Rev. Gene Robinson: Jesus 'might be 'gay'
Bishop Vicki Gene Robinson
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Posted on 11/23/2005 6:32:12 AM PST by NYer
A congregation that refused to pay its dues in protest of the Episcopal Church of the USA's ordination of a homosexual bishop has been dissolved by its diocese.
Rochester's Episcopal diocese in New York voted Saturday to shut down All Saints Episcopal Church in Irondequoit, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper.
The church's property and other assets are to be turned over to the trustees of the diocese.
The church refused to pay $16,000 it owed the diocese after the 2003 ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson in New Hampshire – a practicing homosexual – and the denomination's decision to give individual dioceses liberty to bless same-sex unions.
Parishioners gathered in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Rochester to find out the result of the vote.
"Goodbye now and God bless you," said All Saints' leader, the Rev. David Harnish, as he left the room where the vote took place.
Harnish then went to the lobby where a small group from his church had gathered.
"The same bishop who strongly opposes the death penalty has issued an ecclesiastical death sentence," he told the parishioners. "But we are alive and well."
The Rev. Canon Carolyn Lumbard, a spokeswoman for the diocese, told the Rochester paper she had come to know many at All Saints after working with them for four years.
"I know their struggle is their struggle, just like my struggle is my struggle," she said. "I don't understand theirs and they don't understand mine, either."
But she emphasized the congregation still must pay its share of the dues.
Similarly, regardless of what you think about the laws of the U.S., "If you don't pay your taxes, you go to jail," said the Rev. Diana Purcell-Chapman, who says she reluctantly voted in favor of the resolution. "It had to be done."
Rev. Denise Yarbrough of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Penn Yan, N.Y., said, "We didn't kick them out. They chose to go."
Yarbrough, a lesbian, said she and others offered to dialogue with parishioners, but they were refused.
All Saints plans to continue operating and possibly be a home for others in the diocese who disagree with the Episcopal Church of the USA, according to Walck.
"We will be a church and we will be functioning," he said.
Rev. Gene Robinson: Jesus 'might be 'gay'
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
What's Christian about that?
It is all about money. The homos know that if they can get into a church, they can drive out the straights and be left with the building and property.
I wonder exactly what there is to "dialogue" in a case like this. For that matter, is "dialogue" even a verb?
buh-bye.
"It's all about ME."
She probably would've just given them a tongue-lashing.
. . . we fled to the Catholic church because we saw this coming.
Catholics, take note.
Ping!
It all comes down to the money and the property - nothing about salvation or Jesus...
Exactly what part of "Thou Shalt Not" don't they understand?
It is, IMO, a very un-Christian letter. She's had a tough year (deaths in the family (toughest was her dog apparently)) and her opening paragraphs are pretty blunt about how shaky her faith has been lately.
Then she relates a Cherokee Indian story.
Then she says that Thanksgiving is about how we decide to treat other people.
Michael Newdow could have written this letter. That it comes from a minister is disturbing. I've been shopping for a new church ever since she arrived this summer.
"Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.." (2 Cor. 6:17)
Yep. During a recent Catholic mass, a priest claimed that God was changing. Hmm. God is changing?
Good point
yeah, well women arent suppose to rev's and fags aren't suppose to be either. I hope more episcapol churches disban. I am surprised only one has.
Being a life-long Methodist, sadly I have found that the church has become politicised to the extent that I can no longer attend. I left my church two weeks after 9/11 when our minister preached that the terrorist attack in NYC was due to 'world hunger'and that 'we must redistribute the wealth so that everyone has enough'. Socialism doesn't belong in church or anywhere else.
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