“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does
not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its
highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires..."
-- Pope Benedict XVI
Posted on 04/19/2005 4:07:06 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
(WTNH, Apr. 18, 2005 11:20 PM) _ A meeting between six Episcopal priests and Connecticut's Bishop has ended with no decision being announced.
The six have been in the spotlight ever since they took a stand against the church's first openly gay bishop.
The six are Reverend Christopher Leighton, rector of St. Paul's Church in Darien, the Reverend Mark Hansen of St. John's Church in Bristol, the Reverend Ronald Gauss of Bishop Seabury Church in Groton, the Reverend Gilbert Wilkes of Christ and the Epiphany Church in East Haven, the Reverend Don Helmandollar of Trinity Church in Bristol and the Reverend Allyn Benedict of Christ Church in Watertown.
Tonight they met with Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith for about 4 hours to discuss their defiance and their future.
The priests declined to comment while leaving the meeting.
Smith says the priests left the meeting without acknowledging his authority as their bishop, and he says they have placed themselves under threat of what the church calls "inhibition."
Inhibition would restrict the priests' ability to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and perform weddings in the Episcopal church.
No decision has been announced.
ping
So the homosexual bishop is a threatening tyrant destroying the church from within. What a surprise. Not.
May your prayer be granted, but I hold out slim hope:
Anyone left in ECUSA to be riled by the 'consecration' of an unrepentant sodomite as a 'bishop' already accepted the failure to condemn 'Bishop' Pike for denying the Holy Trinity ('heresy is no longer a relevant category'), the shift in the understanding of holy orders represented by the priesting of women, the failure to condemn the erection of non-Christian shrines in the nave of St. John the Divine in New York, . . .
The Anglo-Catholic wing of ECUSA has almost all converted to Holy Orthodoxy, with a few seeking refuge in the Latin church, or the 'Continuing Anglican' churches and those who are left have become functionally congregationalists in their ecclesiology, however sound their doctrine in other matters might be.
I take it that you hold a position in the Church in order to speak for it.
The results of their decisions will be seen in the offering plates. Congregations and parishioners who want a church that holds on to biblical doctrine have several to pick from still.
It's not easy to leave a church but we have a stewardship responsibility in our tithing and raising our children.
Got numbers? I would be very interested!
“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does
not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its
highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires..."
-- Pope Benedict XVI
ping.
" Got numbers? I would be very interested!"
I don't, but I can say that we have had 8 coverts from ECUSA in the past 6 years or so in our small parish. I'd be interested in the numbers myself.
I thought I read that the larger Anglican Communion told the US Episcopal CHurch they had a year or two to straighten up or THEY would be out of communion with the rest of the Anglican Church ? Slightly bigger 'penalty' than this pompous bishop telling 6 priests they aren't accepting HIS authority
But a little more seriously, I was asked by the Episcopal rector of a church where a former parishioner's memorial service was held if we'd had any visitors from his church; seems there's been a small attrition since GC 2003. I had to tell him no, but I am curious about where the ECUSA departees (in general) are going.
Reader David's statement implied he had such...
They haven't said that quite so overtly, but that is the essence of it.
" Reader David's statement implied he had such..."
Perhaps the Reader David is far more secretive about "coverts" than I am! :)
"They haven't said that quite so overtly, but that is the essence of it."
subtlety isn't my strong suite ;)
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"Inhibition" is precisely what Gene Robinson needs above all.
I moved our family to an evangelical church, Fellowship Bible. We have never been happier or nearer to the Holy Spirit. Jesus fills us now. Both our families were cradle Episcopalians and that is what we raised our children in too. I was Senior Warden and the wife was deep in the church too. Until this last batch of heresy and nonsense. We are never going back.
"The only rule is that there are no rules"
fyi
My mothers church complete with clergy the "whole" congregation switched to Antioch Orthodox at which time the Episcopal Church in Ft. Worth kicked them out and they built a beautiful GROWING church elsewhere on the West
side of Ft. Worth. To make a long story short dad died mom moved in with me now we are looking for an Antioch
Orthodox Church in Houston closer to Galveston.
No ping, sionnsar?
GEM, thanks for the ping.
It appears that the schism that so many have been fearing is going to be precipitated by this one Bishop in Conn. Twenty Orthodox, conservative Bishops have written to him, The Rt. Rev. Smith, and asked him not to do this. Yet he presses his case.
While ECUSA is supposed to "stand down", not attend meetings of the Primates or ACC, and await the decision of the Anglican Communion on this renegade ECUSA and Canadian branch, this one Bishop is heading the train wreck toward dissolution. How arrogant.
In spite of restrictions not to do so, he has ordained homosexuals to the Deaconate. In spite of restrictions not to do so, he has not stepped in when Priests in his Diocese have continued to bless same sex unions, while these six that he is persecuting have done nothing more than obey the AB's restrictions, but as a protest, refrained from giving money to the Diocese as a revolt against Smith's policies, and for this, they face inhibition and defrocking.
I am but a humble subdeacon of the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church. But, as we know, there have been times (for example the iconoclastic controversy) when the laity--mostly monks and women--have been the voice of Orthodoxy.
There should be heightened scrutiny of this deviant by law enforcement.
Probably years of abuse against boys going on there.
Scratch a little and dig beneath the surface.
Makes one shudder to think of what may be found.
Thank you. I pray for that daily as well.
The Fort Worth diocese is one of the most conservative in the country.
Liberals despise Bishop Iker.
I can't even conceive of being kicked out of that diocese for conservatism. What did you believe that they didn't?
And yet they have nothing to say about Spong!
St. George's in Houston. http://www.stgeorgehouston.com/
Try this for a whole bunch of Orthodox Churches in the Houston/Galveston area: http://www.saintjonah.org/parishaddresses.htm
Good Luck!
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
I've got an idea - maybe those rightminded Episcoplian priests could become Catholics... or better yet, create a revolution and change their church back into a real one. But probably won't happen.
Let me know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.
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