And You Exist Because?

That was a question a buddy and I had for a clerk shortly after we walked into a doughnut shop at about 3:00 AM early one Saturday morning. It was mid December in Garland, Texas, and it was cold, not in the sense that a couple of transplanted Michiganders would need triple layers of clothing and ear-muffs cold, but in the, 'gee, I wish I had worn a lined jacket' sort of cold.

We walked to the counter and perused the high quality lighted case. It stood there, sadly vacant. Not a doughnut to be had, neither glazed nor plain, and when the doughnuts disappeared, they apparently took their doughnut holes along with them. There were no long johns. No fritters. No cakes. No twists. Nothing. A sugar ant would have starved in a case so dedicated to emptiness.

The lights were on in the store and in the case, the sign outside blazed, the doors were unlocked, and a worker was busy in the kitchen. We rang the cute little bell that stood on the counter and the worker came forth.

Alas, there were not going to be any doughnuts for some time, or anything else for that matter. All there was to buy in the doughnut shop were small cartons of white milk (no chocolate available) and orange juice. If only I had entered that store with a dairy tooth instead of a sweet one I might have left the establishment a bit more satisfied.

We thought it an odd marketing strategy--a complete retreat from the conventional. A doughnut shop with no doughnuts. When we suggested aloud that it seemed a bit odd to us, we were met with a shrug. When we sauntered out the door the clerk sauntered back into the kitchen. There would be no transaction that early morn.

What is the purpose of a doughnut shop that contains no doughnuts? The shop had not gone out of business and therefore I'm certain that during most business hours it actually had what it advertised on its sign outside. But, during its normal daily business cycle, the store, at least on that day, totally lost focus on its whole purpose of existing--providing me an opportunity to consume 1000 calories of sugar laden dough to be washed down with coffee charged with too much caffeine, this all just before bedtime.

This story is but an introduction to another organization that appears to have lost track of its purpose for existence, though rather than operating on a 24 hour cycle like a doughnut shop, the Bishops of the Catholic Church of England and Wales appears all too willing to flush and forget its purpose for all time.

How long can any organization forsake its core mission before it becomes something completely different than it was originally intended to be? When the doughnut shop begins to sell pizza I won't be so concerned. When Catholicism begins to encourage Islam I have to ask, 'And you exist because?'

As an aside, one of these days I'm going to add Cranmer to my blog roll. It has become one of my favorite daily reads.