"Why I am Leaving the Episcopal Church" a priest's explanation

The Gwinnett (GA) Citizen (scanned) | January 20, 2004 | the Rev, Dr, Foley Beach

[Leroy S. Mort]

Why I am Leaving the Episcopal Church

 

I am forty-five years old and for thirty-four of those years I have been an active participant in the Episcopal Church. I was baptized, confirmed, married, ordained a deacon, and ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. It has served to shape and form me spiritually and it has taught me tremendous aspects into the worship of Almighty God. The Church has been a place of stability and refuge, although it has always been in need of reform.

 

 But recent actions of the Episcopal Church have taken spiritual depravi­ty to new depth for the modern era. The Church which taught me the Gospel has now adopted a new Gospel which reduces Jesus to nothing more than one option among many. The Church which introduced me to the Word of God has now rewritten the Word of God to placate cultural and political pressures put upon it by intellectual extremists. The Church which taught me to confess and repent of my sins has now embraced and endorsed certain sins which have become culturally accepted.

 

The actions of the 2003 General Convention in approving the consecration of a non-celibate homosexual person to be a bishop in the Church, and its approval of a method by which liturgies may be used for same-sex unions in the Church, is the presenting issue of a much deeper theological and moral problem within the Church. While these decisions are clearly in contradiction to the teaching of the Bible, the lessons of Church History and Tradition, and the mind of the world-wide Anglican Communion, they demonstrate a clear obsession with reinterpreting the Scriptures and an amazing disregard to the consequences of their actions on other Christians throughout the world whether Anglican or not. A revisionist philosophy has overtaken the ethos of the Church which interprets the Scriptures, Church History and Tradition not according to what they actually say, but according to how one is made to feel and in order to be pastorally sensitive. I cannot be apart of such forsaking of Christian teaching and morality.

 

To remain in the Episcopal Church is on some level affirming the direc­tion the church has taken whether I agree or not. To remain in the Episcopal Church is to pretend that I am not a participant in this abomination before the Lord. To remain in the Episcopal Church would be to knowingly violate my conscience, and that I cannot do and keep my soul intact. To remain in the Episcopal Church and take communion with those who teach and practice this false teaching would be a clear violation of the Scriptures (For example, 1 Cor.5).

 

Some say that I must stay and fight for reform and change the direction of the Church. This has been my battle cry for the past 24 years. I have come to the conclusion that the best way to reform it is to leave it and allow the devastation of embracing sin to run its course. I must be about preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and teaching the principles of the Word of God. My calling from God is not to lead or participate in an ecclesiastical fight which will evolve to litigation in the secular courts over sacred idols and mammon. While that may be the call from the Lord for others, my calling is to help people discover the most wonderful gift in the world - a living, dynamic, personal, and saving relationship with Jesus. I cannot do this and be a part of an organizational structure which now, at its core, denies the very things which I hold dear. The Apostle James wrote that to know the right thing to do and not do it, is sin (James 4:17). For me this is the right thing to do and not to do it would be sin before God.

 

(signed) The Rev, Dr. Foley Beach

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

PetroniusMaximus wrote: Doesn't it seem like the nexus of vital faith has moved something like... Jerusalem > Antioch/Alexandria > Rome > Germany > England > America > China/Africa... I may have left out some...

...California...

[PetroniusMaximus]

...California...

!!! HA!

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

New Age...Aquarian "consciousness" spirituality...crystals...mantra chanting...passive-aggressive RichardGere-like squatting, meditating, moaning....channelling...Out-Of-Body experiences... chakra charts...
astral travel...Masters of Wisdom from Tibet...signs of the times...

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

You ever get the feeling church history is starting to get like a cross between Twin Peaks and Eyes Wide Shut ? Who is writing the scripts?

[alaskanfan]

I remember my good friend Kale King.

His toes must be curling at the state of the present Episcopal Church.

[PetroniusMaximus]

The wheels of your trollmobile are squealing!

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Well...if anyone has a plausible explanation...how did Christianity (and Western civilization) end up as a floor fight at bishops' conferences over... butt sex??? Anyone want to take a stab at that?

[tiki]

I know what you mean. I left the Methodist church 18 yrs ago. The Girl Scouts is more spiritual than the church I left. I didn't attend any church for 14 yrs and then I became a Catholic and, if at all possible, I never miss a Mass.

[The Iguana]

The Rev. Beach is most welcome on my side of the Tiber.

[PetroniusMaximus]

***Anyone want to take a stab at that?***

Well, I think it went something like this...

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with o­ne another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural o­nes. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for o­ne another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not o­nly continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.


***how did Christianity (and Western civilization) end up as a floor fight at bishops' conferences... ***

 Apostate Western "Christianity" does not equal "Christianity"

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Good answer. It is a chastisement. However, by "Christianity"...it goes without saying, I was referring to the public institutional expression...such as in the mainstream denominations. Institutional religion is being deliberately distorted via bizarre social engineering directed by the usual cabals.

What you have now is an invasion... and infiltration of political correctness and HighWeirdness (including weird sex) into the heart of traditional religious institutions. This is all very deliberate.

[PetroniusMaximus]

You are looking for an enemy in the seen world. But the true enemies are unseen - they are not flesh and blood. The cabals (if there are any) are merely puppets in the hands of wicked spiritual authorities.

Add to theat the fact that Romans states that the open presence of homosexuals in a society does not bring God's judgement, but is a clear sight that the society is already experiencing God's judgement

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Yes...Lucifer & Co. are running the show. That does not overlook the fact that anti-Christian cabals willingly participate at the organizational and administrative level.
Demons do not obliterate free will as your prior post highlighted...man's refusal to serve God.

[PetroniusMaximus]

True, true.

But if the battle is indeed spiritual, then it must be fought with spiritual weapons.

And this, I'm afraid, is a knowledge that contemporary Christianity has lost (and this may be an indicator of why we are in the shape we're in).

I've been wondering for a while if what we are experiencing is actually a judgement on a sleeping Church.

[TheGeezer]

PS What is the RC position o­n the apostolic status of the Eastern Orthodox church?

The RC Church regards the Eastern Orthodox as apostolic, having valid sacraments. RC canon law permits its faithful to celebrate Orthodox sacraments, but only in the case of dire necessity. However, many Orthodox bishops do not permit RC faithful to do so.

By the by, adherence to a specific geographic diocese is not why Roman Catholics see the bishop of Rome as their authoritative spiritual teacher. Rome became the see of Peter - after Peter left Antioch - and Peter's successors happened to stay in Rome. The succession simply started there (with good reason a the time). Since Christ bestowed a special teaching authority upon Peter (the keys of the Kingdom), and since Peter bestowed it upon his successor, that is how the RC Church remains free of theological error.

The Church at Jerusalem probably left, once it was forewarned of the destruction of Jerusalem by John's Apocrypha and perhaps other means.

All biblically based theology will soon become very unpopular, unfashionable (it already is, I think), and more hated than ever before by secular forces. Another post here yesterday reported what happened when a Baptist minister speaking at a Martin Luther King day service at the Atlanta MLK Memorial dared to say that MLK would be horrified by gay marriage. I believe she was condemned as bashing gays, when, of course, all she was doing was teaching some basic bible morality. The post provided better detail than this, but this was the gist of the story.

Anyway, let's pray for all to receive grace to withstand the coming persecutions.

Regards and God bless you.

[TheGeezer]

Ahhh..I thought that's where you were heading, Sorry, but I'm not interested in playing. Darn!

God bless you, also. Your reply gave me a smile.

Regards.

[american colleen]

Sad, thanks for the story. It's heartening to see quite a few souls standing up for Truth.

Just curious... have many/any of the female ministers in the Episcopal Dioceses in America expressed outrage like the Rev. Foley Beach has done? I'm guessing no, but I really don't know. Thanks in advance.

[TheGeezer]

I'm sorry if I offended. I didn't consider my questions uncharitable, only direct restatements of John Paul II's teaching regarding the loss of apostolic succession during Elizabeth I's reign. The pope judged that all vestiges of sacramental intent were removed from the ordinations of Episcopal bishops by Elizabeth I's reforms. Within one generation, no valid bishops remained in England as a result of her reforms (the old ones died). When the Anglican revival resulted in reforms restoring the old liturgical forms, no bishop having an apostolic connection existed to convey a valid succession.

My point was simply that without that apostolic authority, theological error will eventually evidence itself. I want to challenge people to think of that, perhaps suggesting continued study that will lead to the whole truth, to Catholicism.

The homosexual scandal in the Catholic Church is not a theological error. It is evidence of sin among its members and clergy. With the Holy Spirit's guidance, discipline will return to clerical ranks, and the permissive laziness that insinuated itself into the teaching of 1970's seminaries will be obliterated.

Regards.

[Aquinasfan]

Isn't the action of the majority of bishops evidence of the loss of the apostolic succession in the ECUSA?

Yes.

Anglican Orders.

[Aquinasfan]

the Anglican Communion exists because of abuses of papal authority in establishing errors...

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