The other is a hale fellow, bon vivant, bow tie (when he's not wearing clericals) type who says he's Republican and voted for George W. Bush, but is as lost theologically as Jack Spong. He is an example of a man who, while politically conservative is as loose as a bucket of bolts on moral and theological issues.

Swing helped form the United Religions Initiative (URI) - No one Exempt - who thinks that world peace can come through a one world religion and presumably, over time, a one world government. He is tres chic avocado California, the quintessential vacuous ecumenist, the ultimate moon beam bishop.

Both bishop's voting record speaks volumes.

Bishop Ackerman signed the Province 7 Statement; he signed the Presentment against Walter Righter who ordained an openly gay man to the priesthood; he voted to condemn promiscuous homosexuality; he endorsed the Kuala Lumpur statement, he voted with the majority of bishops at Lambeth opposing homosexuality, opposed the consecration of V. Gene Robinson, signed Bishop David Bena's statement at the consecration. Put up resolution B001 upholding certain doctrines of the church (which was defeated) and signed the Memorandum of agreement for the formation of the Anglican Communion Network. He has stood for truth and unity nearly all the way down the line. If the Episcopal Church had 100 Keith Ackerman's the church would be a thriving and growing concern. Now it is a total shambles, a mess beyond all human redemption.

By contrast Bishop Swing has voted for just about every innovation the Episcopal Church has come up with. He signed Spong's Koinonia Statement. He voted to insist on women's ministries in every diocese, which hurt Bishop Ackerman. He signed A Pastoral Statement to Lesbian and Gay Anglicans from some member Bishops of the Lambeth Conference. He voted for the blessing of same-gender unions to be added to Book of Occasional Services (8th resolve to D039), recognized and affirming fidelity in relationships outside (D039) and consented to the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. He recently smacked former Utah bishop Otis Charles for getting married in one of his parishes and said he couldn't serve in the diocese any more, but that was much of 'look I'll show you whose in charge.' He has gone along with the whole pansexual enterprise and prides himself on holding the rest of the diocese (which is 95 per cent liberal) in line - hardly a feat that requires Samson's strength.

In an interview with Bishop Swing by ENS writer Bob Williams there was not one single mention of the gospel, nor did the name of Jesus, the Trinity, faith or redemption ever
cross his lips.

He talked about his own physical health, tensions in the church and how he held the diocese together during difficult times and, above all, his golfing abilities. In fact he is viewed as such a successful bishop by his liberal and revisionist priests they are ponying up $2 MILLION to refurbish his summer ranch home. Diversity pays.

The ENS article headlined "Swing marks 25th year as Bay Area bishop [as] Shining example: bishop marks silver year in Golden State."

But a look at diocesan statistics (courtesy of Louie Crew's website) reveals a less than sterling performance in his years as bishop of the diocese. Actual attendance in the diocese from 1992 to 2002 rose a meager 4.6% or 479 new members; from 10,394 to 10,873, and this in one of the fastest growth population areas in the whole country.

Reading about the lives of the two men is a study in stark contrasts. Of Ackerman it can be said he has devoted his life to the glory of God, the gospel and the Anglican Way in all its depth, richness and glory; while Swing is a study in shallowness, inclusivity, diversity, a false ecumenicity, hype, utterly devoid of any talk of the life changing message of the gospel.

Bishop Ackerman's statements about his years in the ministry (see August issue of Harvest Plain) is full of gospel affirmation, the faithfulness of God, our lostness and need for forgiveness, redemption and grace.

Bishop Swing speaking of his years as bishop said this: "Later in your ministry you're project-driven. I feel project-driven."

By contrast Bishop Ackerman said, "This celebration is not about me. It's about you and me celebrating the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ."

"In the end what matters most is Jesus Christ."

Of Bishop Swing, ENS writer Williams had this to say: "In his 25 years as bishop of the San Francisco-based Diocese of California, Bill Swing has never missed a Sunday visitation scheduled among the 82 congregations he serves, and he's been out sick only four of the 9,100-plus days of his episcopate. His golf game is hole-in-one legendary, both in form and fundraising successes scored around the links of Pebble Beach."

The Rt. Rev. Alden Hathaway, Bishop of Pittsburgh (ret) preaching on the occasion of a three-day celebration honoring the Quincy bishop's 31 years said this: "He's one of the truly great men of God in our church, probably the closest to being a saint of anyone I know. He's simply a genuine human being. I never found anybody who didn't like Keith Ackerman."

No one said that of Swing.

Hathaway went on to say that Ackerman would be a good candidate for presiding bishop of the ECUSA when that election takes place in two years.

Swing: "I think it's very important to use leadership to help people grow up in stormy times".

But grow up how? No mention of growing up "into Him...into the fullness of Christ".

Swing said he's been honest about the challenges he's faced as the Episcopal Church's senior active diocesan bishop. He's led his 35,000-member diocese (on the books but not necessarily attending) through crises ranging from HIV/AIDS to 1989's 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake. He prizes the world's religions, and he knows about coalition-building, especially as a Republican who voted for George W. Bush in a region well known for its progressive Democratic political majority.

So what has that got to do with advancing the Kingdom? Were any of those suffering from HIV/AIDS presented with the life changing message of Jesus, or was it just a feel-your-pain exercise? What has "coalition-building" got to do with gospel proclamation? The Episcopal Church is falling apart at the seams over Robinson's consecration and he talks about coalition building!!! His own church is falling apart and he wants to unite the world's religions! What's wrong with this picture? What has "prizing the world's religions" got to do with offering the very exclusive claims of Jesus Christ to every living soul, and who cares whether he votes Republican or Democrat as the spiritual leader of 35,000 souls, MOST of whom do not turn up to church on any given Sunday. So where's the "honesty" he talked about?

And talking of rewards, Jesus said we shouldn't be looking for rewards in this life, let the Father reward you in the next. But Swing is getting his now - all $2 million dollars worth of home improvement.

Ackerman: "What I've learned in thirty-one years in the ministry is one simple Divine truth. Humanity has broken itself and we cannot repair our brokenness. Knowing this Divine Truth, why do we persist in meaningless meddling on our part in trying to fix or repair what is broken? We can better serve our Lord by praying, discerning how the Lord Wills to fix what we broke."

Williams on Swing: The Diocese of California is distinguished by an overall sense of health. I think that comes from your sense of health approach for ministry. What would you recommend for other dioceses seeking to achieve health in their ministries?

Swing: "I think a lot of it starts with physical health. I think it starts with people taking care of themselves, people giving some balance to their lives so that you're indoors-outdoors, you're praying and you're bustling in the secular world, you're singing and you're quiet and reading. You know, the phrase about "Be nice to yourself" -- I say that a lot to myself. Sometimes I ask myself, "What's the best thing I can do for the Diocese of California right now?" I've got a zillion things going and the answer is almost always: "Just please goof off right now." The most important thing when you're under pressure is to figure out some way to get your footing because an anxious, undone person gets in a lot of accidents and makes a lot of mistakes. If you have a good night's sleep, or if you go out and take a long walk, or get some sunshine, you tend to make better decisions and you've got more to offer people. You know, it's not just for me: I really want clergy to be healthy, I want them to have pastoral counseling, I want them to have some money to get away to do continuing education.

Ackerman: "I would be pleased to be remembered for God's transformation of my life by His Grace and Promise through Jesus Christ. I would be pleased to be remembered as the evidence and example of the Savior and Lord - that He saved me and I willed Him to be the Lord of my life. I would be pleased to be remembered as a priest who told the story of God's redemption and salvation through the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and never compromised in the telling of the story."

Swing: "I think some of it has to do with challenge. People need to challenge themselves, or allow themselves to be challenged. An awful lot of times, the church doesn't take on the obvious challenges that are there because it lacks a little bit of courage, like "I'll sit out this dance" when there's a cry out there. You say, "Well, if I just stay very quiet now, it'll go by, and I don't have to do anything." But I think part of health is taking on the challenge, whatever it is. Another part of health is not to take on all the challenges, take on the ones that you can pour yourself into, and if somebody else wants to take on something else, God bless 'em. Have some sort of sense of priority, because if you let yourself take on everything -- especially as a bishop -- you just get run ragged."

Ackerman: "I would be pleased to be remembered that I did not live by the human standard of 'What has God done for me lately,' but know in my heart of hearts that I am still a 'work in progress.' I willed to hang a sign around my neck that states 'Under construction by order and command of God.' I know with certainty that I have not been given a date of completion."

Swing: "Going back to the earlier point, I often look at the Bible and think how many things happened indoors and how many things happened out of doors. And most of the occasions of meeting God were outdoors. So I think if it's true in the Bible, it might be true of us that we need to get out of doors to meet God sometimes."

Virtuosity: Say what? Nature worship perhaps?

Williams to Swing: Looking back beyond your ministry as rector of St. Columba's in Washington, D.C., to your childhood in West Virginia, when did you first feel called to the ordained ministry?

Swing: My father was a professional golfer, and we lived at a country club, and I didn't go to church. I sort of came in the back door by being an acolyte in the little neighborhood we moved into, with no thought of Episcopal or Anglican or anything -- it was just something you did as a kid. I remember a sermon when I was about 11 years old when the priest said, "Imagine when there was no Huntington, West Virginia; when there was no Ohio River; when there were no hills; ... no United States, ... no oceans, ... no mountains, ... no earth, ... no sun, ... no moon; there was nothing, and all there was God." When he said those words, I was there. I understood the sheer magnificence, uniqueness, power of whoever God is. So in a sense my life got in alignment with that power on that occasion. And then afterwards growing up in the youth group and at summer camp, in lots of discussions with the parish priest, I got a sense that I was being called.

Ackerman: "All I know is that I am not yet fit for his eternal kingdom, which means, I must do my part, allowing God to break and remake me into His glorious image He willed for me through Christ."

Swing: When you get my age, and you've been in the episcopacy as long as I have, you don't stay on in order to do the normal job, because a lot of people can do the normal job. A lot of people can do the rounds, go to the parishes, etc. You stay on to make sure some projects get done that only you uniquely can see to completion. I've got some things -- at the hospital, and with the Episcopal Homes Foundation, with the Ranch here, and with the cathedral, and with the diocese reorganizing -- that I've got to get done. And when those things are done, I'll be gone. Later in your ministry you're project-driven. I feel project-driven.

Williams to Swing: What do you see as important for the House of Bishops in particular and for the wider church at this point in the life of the church?

Swing: "I heard a bishop say when I was a young bishop, if I had known how hard it was going to be to go through women's ordination, as a bishop, I would have declined to be nominated. I heard that statement, and I had the opposite reaction. I thought: what a challenge it would be to take a bunch of people through a crisis, and allow them to feel it and internalize it, and move with it and grow up with it, and not infantilize people, a leave them back in history so that they get stuck and it will take three or four generations of people in that place to move beyond them. I think it's very important to use leadership to help people grow up in stormy times.

Ackerman: "The Lord has given us our marching orders. We don't know what lies ahead for us. All we know is the Lord's promises are true: He will level the mountains and fill in the valleys. Hopefully at our journey's end, we shall be rewarded the grand sight of heaven overlooking the temporal confines of the universe.

Swing: I had a clergy conference in the early 1980s to deal with the gay and lesbian issue with the clergy, and a lot of the dioceses are doing stuff we were doing 20 or 30 years ago, so in a sense a lot of this is doubling back for us. But that's not to say we're ahead or smarter or anything else, it just means the body matured around this issue. Two things I'd say: number one, there's got to be some perspective that what we're dealing with is a long-term issue. This is not a matter that's going to get resolved at a convention: it's not going to get resolved at one convention or two conventions; we're talking about things that go so deep in the human psyche that it's going to take lifetimes to get on the other side of the issues that we're struggling with now. I think the people who say, "Well, we're just going to go to convention and vote and get this thing solved," they're just aiming for trouble. There's got to be some historic and psychological perspective on this stuff that this is long-term, this is not short-term.

Williams to Swing: "In the current world climate, we have the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. What do you recommend for peacemaking in these contexts?"

Swing: "When people say "The United States of America is at war with Islam," well, you just rang my bell, and that's where I can come in and get to work. I'm not a politician, but I am a person of religion, so when you're dealing with my subject, it's my responsibility to know Islamic people at a great depth and to learn about historically where Islam and Christianity have been, where we are presently around the world in different countries, and what can happen in the United States of America, and then witness to a better way of interacting -- I can do that through the United Religions Initiative. That's where I want to invest myself."

"I think we're at a crossroads with international interfaith work. We're all going to either break up into denominations or groups comparable to denominations, or we are going to figure out a way to complement each other and present a united front so that some day there will be a veritable United Religions, not just URI blown large, but something that will be created by the Holy Spirit that's way beyond our imaginations right now. That gets back to the race for peace among religions. I think the world is going to turn to us and say, "You guys have got to do better, for the sake of the world."

Williams to Swing: "How is your golf game?"

Swing: "It's pretty good. Yeah, have a nine handicap, and I still win money from my buddies. I lose occasionally, but I get right back."

Ackerman: "I stood my watch faithfully as the Lord commanded of me. I pray I did not fail the Lord terribly in the station He appointed me over the past thirty-one years."

END