Virginia Episcopals to discuss ordination

Washington Times ^ | 1/27/05 | Julia Duin

[kattracks]

Virginia Episcopalians, who at 89,000 make up the country's largest Episcopal diocese, will meet tomorrow and Saturday in Reston to discuss finances and whether the denomination needs to stop ordaining homosexual clergy.

[snip]

However, several of the diocese's largest — and most conservative parishes — are withholding contributions to the diocese because of the Episcopal Church's decision in August 2003 to ordain a homosexual bishop.
    A majority of the Diocese of Virginia's delegates agreed with that vote when it was taken at the church's General Convention.

    "The decisions that will be made in the next couple of months will determine the direction for the future of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion," said the Rev. Tom Herrick, vicar of Christ the Redeemer Church in Centreville. "The gravity of these decisions call for seeking God's wisdom, discernment of God's will, and the courage to follow it."

[snip]

 Also among the 19 resolutions, the diocese council will consider six on the "Windsor Report," a document issued in October by a task force set up by the archbishop of Canterbury, head of the 70-million-member Anglican Communion.
    The report sought to resolve the Anglican Communion's crisis over authority and homosexuality, by criticizing blessings of same-sex unions in U.S. and Canadian churches and the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, a divorced man living with a male lover.
    To date, U.S. Episcopal bishops have expressed only "regret" for the "pain, hurt and damage" caused by the consecration, according to a Jan. 13 statement.

[taxesareforever]

They not only have to stop ordaining homosexual clergy, they need to rid their ranks of all those who practice it now.

[vpintheak]

What a shame it is when a majority backs that decision. How far people have strayed from the Word of God.

[GretchenM]

fyi

[rmh47]

I read an article in my local newspaper yesterday about an Episcopal church here in Kentucky that voted to withdraw from the Lexington Diocese. This is a difficult decision for Episcopal churches because the land, buildings, and other material things are retained by the diocese, not the departing congregation. Nonetheless, some are leaving over this issue. This is the second church to leave that diocese since the ordination of Bishop Robinson.

[Elsie]

What  the HELL is there to DISCUSS????

 

 Romans 2:24
   As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
 

 

 

1 Corinthians 6:9-10
 9.  Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
 10.  nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

 

 

 

 

1 Corinthians 5:11-13
 11.  But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
 12.  What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
 13.  God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

  And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

[sionnsar]

Thanks to TonyRo76 for spotting this!

Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

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[AppyPappy]

This could be fun. Our local Episcopal priestess allowed Gene Robinson to be the godfather of her kids. People are rolling out of that church like it is on fire.

[TruthNtegrity]

A majority of the Diocese of Virginia's delegates agreed with that vote when it was taken at the church's General Convention.

I don't know how the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, did it, but the lay and clery delegates were stacked with those who would vote "yes" for V. Gene. After the vote, when I saw the list of names of the VA delegates, I groaned. It was that bad. There wasn't one of us from the large No. VA orthodox congregations, so Bishop Lee steered the vote the way he wanted it to go, after his wife changed his mind. Yes, his wife admonished him to choose to be on the "side of the times" or something to that effect, despite Biblical teachings to the contrary. This appeared in an article in the Sunday New York Times magazine.

The Rev. Tom Herrick, Vicar, Christ the Redeemer has been through some very difficult financial times, as that Church doesn't have the congregational funds to keep going and Bp. Lee has from time to time, written a fairly large check at the close of the year, to bail out the Church, which is usual for mission Churches.

But following the "yes" vote at GC, the large orthodox plus the tiny mission Church that is CtR announced that they were now Anglican and stopped sendng any funds to Bp. Lee. This means that this little Church is in the same position as the Global South - by refusing funds from the apostate ECUSA, they put themselves in financial peril.So far, Bp. Lee has "tolerated" this move but I'm sure, for the financial sake of his Diocese, hopes to change something, like finding a legal way to force these "errant" Churches to pay their proper tithe.

Having read this before eating anything today, I have now decided to fast until this meeting has finished. And please, before anyone attacks me for staying in ECUSA, I'd like to remind them of FR's rules against personal attacks. I choose to stay in my Church and fight.

It is my decision and please, I know all the reasons that those who disagree with me, will put forth. For my sake, and sake of my Bp, please, don't go there. Thank you in advance.

Sionnsar - based on what I've written, please monitor this thread for a response by you-know-who? Thanks.

[AnAmericanMother]

I have this mental image of people jumping out of the stained glass windows with flames licking around their heads . . .

Pretty apt! (I think you mentioned the godfather situation before, what WAS that woman thinking? What if he wants her sons to spend the night?)

[bonfire]

I'm technically still in ECUSA also. Hang in there.

[LibWrangler]

They will know how to belt out a tune, at least.

[AppyPappy]

She's thinking she is being "progressive". Her husband is a journalist.

[AnAmericanMother]

I hope I'm not "you know who", even though I left?

Seriously, I can understand why you want to stay and fight, there's still hope. Our diocese is hopeless, is the only reason we left (that, and we have children that need religious instruction, not a cat fight.)

My parents are still in a diocese with an orthodox if somewhat wimpy bishop, although I understand why he appears wimpy, he wants to see what shakes out nationally/internationally before he stirs up his diocese.

[sionnsar]

And please, before anyone attacks me for staying in ECUSA, I'd like to remind them of FR's rules against personal attacks. I choose to stay in my Church and fight.

There are several on this ping list who have chosen to do so, and I fully respect that.

People have been leaving ECUSA at least since '78 (I think that's when the first wave of departures occurred), under varying situations and for various reasons. In my case, had I not moved to Seattle I might still be in there fighting. Had I been in another church I know of, I'd be in there still myself. My father remained for two decades after I left, but matters in his diocese finally reached a point where he couldn't remain.

The situation that has not been resolved, as yet it hasn't a definite outcome, and as I noted a day or two ago, Anglicans can be very Entish in their deliberations.

[Elsie]

Zechariah 11

 

 1.  Open your doors, O Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars!
 2.  Wail, O pine tree, for the cedar has fallen; the stately trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan; the dense forest has been cut down!
 3.  Listen to the wail of the shepherds; their rich pastures are destroyed! Listen to the roar of the lions; the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
 4.  This is what the LORD my God says: "Pasture the flock marked for slaughter.
 5.  Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, `Praise the LORD, I am rich!' Their own shepherds do not spare them.
 6.  For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land," declares the LORD. "I will hand everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will oppress the land, and I will not rescue them from their hands."
 7.  So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock.
 8.  In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.   The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them
 9.  and said, "I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another's flesh."
 10.  Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.
 11.  It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the LORD. 
 12.  I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
 13.  And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"--the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter.
 14.  Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
 15.  Then the LORD said to me, "Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd.
 16.  For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hoofs.
 17.  "Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered, his right eye totally blinded!"  An Oracle

[torqemada]

"She's thinking she is being "progressive". Her husband is a journalist."

That would explain it, alright.

[GretchenM]

Anglicans can be very Entish in their deliberations.

How painfully true.

All of the slow progression of events in the Episcopal church isn't happening just in the realm of mankind's minds and wills. God is shaking the Episcopal church so that everything that can remain, will. All believers will do well to prayerfully watch what happens. I admire those who are called to stay and do stay. As much as I loved the Episcopal church of my youth, I couldn't remain, and am very glad God is feeding me elsewhere. But I still love all that was good and holy about the Episcopal form of worship. May God tenderly guide and strengthen His people through this wilderness as He burns away all that cannot stand in His presence.

[GretchenM]

When faced with the choice of having a building or a having a meeting, the people find out if they're churchgoers or worshipers; they find out what their priorities are.