Livin’ La Vida Loca With Bishop Frade

By Jay Akasie
Episcopalians for Traditional Faith

JULY 9 — Anaheim — Bishop Leo Frade leads the Diocese of Southeast Florida and is best known for his recent role of aiding and abetting the heretical exploits of a popular Roman Catholic priest. In fact, the bishop was seen wining and dining Fr. Alberto Cutie and his gorgeous new wife at the Hilton last evening.

But here at General Convention, Bishop Frade is helping stir up more nuttiness: He supports his fellow Episcopalians of Hispanic extraction who refuse to assimilate into the rich heritage and culture of the Church. “We know who we are,” Bishop Frade said during a press conference this morning. The Miami-based bishop said that it’s his plan to make the Episcopal Church fully inclusive of Hispanics – yet, in turn, “not to make us Anglos.”

Nobody can deny that the Episcopal Church fully and completely includes Hispanics – and everyone else, for that matter – into the life of the Church. Bishop Frade, who apparently is rash enough to make a mockery of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami’s clergy, has no foibles about doing the same to his Episcopal brethren. He said that he looks forward to General Convention as an opportunity to “train Anglo clergy” on how to reach masses of Hispanic worshipers.

Another Convention participant at this press briefing was a deputy from the Diocese of Puerto Rico, Emily Morales. Ms. Morales insisted on making her comments first in Spanish. Then, in English, she said that the Episcopal Church “was no longer a national church and we need to be responsive to that.”

Indeed, if the Episcopal Church is no longer a national church, it’s because it’s quickly becoming a regional institution. Hundreds of thousands of Episcopalians have left it in the last year alone for a rival Anglican body, taking full dioceses and property with them and planting new parishes across the nation.

But we assume Ms. Morales speaks of the Episcopal Church as going in the opposite direction; that is, as having become international in scope. Hence her comments in Spanish. Those remarks, along with Bishop Frade’s insulting comments, made for a bizarre, anti-American display of ignorance.

Perhaps these two Hispanic churchmen would be best to recite – and learn – a line in a different foreign language: E pluribus unum: From many, one. Our nation has become the shining beacon of freedom to the rest of the world because of the people from every corner of the earth who came to our shores. Our ancestors, from the Mayflower to Ellis Island to the family that crossed the border just today, wanted nothing more to become Americans. And that meant by assimilation.

Speaking English ensures success for the individual immigrant, as well as for society. And it ensures success for the Episcopal Church, a uniquely American religious body.  What Bishop Frade – a convert from Methodism – apparently doesn’t appreciate is that the Book of Common Prayer is based on a very special proposition: That praising God can be in English and not necessarily in Latin, Hebrew, or Greek.

There are few works in the English language that are more beautifully written than the true prayer book (1549 to 1928 editions). Why wouldn’t anyone want to learn by heart the Book of Common Prayer in its proper English?

The other concept that has flown over the mitre of Bishop Frade is that Episcopalians can go into any church in America and worship from the prayer book we hold in common. Thomas Cranmer essentially died for that distinction, as did our soldiers and sailors who have defended this country’s religious liberties.