This just in, from the department of people apologizing for the actions of others …

Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, who heads the tiny Confessing Movement in the United Church of Christ, has apologized for the “division and confusion” caused when a UCC church in Boston hosted (and former Massachusetts UCC President Rev. Nancy Taylor approved) a schismatic “ordination” of women priests who insist-the Vatican notwithstanding-that they are also Catholics.

The ceremony, held at the UCC- and Presbyterian-affiliated Church of the Covenant in Boston, drew the ire of the Archdiocese of Boston. It also angered Runnion-Bareford, who might very well be the last living conservative in the UCC. In an open letter to Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, he apologized on behalf of the UCC, even though the UCC itself isn’t apologizing-and I’m fairly certain noone is expecting them to.

Runnion-Bareford also fired off an angry letter to the UCC’s Nancy Taylor, who attended the ceremony in solidarity: “You must be aware from your position of leadership that your divisive statements and behavior appear to violate the Minister’s Code of the United Church of Christ, which says, ‘I will be a responsible representative of the Church Universal and participate in those activities that strengthen its unity, witness, and mission’.”

He went on to ask, “Can we infer from your actions of this last week that you would approve of groups who have justice issues with the United Church of Christ carrying out their own ordinations of individuals they believe valid regardless of our church’s standards and protocols?”

For her part, Taylor told The Globe: “If it looks like discrimination, if it acts like discrimination, and if it feels like discrimination, it is discrimination. Prejudice in liturgical clothing is still prejudice.”

(photo above from 2005 ordination service)