[Cronos]

ar -- I might be wrong, but I don't think it was that you "MUST". Though if it isn't MUST right now, it will be soon

I also agree with AR on the last portion. for a long time I advocated that ECUSA folks should stay and fight, but now I don't believe there is anything worth saving in the ECUSA anymore -- except for good people like you, altura.

[Mad Dawg]

One of the “marks” of the Church is Apostolicity. This is about more than being able to “make” ministers of the sacraments. It is also about teaching, specifically about “authoritative”, which is to say “reliable”, teaching.

If the House of Bishops teaches, in word and deed, one thing about sexual ethics, and you and your parish teach another, something is not right. If your parish is wrong, your rector and the people should repent.

If the House of Bishops is wrong, then there's a problem. I know the Articles say that Councils have erred (and therefore obviously are able to err.)

If one thinks so, and if one thinks the Bishops in council can and do err (and a fortiori one’s own rector can and does err — even when he obeys his bishop) then you are like sheep without a shepherd. But IHS said to Peter, "Feed my sheep... tend my lambs," and he promised the Holy Ghost would lead the Apostles into all truth.

From Henry VIII and Cranmer to the present day, the fundamental theological problem (as distinct from spiritual problem) of Anglicanism is a broken ecclesiology. Their version of the Church is

• "one" — in only the most attenuated sense.
• "holy" — with divorced and remarried homosexual bishops who have the formal approval and sanction of the communion? I was mocked and rebuked by clergy, when I was a clergyman, for attempting a penitential and gently disciplined life.
• "catholic" (universal) — if the church in one province will not tolerate the presence of a primate of another province, how universal(and how "one") can this communion claim to be?
• "apostolic" — again, in the most attenuated sense — and that's if one assumes that their bishops still have sacramental authority.

The primal act in the setting apart of Anglicanism was the cutting of the mooring line. Ever since that act, Anglicanism has been adrift and has tried to persuade itself that being blown about with every wind was freedom and virtue.

It was heartrending — for a minute — to "renounce my orders" and to "abandon the communion." But almost daily I thank God that he gave me the grace to do so.