B.C. bishop closes Anglican church that rejects same-sex unions

cbc ^ | Tue, 23 Dec 2003 20:55:53

[Grig]

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - An Anglican bishop in British Columbia has closed a church that won't support same-sex unions.

Church officials say the Holy Cross Church in Abbotsford, B.C., brought the closure upon itself.

Ronald Harrison, executive archdeacon of the Diocese of New Westminster, told the National Post that by declaring itself "independent" the church lost its funding from the archdiocese and eventually had to be closed.

Despite the timing of the closure, the church's congregation intends to celebrate mass on Christmas Day. "Can you imagine abandoning my people at this point and not serving them communion on Christmas Day?" said Rev. James Wagner. "I can't do that to them."

Wagner's parish is among several in the Vancouver area that have rejected the authority of Bishop Michael Ingham because he has allowed same-sex unions to be blessed in the diocese.

The other breakaway churches don't rely on the diocese for their money.

Ingham's decision to sanction same-sex unions, and related issues involving homosexuality have caused deep divisions in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

In October, Church leaders held a conference in London to discuss his approval of same-sex unions, and the appointment of an openly gay bishop in the United States.

The U.S. branch of the Anglican Church, the Episcopal Church, formally made Rev. Gene Robinson a bishop in Durham, N.H., on Nov. 2. Robinson is a father of two who lives with his male partner.

[GeronL]

The War against God has escalated!

[randog]

Now the church can finally open up that "singles club" they've been planning.

[xm177e2]

by declaring itself "independent" the church lost its funding from the archdiocese and eventually had to be closed

Well, therein lies the problem. The Church declared itself independent and then realized it had no money.

[farmfriend]

ping

[Libertina]

LOL

[Howlin]

This plays right into the gays' hands, IMO. I believe what they really want is the church's ASSETS.

[Coleus]

`

[RinaseaofDs]

The birds are building nests in the branches of the tree that came from the mustard seed.

The very structure of the Church will be used to persecute Christians in the end.

It's starting now.

[Mo1]

IMO. I believe what they really want is the church's ASSETS.

That and to break up the church

[highlander_UW]

Just how is it that the apostates are the ones that ended up with the assets that were donated to God?

[ppaul]

perversion ping.

[cherry]

you don't need a pretty building to have a church....

[Jimbaugh]

Can you say, "Church of Satan"

[Qwinn]

Interesting. I'd always perceived this primarily as an "Episcopalean vs. Anglican" conflict, but apparently it's Anglican vs. Anglican now as well. I wonder how all the third world Anglican bishops who have come very close to breaking communion with the Episcopaleans will handle this one, since it's under their own banner.

Troubling.

Qwinn

[sd-joe]

>> "I believe what they really want is the church's ASSETS." <<

Assets are the PAST. The people are the FUTURE.

The entrenched organization can enjoy the plunder of the assets now, but as they lose the people, they will lose in the end.

[hellinahandcart]

The Church declared itself independent

They declared themselves independent of this bishop, I believe. They've been seeking alternate oversight from a conservative bishop in the Yukon.

They don't want Ingham confirming their kids, and I don't blame them.

I could be wrong about this, but I also think this isn't the first time the Bishop has tried to close this church or lock out the congregation.

[Thane_Banquo]

Gay rights lobby = Goose-stepping Nazis

[Proud Legions]

The Episcopal Church in N. America has been taken over by
Bishop John Spong crowd (he is the one that has led the same-sex issue crowd). Here is what he wrote in 1998 and is pushing within the Church. Many in the Church say, yes, but we do not go along with what he says. But keep in mind, that is what they also said 10 years ago when he started pushing for homosexual marraiges and ordination. He is a bigger player today than ever before because he has just won his first major issue battle.


Spong's 12 Thesis:

The 12 Theses
1. Theism, as a way of defining God, is dead. So most theological God-talk is today meaningless. A new way to speak of God must be found.
2. Since God can no longer be conceived in theistic terms, it becomes nonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity. So the Christology of the ages is bankrupt.
3. The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense.
4. The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ's divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.
5. The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.
6. The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.
7. Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.
8. The story of the Ascension assumed a three-tiered universe and is therefore not capable of being translated into the concepts of a post-Copernican space age.
9. There is no external, objective, revealed standard writ in scripture or on tablets of stone that will govern our ethical behavior for all time.
10. Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way.
11. The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.
12. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.