It was the morning of the day that Donald Trump would be inaugurated president for the second and last time. The customary prayer service for the president’s tenure in the highest office in the land was held in the majestic National Cathedral. I visited the grand church many years ago and was duly impressed by the shear scale of the structure on a rise in the otherwise flat District of Columbia. It didn’t take much to impress me because I’ve always been enamored of Gothic church architecture, but that edifice is truly massive. There was something queer about it, though. As I stood in the center aisle near the west door in the back of the church, it was clear that the chancel way up forward was not on center. It was skewed markedly to the left. How symbolic of the politics of the Episcopal Church! Was this flaw a demonstration of the Almighty’s subtle sense of humor?
Back to Inauguration Day, 2025. Donald Trump, the non-political real estate magnate and entrepreneur turned politician was soon to be sworn in. He had not yet taken his first action as president, but he sat there chomping at the bit like a race horse in the gate. Protocol demanded that he be docile just for a short duration while he was seated at the feet of Mariann Budde, the bishopess of the small but influential Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Budde is an unassuming woman, small of stature, quiet of voice, lacking the type of personal charisma that one would expect from a hierarch in her vaunted office in our capital city. She was dressed the part in her long rochette and chemire with her master’s academic hood draping down the back, and black tippet down the front. But underneath the finery Budde’s demeanor was thoroughly unimpressive. She would look less out of place officiating at a little noonday service in a side chapel than she did that morning in the nave of the cathedral. I had noticed the lack of appeal in the woman when she officiated at Jimmy Carter’s funeral only days before, so it was clear that she wasn’t just having a bad day the morning of Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
The unassuming bishopess reminds me of Winston Churchill’s quip about the prime minister who followed him in office after World War II and whom he in turn succeeded. “An empty taxi pulled up to Whitehall and Mr. Attlee got out.” Dare I say that another nondescript prime minister, the grey but pernicious Keir Starmer has about the same personal appeal as old one-termer Clement Attlee, the father of the British welfare state. Marriann Budde with shortly-cropped hair and lack of makeup looks and acts like these British beta-men. Uninspiring is the word one might use just to be polite.
At the end of her unimpressive homily, Budde decided she had a singular chance to take a dig at the president soon-to-be. In a soft motherly tone, she pleaded with Pres. Trump to have mercy on the transgendered youth and the illegal migrants in the country. Apparently, some were afraid even for their lives. Perhaps those fears are justified, not because of what Pres. Trump might do, but rather because of the permanent damage that bodily mutilation might do. Pleas for so-called “gender-affirming care” are utterly disingenuous. I despise the usage of that misleading euphemism for the chemical interruption of puberty and the butchery of castrations and double mastectomies. Budde spoke in soft, irenic tones implying support for medical interventions that would have delighted the monster Dr. Mengelè of Nazi notoriety. Budde has children of her own; would she have allowed them in their pubescent confusion to complain that they had been born in the wrong body? The devil appears as an angel of light, and sometimes in episcopal finery.
From her perch in the cathedral’s grand pulpit, Budde urged Mr. Trump to have mercy also on the illegal immigrants that Joe Biden deliberately encouraged to flood into our country. She wasn’t aware how naïve she sounded when she spoke in support of the invasion of millions of unvetted foreigners who have placed a tremendous burden on our welfare safety net. Surely she wasn’t so stupid as to deny the fact that many illegal foreign criminals have raped, maimed, and killed American citizens and stolen their property. Where, O where was the bishopess’ compassion for her fellow Americans and their need to be safe on America’s streets? Likewise for the sakes of many illegal aliens in our country who are trapped here as indentured servants by criminals as child laborers or prostitutes. Deportation may just be the way for some who are at the mercy of drug cartels and gangs of thugs to break free from their own personal bondage.
Imagine the ire that Mr. Trump must have suppressed while he was forced to listen to Democrat talking points coming from the pulpit where Gospel words of encouragement would have been welcome to the ears of the incoming president.
Let us also be cognizant of this fact: Budde’s moral posturing conveniently omits the fact that the Episcopal Migration Ministry (EMM), the federal contracting arm of her church, has been profiting immensely from taxpayer-funded government programs aimed at resettling migrants. In 2023 alone, EMM raked in $53 million to resettle 3,600 individuals, according to the New York Post. (Jim Hoff, Gateway Pundit, 2/5/25) That’s a generous $14,722 per migrant. Did all of that money go to the migrants? One might ask what the Episcopal Church is doing abetting illegal migration anyway.
“I want to build up the liberal church again so we can be a legitimate conversation partner in the public arena,” Bp. Budde told The Washington Post five years ago. (AP, JUNE 1, 2020) The Episcopal Church has always been pretty good at keeping records. Statistics show that the Diocese of Washington — that is the Episcopal Church in our nation’s capital and part of Maryland — suffered a drop in average Sunday attendance at services during the decade between 2014 and 2023. Washington is a small diocese in both land area and membership. Of the 30,000 members, only 13,330 showed up on any given Sunday in 2014, but as one might suspect, that number dropped over the years to 8,483 in 2023, even accounting for an uptick in interest after Covid. Although one must admit that all of the old mainline Protestant denominations have suffered similar losses in attendance over the years, the trend is not exactly a ringing endorsement for Bp. Budde’s episcopate, which commenced when these numbers began to be tabulated. She was consecrated bishop and installed as the diocesan ordinary on November 12, 2011.
Mr. Trump’s assessment of Ms. Budde is more profound than he may have intended it to be, for truth be told, Budde is no bishop. She is no bishop because she is no priest. She is no priest because she is a woman. The Church — the one, holy catholic and Orthodox Church — has never ordained women to the priesthood, much less the episcopacy. The Episcopal Church adhered to this ancient tradition until 1976, the year that I graduated from college. That is the year when the national Church voted to normalize the so-called ordinations of the Philadelphia Eleven, women who had received the laying on of hands in 1974 by retired robber bishops who acted in ultra vires fashion, scandalizing the entire Episcopal Church. Now saddled with that fait accompli, the liberals in Massachusetts elected Barbara Harris, a radical black priestess and consecrated her suffragan bishop for that diocese in 1988. Barbara Harris, the first woman to be consecrated bishop in the Anglican Communion, was conveniently black, so any critical reaction to her ordination was considered racist, not merely sexist. Women had now swung their hips and barged into all of the major orders of the Church.
With Barbara Harris’ illicit elevation to the episcopacy, any doubt that the Episcopal Church was a swinging branch of the greater Church Catholic was removed once and for all. The Episcopal Church, the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, still prides itself on its claim as the third branch of the Church Catholic along with the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. They are decidedly not so. They never were, except in their own mistaken theology: the Branch Theory.
To confirm their contention to be “The Church of What’s Happening Now”, the national Church approved the 2003 election of Vicky Gene Robinson to become bishop coadjutor with right of succession to the seat of the Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was a gay man, despite the feminine name, who was once married to a woman with whom he sired two daughters, but then divorced the mother. He came out of the closet and acquired a male partner whom he later “married”… and subsequently divorced. Robinson is not exactly a bishop above reproach.
What do I mean by the Branch Theory? The Anglican Communion as a whole claims that their bishops have always been ordained by senior bishops in an unbroken line of apostolic succession. They can even unroll ecclesiastical genealogies to prove their places on the family tree. The problem is that mere succession to the apostles is not enough to maintain one’s rightful place of honor within the universal Church. Adherence to the Apostolic Tradition is just as necessary as membership in the Apostolic Succession. The influence of the Calvinist and Lutheran movements of the sixteenth century led the mother Church in England to jettison aspects of Tradition which the Catholic Church had maintained even after the eleventh century rupture with the Orthodox East. For example, five of the seven sacraments were downgraded to sacramentals. The mystical epiclesis of the Eucharist was removed. And King Henry VIII plundered the monasteries to fill the royal coffers after he declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England in 1531, depriving the pope of Rome of his place atop the hierarchy. We Orthodox don’t even accept the Roman Church’s contention that they are the One True Church of Jesus Christ; the notion that the Anglican Communion ever was a branch of the same tree has been utterly rejected by our hierarchs several times in history. The shenanigans performed by the Anglican Churches makes any claim to catholicity utterly laughable now that the Episcopal Church in particular has made a mockery of their Holy Orders.
I must admit with a tinge of sadness that I was born and raised in the Episcopal Church and later was trained and ordained a priest in its sister jurisdiction, the Nippon Seikokai. When the Seikokai decided in convention in 1990 to study the prospect of ordaining women to the priesthood, I knew the handwriting was on the wall. The first woman to be made deacon was Margaret Shibukawa, a senior colleague of mine in the Chubu Diocese centered in Nagoya. She ultimately was the first woman to be priested in Japan. At a clericus in the mountains of Nagano, Shibukawa complained in front of all the clergy of the diocese that I was targeting her for criticism. I stated plainly that my reasons for opposing her potential ordination were not personal, but rather theological. Women had never been ordained to the priesthood because they were not qualified to officiate at the unbloody sacrifice which is the Eucharist. Not only that, but the Scriptures, specifically St. Paul, did not permit women to teach men (I Timothy 2:12). He even prevented women from speaking in the Church! (I Corinthians 14:34) As valid as my argument was, it was ignored by Ms. Shibukawa and our bishop Samuel Hoyo. For that reason and others, I left the Nippon Seikokai and returned stateside with my family in 1994; Ms. Shibukawa was ordained the first woman priest in 1998.
Here is what I would say to the bishop of Washington given the chance: Ms. Budde, if I may say so, your vindictive little stunt before the president was uncalled for. You may have scored points among your fellow liberal Episcopalians and Democrats, but a large portion of the country found it to be in poor taste. I agree with the president; you owe him and the country an apology.
Handwritings on the Wall 
I disagree. She does not owe anyone an apology. Your letter, denigrating her height, lack of make up and short hair, is a prelude to the rest of your false assertions. She does not promote child mutilation as you’re saying. She spoke about having sympathy to the ones that are struggling with such life altering decisions. She is no doctor or psychologist. She never recommended that any child should be mutilated. That decision is up to the parents and the doctor. You or the government have no right to interfere.
As for the illegal migrants, she is a person of God. Orthodoxy expects us to help the downtrodden. What kind of an Orthodox are you? Christ commanded us to look after the least of us. No matter what his citizenship status is. Illegal immigrants were not let in by Biden. The American economy is what attracts them. You want to stop the flow? Make the country poor.
I don’t understand why most republicans claim that they are concerned for the rule of law, yet they voted for a convicted felon, who pardoned 1600 traitors to democracy.
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Mr. Karp, I recall that you are a frequent commenter on Helleniscope — one who is adept at irritating the administrator, Nick Stamatakis. Should I consider it an honor to have you at Handwritings? We’ll see. I suppose you’ll be about as willing to listen to me as you are willing to listen to Nick. So, I’ll respond to your arguments this time, but if you prove to be as obstreperous here as you are on Helleniscope, you’ll wear out your welcome quickly.
Budde does indeed promote the mutilation of children, however indirectly. Do you have any children, sir? Puberty is a transitory phase for kids. The rapid transformation in their bodies causes some kids a great deal of uncertainty. The responsible parent will listen to his/her child, but assure him/her that he is fine the way God made him. He is just going through a phase and all will turn out well if he is patient. Anyone who encourages the barbaric treatments for the gender dysphoria contradicts the Creator’s intentions and is acting in contravention to God’s plan. Bp. Budde indicated in a subtle way that she promotes sexual transitioning as a solution to a temporary problem. She is absolutely wrong, and you also are wrong to defend her comments.
In regard to immigrants, Orthodoxy encourages us to be magnanimous to migrants as those who are in a vulnerable position, but where does it say that citizens ought to condone the infraction of laws prohibiting illegal entry into another country with the intent to squat there permanently? Are we supposed to approve of the distribution of government largesse willy nilly even if it puts great strain on the government’s ability to continue? Do you realize that thousands of children have been lost in the influx to our country? How many deaths by the fentanyl smuggled into this country by illegal aliens will you tolerate before you see what a scourge this invasion of foreigners actually is? How many pimped women will be enough to make you say, “Stop!”
Your comment about Biden is just plain asinine. Look at the evidence, Bob. Biden purposely flooded our nation with millions of aliens in order to break the back of our welfare systems and our police forces, and to add millions of Democrat voters to the rolls. If you’re so concerned about the migrants, what have YOU done for them? What have YOU done to save children who are struggling with their sexual identity? I suspect you, sir, are all talk and no action. Prove me wrong.
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Hi Lawrence. Did you receive my reply of yesterday? If not, let me know and I can re-send it.
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Please resend it.
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That Leftward Tilt —
Many an English church was built, then rebuilt & extended, over centuries of time. Original orientation was customarily set for March 25’s sunrise — “Lady Day” or Annunciation Day, the ideal Spring Equinox by the Julian Calendar. Because of its built-in flaw, adding a Leap Day every fourth Year, over time, the discrepancy accumulated significantly. (The Solar Year is 5hrs 11min, 46 sec. above 365 days, not an even 6 hours.) So when a church was being extended, usually with a Lady Chapel, adjustment was made to the NEW Sundrise point on March 25. So the “tilt” becomes more & more apparent. Some churches were extended even three times, so 3 different axes can be detected! The sophistication & accuracy of the medieval builders is not to be under-estimated. The ’tilt’ became ‘explained’ by the tilt of Christ’s Head, as He died upon the Cross. The Cruciform plan of the great gothic churches underscored this article of the Faith, the Cost of Salvation.
An example is found in Holy Trinity Parish Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was baptized. Many an English cathedral does the same. The architects for the gothic pile in Wastington were aware of this “tilt” — though it appears they did not understand it. They just wanted to “have one, too.” So the US Naval Observatory (just down Mass. Ave. from the summit of Mt St Alban’s) did the job to calculate the angle of “Sunrise on Ascension Day” (one of the guidebooks tells of this) – presumably, 33 AD, May 14, a Thursday. Perhaps they thought it better to honor Our Lord, rather than Our Lady??? (They could not see that one cannot honor Her without honoring HIM, nor vice versa!)
{By the way, Good Friday this year, April 18, is the 250th Anniversary of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride. That day we remember “the SHOUT heard ’round the Cosmos!” — *TETELESTAI*!!! — not at all ambiguous in Greek – “GOAL TAKEN!!!” — the way the English is ambiguous! Then, April 19, 1775, from their Christian convictions, came ‘the shot heard ’round the world.’ — Preachers of the Gospel should take note.)
In a number of places throughout that same gothic pile, Christian iconography is misunderstood, or skewed. One prime example is the sculpture above the great West Door. It is a kind of apotheosis of Adam! Its emphasis is totally humanistic. Then there is the Darth Vader gargoyle, high & out of sight to most… playful imagination, perhaps? A sign of OUR times?? an expression of the boredom of the stone carvers?? — having lost their way??
The founders of that cathedral hoped to make a significant contribution to the Federal Capital, largely Greco-Roman in architectural inspiration, by doing something “authentically gothic” – to witness the historic Christian Faith in the place of our nation’s founding. But its present headship has forsaken that vision for a smorgasbord approach to the Dogmas of the Faith Once For All Delivered. If they’d take some time & review what the building was supposed to “SAY to them,” they could correct Much. It is a magnificent setting, now much abused by its occupants. It represents a Faith they no longer hold in any serious & consistent fashion.
I’d commend to all the book by Titus Burckhardt, “Sacred Art in East & West” for its masterful study of what it is in many cultures that makes a building “sacred.” The 3rd chapter, on the Romanesque Door, is stunningly insightful. His final chapter searches how the West can regain Sacredness in its art. He concludes that Only the IKON can bring sacrality back to Western art.
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Fascinating, Fr. Kelley! Would you like to expand on the salvific qualities of the icon and submit it for publication here?
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Finding a Key in an Unexpected Spot
US Hwy 395 used to be a frequent route for me, up the backside of eastern California, through the high desert, past Owens Lake –or what used to be its site, once 100 sq.mi. of water, 200′ deep, with laden barges, now a dry bed of salt & toxic wind-born dust– & past a state historical marker directing to old charcoal kilns that made me always think of my hero, St Alexander the Charcoal-Burner, Bishop & Martyr, as I headed to or from the town of Bishop! Those kilns kept the smeltery at Cerro Gordo blasting for decades, producing a river of silver flowing on down to Los Angeles that made a city possible there, before silver screens were even known, before the water of the lake was hijacked…. In my years in Owens Valley, I never ventured up the long, steep, gravel road to Cerro Cordo, quite desolate in my day. [ BTW, Does anyone know if he is the ‘Alexander’ in the old Roman Canon among its forty named martyrs? ]
Recently I got the book, “Ghost Town Living” by the new “Mayor” of Cerro Gordo, one Brent Underwood. It was a thrill to read his modern Odessey, poetically set out in four sections, Earth, Water, Fire, & Air. –You’ll easily know the roots of a classical mind! So it does not come as a complete surprise when traces of liturgy turn up in his digs, musings, & adventures.
Petroglyphs are part of the desert landscape. Some tell of a “Great Pluvial Period,” when Death Valley held over 700 ft of water; it flowed out then to the Colorado River, & tribes of people hunted animals now extinct on its shores. Owens Lake was part of a watercourse that flowed into it. That’s not part of Brent’s epic, but it does give background for his reference to some of the area’s hidden petroglyphs, some dating more than 8-10,000BC!
He writes, “There are some who believe that the painters were not honoring themselves with the paintings but their prey, imagining that by sacrificing their most precious commodities, food & warmth & medicine, {& time,} to etch the image of these creatures into the stone, they were granting these creatures immortality, & guaran-teeing that the next harvest would also be bountiful. In that interpretation, it’s not the painting but the *ACT OF PAINTING* that’s sacramental. They were ritually participating in that ongoing act of Creation, … *The ritual was what mattered.* The paintings that we find now are just an echo of that ritual, like the reverberation in a church right after the organ has finished.” [caps mine]
It strikes me that Brent has touched something fundamental about the painting of the holy Ikons. So I wanted to share his inspiration & insight with this readership, and encourage others to investigate his labor of love and restoration from his kind of “desert skete” in eastern California. Some will find his YouTube series, “Ghost Town Living,” also of beauty and value.
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Page reference inadvertently left out: *Ghost Town Living*, pp. 238-9.
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