom of the press. Let the people know what we wish to tell them is their credo.

well…when is the last time they acted correctly

Do all members of the press who wish to cover this General Convention have to be Episcopalian?  Did they check the church affiliation of all the other folks who wished to get credentials?  If the L.A. Times Religion writer (if there is such a thing) were to petition for credentials, would he/she have to be Episcopalian to be granted them? 

How “inclusive” can you get?

GG got creds but MK did not?  Apalling!

I’ll lay $100 that the fingerprints of Gladstone “Skip” Adams are all over this.

More and more the MALICE in TEC is emerging with every step they take away from faith, away from truth, away morality, away from fairness, etc.  They don’t trust in God to do His will in them, because they don’t WANT God’s will to be done, they want theirs… their way, whatever it takes, including dishonor. They have manipulated law, canons, priests, bishops, whoever and whatever gets in their way.  They tried to manipulate the Daughters of the King, running over Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and Anglicans from other provinces in their desire to “get” US Anglicans who were formerly part of TEC and who are now in the Anglican Church in America.  Now they are after the PRESS, in vengeance!  For the same purpose!  They have totally lost all reason!

#7 -  I think what they’re afraid of is what is called “the truth.”

mousestalker, I’m quite happy that the folks in TEC are nowhere near as smart as you. Can Matt+ appeal this?

Matt’s live-blogging of the 2006 GC was a watershed moment.  Matt simply transcribed what was being said—with almost no commentary because there simply wasn’t time.  Unvarnished truth.  For the first time, many people got a real look at what happens within GC. 
That is their greatest fear, that people will see what really happens.  The denial of his press credentials is censorship.

It’s more than just the ACNA thing—BabyBlue got press credentials and she’s CANA/ACNA (correct??).

I thought our governance was transparent?

Matt Kennedy was an Episcopal Church priest. He teed off his bishop. He was sued by said bishop. I think we’re seeing payback.

Start a new publication—“The Matt Kennedy Positive News on Homosexuality and Spirituality.  Circulation 1. In like an bandit.

Surprised?? NOT!!

I have just sent a message to the folks at Get Religion to the effect that they need to cover this story—pronto.

The only way to deal with this kind of arrogant swaggering is to expose it on as many fronts as possible, as quickly as possible.  Send links (with a brief explanation) to all of your local media!

All the explanation has to do is announce the fact of the refusal of credentials, link to this story, and then say something like this (please don’t copy word for word, for obvious reasons, since you will be linking here—use your own words):

Earlier this spring, the Episcopal Church (USA) was successful in a lawsuit against the Rev. Kennedy and his congregation. The judgment they obtained forced them to move out of their church on very short notice, leaving everything behind. The church remains shuttered and vacant. Apparently, the judgment was not enough for the self-styled “inclusive” Episcopal Church (USA).  While proclaiming at every opportunity that it excludes no one from its services, the same principle does not apply to those who want to report its activities at its triennial gathering.

My word of the day was ‘gormless’. This bit of news together with some other stuff on BabyBlue’s blog have yielded so many opportunities to use my new word.

Perhaps I should have applied as the press officer for LETCH

Careful, now!  Mustn’t let the truth get out, must we, Neva Rae?

Matt+,
Given what I just read on the Phil Ashey’s report of the PB’s address, perhaps it was best you were not allowed credentials.  Please make sure that Greg and Sarah are completely equipped with parachutes, as the PB is using aviation analogies for her leadership of TEC, and it would appear to this observer that she has the plane pointed straight down and is accelerating.

Unconventional conflict calls for unconventional tactics, Matt.  Maybe if you got a camera to follow you around as you try to secure credentials?

Ummmmm…..ya know, this sounds like something that might be interesting to Frank Lockwood….

Also, while we’re on the subject, has Mark Harris outed the secret names of the “credentialling” committee?  Is “credentialling” even a word in the English language.  Isn’t it a “credentials” committee? (assuming it is not just Ms. Fox herself, but she wanted to sound like she is not personally responsible?)

Chancellor (#25), you’re so right.  Well done.

David Handy+

Hey Matt…

You DID tell them you were baptized, right?

Greg,  I have been waiting for someone to offer that comment.  Thank you!  Are you and Sarah there yet?

“Matt Kennedy!  Now that you’ve been denied credentials to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, what are you going to do???”

“I’m going to Disneyland!”

Liz,

All members of the Stand Firm team are at Undisclosed Locations X-Ray, Yankee and Zulu.

Tomorrow we all converge at Bravo Sierra.

What!  No one at Whiskey?

That’s Thursday night.

Hmmm.  Note that even Fr. Phil Ashey, who was notoriously denied seating as a delegate in Kingston, Jamaica at the ACC meeting, got in.  But Matt didn’t.

The sheer pettiness of our foes is often all too obvious.  They don’t even bother to try to hide it anymore. “All’s fair in love and war,” you know.  Even (or maybe especially) in a church civil war.

David Handy+

RE: “Matt has been credentialed at General Convention in Columbus, the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the Portland meeting of the Executive Council, and the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans in 2007.”

Heh.

He’s clearly not qualified to be media credentialed.

It was only just at this very meeting that they realized that.

Does this mean that Matt has surpassed Greg AND Sarah as the Meanest Blogger EVER??

tjmcmahon (#32), Neva Rae Fox was getting in a little over her head by referring to a “credentialling committee” (not to be confused with the GC 2009 Credentials Committee, who each day determines the status of voting deputies and their alternates).

The press credentials to GC 2009 are issued by the “Media Operations Office” in Anaheim. Their official Guidelines for credentials, published in advance of this incident, are here. They include the following:

General Convention Media Operations reserves the right to refuse media credentials and to revoke media credentials.
. . .

Bloggers who are granted media credentials are not allowed access to the House of Bishops or House of Deputies sessions.  Special seating in the media room with access to the gavel-to-gavel activities of the two houses will be allotted.

The GC09 newsroom is designed to be a place for credentialed members of the working media. Recipients of media credentials agree to refrain from advocacy-oriented activities in this area. Personal endorsements and/or promotional efforts will not be tolerated; media credentials will be revoked.

. . .

Inappropriate behavior, abusive language and threats of any kind will not be tolerated. Media credentials will be immediately revoked.

So it would have been impossible for Matt+ to satisfy their “guidelines” in any event. And Greg and Sarah had better watch out that in reporting what happens on the floor, they cannot be accused of any “advocacy-oriented activity” (hello—are we in 2009, or 1984?)

As is so typical of our Worthy Opponents, the names of the staff of the so-called “Media Operations Office”, i.e., the ones who actually denied Matt+ his credentials, are not published (except that Neva Rae Fox is obviously part of the Office). The best I can do is link to the home page of General Convention Media Team. By clicking on the Roster, you find that it includes the following names:

Anderson D.D., Bonnie / 0 -  Michigan, V
Collins, Mr. Michael / 0      
Fox, Ms. Neva Rae / 0      
Gunn, Mr. G. Herb / 0   -  Michigan, V
Ionnitiu, Ms. Lori M. / 0      
Lee, The Rev. Clement W.K. / 0      
McConnell, Mr. Sean T / 0   -  California, VIII
Naughton, Mr. Jim / 0   -  Washington, III
Straub, The Rev. Dr. Gregory S. / 0   -  Easton, III
Webster, The Rev. Canon Daniel J. / 0   -  New York, II

So, given Neva Rae Fox, Jim Naughton, Herb Gunn and Bonnie Anderson, what did you expect? By the way, if you click on their “Mandate” link, this is what you get:

”  “

Says it all.

I’m not “satisfied” that this “verified written statement” constitutes either a “good faith retraction” or “good faith denial” of Matt’s credentials.

A note to those folks who are getting puffed up over whether only Episcopalians need apply: Press credentials are issued to many members of the press, as well as people who don’t fall within the category of traditional press. At GC 2006, the newsroom included representatives of the Associated Press, the Dallas Morning News, the Washington Times, USA Today, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and at least three other daily newspapers, as well as the Guardian (UK), all of whom were reporters who cover religion full-time. Their denominational affiliation or lack of it was irrelevant. Credentials were also issued to members of the denominational press, who also make at least part of their living covering religion. And they were issued to people whose day jobs have nothing to do with the press but who blog actively about the EC or the Anglican Communion, and who were all or nearly all were members of the EC or the Church of England at the time.  In short, not everyone who asks for or even gets press credentials is technically the press. And the denial of credentials for Matt should not prevent him from blogging live. He just won’t have access to the press room or the designated press corrals in the various meeting rooms.

“And the denial of credentials for Matt should not prevent him from blogging live.  He just won’t have access to the press room or the designated press corrals in the various meeting rooms.” 

Are you saying that he can do this?

Foolishly petulant and petty.

Let’s all listen as TEC keeps harping on inclusivity.  It seems they are afraid of what one Anglican priest who wasn’t even at ACNA.  How come Baby Blue made the cut and Fr. Matt couldn’t?

So much for transparency…..

[10] mousestalker

What it shows is how inept the TEC press people really are.

[47] driver8

Foolishly petulant and petty.

This only seems to be true if there is someone to hold them to account for their actions. I am not sure who that would be.  The MSM won’t care about this.  It will float below their radar screen, and they don’t like bloggers anyways.  We will know, but TEC doesn’t care about us.  So what’s the downside for TEC?  How will TECs reputation suffer?  Who will be offended by TECs action that TEC actually cares about?  I just don’t see it.

TECs decision seems coldly rational.  It perceives Matt Kennedy as an enemy.  There is no cost to treating him like an enemy, and no benefit for being gracious.

carl

What a lot of fuss.  It’s like being denied a seat in the press area for a pro wrestling match.  Can’t you get the results in advance?  Is something **unusual** supposed to happen at this event?

Carl,  TEC wouldn’t know “gracious” if it bit them on the butt. The word isn’t anywhere in their vocabulary.  I’ve know pagans who were gracious, but not this bunch. Other words they have dropped, or changed the meaning of include, but are not limited to: fair, trusting, friendly, honest, worthy, devoted, truthful, respectful, cooperative, forthright, candid, open, reliable, sincere, etc. All these noble words have all been replaced by “me, me, me”.  TEC would do well to remember the words in Glations 6:7 - Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

I think that one of the things that’s relevant here is that Matt has proven himself to be a very important blogger.  SFIF sometimes gets more traffic than the site of The Episcopal Church taken as a whole (if we go by Alexa, which isn’t horrifically accurate), and that includes the little outfit Neva Rae Fox is part of, The Episcopal News Service & Episcopal Life.
See http://www.peter-ould.net/2009/02/12/anglican-blogs-how-do-they-stack-up-part-the-second/ for a confirmation of this.  Lately TEC has been getting a lot more traffic than SFIF according to Alexa, but that could be explained with the run-up to the triennial GenCon.
Fortunately, BabyBlue is there.  A pity because it would have been fun if she were able to hang with Matt again.

oops, that should be Galations not Glations.  Haven’t have my coffee yet.

Wilf,

Would you like me to update that table?

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

John 3:19-21
Bless you Fr Matt

oops, that should be Galations not Glations. 

*koff* Galatians *koff*

GB nailed it with

The TEC is looking for a house organ to slant the news in a revisionist way.  This is no surprise.

Fox is simply a toady for TEC.  This whole thing is a preview of what’s going to happen in Anaheim.  Across the board TEC is already saying

All your base are belong to us.

Idiots. (TEC, that is.)

If you weren’t expecting this, you haven’t been awake.

Can’t you get the results in advance?  Is something **unusual** supposed to happen at this event?

The only difference between TEC and WWE is that Vince McMahon freely admits that his shows are scripted.

Plus, I believe he shows a better bottom line…

According to a posting on another blog, it was purely a technical issue.  They are just not set up to handle the required bandwidth his typing speed demands. 

Well!  That certainly wasn’t very CHRISTIAN of them.  Enough said.

C’mon folks, I think it is clear that Matt+ was denied credentials on the grounds that, under the PB’s definition in her speech last night, he is a heretic.  I’m sure they will throw Greg and Sarah out on the street too, if they catch them reading St. Paul or NT Wright or one of the other heretical authors.

Curmudgeon’s latest post, which is rich indeed, gets around to this issue—
http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2009/07/t-w-i-t-ch.html

They’re being so mean and petty.  Sarah wasn’t invited to last night’s slumber party at Susan and Louise’s house.

I second #16 re the obvious malice - sad to see.

Matt, just do what Gene Robinson does: whine, weep and wail, and then go anyway.

Maybe Matt+ could have a booth outside the convention center? (Don’t you have a book to peddle YET?) And preside at extramural services?

Peter 0, that would be cool, a newly updated table - but keep the old one as well, it will be interesting to see how the situation evolves.  Good to see how things are now that GC is in full swing.  And thanks so much for doing that - I’d checked Alexa stats before and knew about a few of the blogs, but nothing like the comprehensive list you have there.  It really shows that your TEC loyalist people are barely reading.
By the way I’ve followed the stuff on Tim Fountain’s blog about that rather nasty cyberstalker of yours and my respect for you has increased enormously.
Keep up the good work, you are persevering in the face of enormous ugliness.

Piedmont: “They’re being so mean and petty.  Sarah wasn’t invited to last night’s slumber party at Susan and Louise’s house.” Now, be fair, That’s because it was a guy only party….

As to Matt, A. He should be proud that he has a strong enough voice that he has shamed them. B. He should request a review by the PB. Seriously. Let it become the big issue of the GC…

Perhaps Matt+ ought to talk to the press as well….

Why Matt and not Virtue for instance?

He is being punished, Fr. Van. It is another example of how TEC’s “principles” are dictated by its vindictiveness.

And lo, the minions of the Oven Mitt beheld the approach of Fr. Matt and they cried out in a loud voice, “No Credentials for you, no credentials for you!”  And the Mitt was well pleased.

David #57, ya got me.  But I cling to my defense - no coffee - lol.

Matt,

Welcome to the new Via “Media.”

WE.SHALL.CONTROL.THE.MEDIA

I do not think people should guess as to the reason when it isn’t stated.  But a reason should be given publicly.

Also are there others who were denied credentials that we know of?

Even Elizabeth Kaeton has a press pass.  Wonder if she’ll comply with this rule: “Recipients of media credentials agree to refrain from advocacy-oriented activities in this area. Personal endorsements and/or promotional efforts will not be tolerated; media credentials will be revoked.”

#78, Yes perhaps so, but I am sure it is in a loving, tolerant, inclusive way…And the reasons are transparent…

Is Matt+ still involved in a lawsuit with TEC?

Seriously, why does Matt+ not do what +VGR did at Lambeth.  Hold up at a place outside the convention hall and whine about how you’ve been excluded, preach sermons against TEC’s exclusionary policies, meet outside (with press coverage, of course) the convention hall with people who are inside the convention hall, and hold daily press conferences about TEC’s refusal to allow you to be present.  Worked for +Vickie.

That’s a point, Fr. Van.

I just spent the first day at GenCon helping to set up a vendor booth before returning home.  After wandering around and observing, I would suggest the following to Matt if he wants to get in.  Based on careful observation, I have discerned that the majority of folks at GenCon are:
1) Social misfits
2) Pompous airheads
3) Clued out elderly folks
So if Matt wants to get in, he needs to fit into one of these groups.  (Yes, there are some normal looking people there too, but they are in the distinct minority).

I would recommend the first group.  So here’s what Matt needs to do.  First, find out the worst barbershop in the LA area and go there, and announce in advance that you won’t leave a tip.  Hopefully that will result in a bad haircut.  Then go purchase a pair of high-water pants and some funny looking glasses.  Then stop by the Integrity, RCRC, Chicago Consultation and All Saints, Pasadena booths, and load up on buttons and signs.  Be sure to clip them all over yourself.  This way, Matt would fit right in.

Then try to get accredited, and I am sure you will have no problem.

“Clued out elederly folks”?!! I suppose that means that you think they are not cognizant of what’s really going on in the TEC. However, you could have phrased it more felicitously. Some of the most wonderful saints in the church I have worked with were elderly. They gave themselves devotedly in service to the church for years. And BTW, most people not retired can’t afford to take time off from work or don’t want to take vacation time for GC. I applaud those who make the sacrifices to do so.

I am not a Senior Citizen yet but I’ll stand up for them because God willing I will be one too before too long.

There is no sin in being over 55 or even over 65.

#84 Hey grandpa get with the joke.

The conference called Disneyland is right nest door.  Matt, the venue at Disneyland is far superior to that of GC 09 so put your laptop away and enjoy the next couple of days.  Oh, and be careful the TAC does not have a handy gulag to send you to.

I am not a grandpa, ;^)-not even close, and I understood the joke about how Matt should disguise himself. :^)

FenelonSpoke:  Don’t worry - I do distinguish between “elderly folks” and “clued out elderly folks”.  The latter are people who are enthusiastic about the church they grew up in and want to seem “hip” and “loyal” to TEC and so they support the New Thing without really knowing what it is.

Thanks for the clarification, jamesw.

Could you repeat that again, jamesw.  My hearing is not what it used to be.

Billy he doesn’t do that because he is not vicky gene, thankfully

That Kennedy fry

His absence we crave

Our Urubydu wry

I have been baptized.

Funny…I never heard of the Kennedy Canon until now.
Intercessor

Wow.  Someone in TEC leadership willing to draw a line.  I thought we didn’t do line drawing anymore.   

Seriously though, tactically foolish.  But, #80 has a point. 

Peace,
-miserable sinner

So much for TEC’s insistence upon “diversity”!

Au contraire, #98, the credentialed media at this GC include Susan Russell, a lifelong Californian and L.A. Dodgers fan [that should be Brooklyn Dodgers in exile, but I digress] _and_ Elizabeth Kaeton, a native New Englander and ardent Boston Red Sox fan.
West Coast vs. East Coast
National League vs. American League
How much more diverse can you get?

Modeling tolerance and living into inclusivity.  Mission accomplished TEC. 

Mark Brown
San Angelo, Texas
July 8, 2009

Ole Rafe knows a Charlie Foxtrot when he sees one.

I have a feeling we can’t translate “charlie foxtrot” on this dignified site.