Atheist minister in Christian denomination gets to keep her job leading congregation: ‘Wonderful’

The Blaze ^ | November 12, 2018 | Dave Urbanski

[C19fan]

An atheist minister in a Christian denomination got to keep her job leading a congregation after several years of turmoil that could have led to a “heresy trial” later this month, the Toronto Star reported.

The Rev. Gretta Vosper — with the theologically liberal United Church of Canada — said in a Friday interview she’s free to minister at West Hill United Church in Toronto after a confidential settlement with the denomination, the paper reported.

[C19fan]

Just like in the US, mainline Protestantism is dying in Canada.

[Chauncey Gardiner]

In the old days we had a better way to deal with such matters... usually involving a stake

[a fool in paradise]

Satan infests as do Communists.

Apparently there is no truth or right to freely associate.

[Vigilanteman]

Why would anyone even attend one of these churches, much less drop a couple of quarters into the collection plate?

I can figure out why people were slow to leave the ELCA because Lutherans made great church dinners and had enjoyable social circles, but that doesn't appear to be the case here.

Naughty confession: I still go to the local ELCA when they are having blood drives because the Lutherans make awesome treats like tunafish sandwiches for the donors rather than el cheapo store-bought cookies and canned orange juice.

[PGR88]

Just like in the US, mainline Protestantism is dying in Canada.

In Canada, it died a couple decades ago. All that's left is a few bizarro new-age secularists who have raided grandma's closet for her clothes.

[PGR88]

Why would anyone even attend one of these churches, much less drop a couple of quarters into the collection plate?

I agree I don't know why people attend, but personally, I think the reason they still have a "clergy" (used loosely) is about money. Many of these old Anglican/Episcopal churches sit on prime downtown real estate.

[allendale]

Best post of the day. LOL.

[NonValueAdded]

Actually this could be good. I’ve long held that atheism is a religion, the extreme end of a belief in a Supreme Being - that there is none. Pokytheism would be the other end. Therefore, the purge of all things religious from the publuc spave is defacto creation of a state religion, atheism, and is therefore unconstitutional.

[NonValueAdded]

Sheesh .. Polytheism, public space

[ConservativeMind]

After all, it’s just a “job.”

[TopDog2]

My wife and I attend a LCC cube when we’re in Canada and Lutheran Church - MS when we’re in the US. SOLA SCRIPTURA.

[sparklite2]

I’ve long held that atheism is a religion

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So would you also aver that not playing football is a sport?

[YogicCowboy]

C. S. Lewis:

The Great Divorce: The apostate priest.

That Hideous Strength: Minister Straik.

Both books have characters like this. Lewis saw where the institutionalized church was headed.

[Salvavida]

Defending a denomination is a losing proposition. Let the heretics do what heretics do. Pick up your things and find a real church that believes the Bible and works to live it out.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

In the old days we had a better way to deal with such matters... usually involving a stake

Exactly! Thanks to liberals, we're no longer allowed to perform ritual murders of people who fail to believe the right things.

[YogicCowboy]

That is a false analogy.

If people set up arenas, and charged money, to have vetted persons go on the field and not play football according to some set of capricious rules, while others sat in the bleachers and watched the pseudo-spectacle, then yes, it would at least be a kind of spectator non-sport.

No one has done anything remotely like that, so your analogy is specious.

[Bratch]

Meanwhile, south of their border:

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Ky. Baptists cut ties with dually aligned churches

by Kentucky Today and Baptist Press, posted Tuesday, November 13, 2018

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- The Kentucky Baptist Convention will cut ties with a small group of churches that remain dually aligned with a missions network that took steps earlier this year to allow the hiring of LGBT staff members.

Rose Hill Baptist Church Pastor Matt Shamblin speaks to messengers
at the Kentucky Baptist Convention annual meeting in support of
cutting ties with churches that remain dually aligned with the
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

(Photo by Robin Cornetet/Kentucky Baptist Convention)

Messengers to the KBC annual meeting voted today (Nov. 13) to accept a recommendation from the Credentials Committee, the Administrative Committee and the Mission Board to terminate affiliation with congregations that choose to remain a part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF).

The CBF was founded in 1991 as a fellowship of churches that objected to the ideology and methods of the Southern Baptist Convention's Conservative Resurgence.

Dually aligned churches will be given up to a year to comply before they're removed from the KBC's list of affiliated congregations.

The matter was debated for about 20 minutes before the motion passed overwhelmingly.

KBC Executive Director Paul Chitwood said the move by messengers should be seen as "a call to those congregations to safeguard biblical teaching and maintain their historic relationships, understanding that the Bible speaks clearly on the issue of homosexuality and that they would not want to support groups that embrace unscriptural lifestyles."

Bob Fox, CBF Kentucky executive coordinator, issued a statement in response to the KBC's decision.

"It is with great sadness that we learned that the Kentucky Baptist Convention has chosen to end its relationship with churches who have been in dual alignment with CBF and CBFKY," Fox said.

"The Baptist witness in our state and in the world is weaker because of this decision by the KBC today related to our collaboration for the sake of Christ," he noted. "Whenever the relationship between parts of the body of Christ are broken it is a tragedy."

Last year, KBC messengers had essentially put dually aligned churches on notice when they directed the Committee on Credentials to monitor the situation and return with a recommendation at this year's annual meeting in Pikeville. See related Baptist Press report.

Members of the KBC Committee on Credentials have reached out to dually aligned congregations to ask if they were aware of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's new hiring policy and to ask if they intended to remain affiliated with the group. Some have broken ranks with the group while others have not.

The Western Recorder, newsjournal of the KBC, reported the state convention's move affects about 25 KBC-affiliated churches that have given financial support to KBC in the past two years and are currently supporting the CBF financially.

 

Kentucky Today (kentuckytoday.com), an online news resource of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, released this report. With reporting from Baptist Press and the Western Recorder.

 

[NonValueAdded]

There is a word for that already: spectator sport. So yeah.

[WASCWatch]

When was the UCC ever “Christian”?