Posted on 01/15/2006 5:41:25 AM PST by billorites
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut on Saturday removed a priest from his duties in a clash over the elevation of a gay bishop in New Hampshire.
Connecticut Bishop Andrew D. Smith stripped Mark H. Hansen, formerly of St. John's Church in Bristol, "of the right to exercise the office of priest in the Episcopal church."
Smith acted six months after Hansen's "inhibition," or suspension, that began July 13.
"It's a very sad day," Smith said in an interview Saturday.
Diocesan officials said last year that Hansen was suspended because he took an unauthorized sabbatical and St. John's had stopped making payments on a loan for its building. Hansen maintained he notified Smith about his plans.
Smith said it was his duty to remove Hansen because the priest failed to meet conditions including recanting his behavior or statements that led to the inhibition. Hansen also could have denied the basis on which the inhibition was imposed and the bishop would have decided if the denial was in good faith, Smith said.
Hansen, who resigned his priesthood in September, refused to meet with Smith, the bishop said.
A message was left with St. John's Church. There was no home phone listing for Hansen.
The conflict stems from Smith's support for the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the church's first openly gay bishop. Robinson's consecration in 2003 has divided the U.S. Episcopal Church and expanded the rift over gay issues among churches in the global Anglican Communion.
"The controversies are still there. This is not about the controversy," Smith said. "This is about his abandonment of the relationship he has as a priest with the bishop. People disagree with me (over Robinson) and do not abandon their relationship with the bishop."
A diocese committee of clergy and lay leaders determined last March that Hansen and five other priests abandoned communion of the church and referred the matter to Smith, he said. He has not yet decided on action against the five other priests, who have been threatened with suspension.
"My hope is for reconciliation," he said.
The other priests are the Rev. Christopher Leighton of St. Paul's Church in Darien, the Rev. Allyn Benedict of Christ Episcopal Church in Watertown, the Rev. Ronald Gauss of Bishop Seabury Church in Groton, the Rev. Gilbert Wilkes of Christ and the Epiphany Church in East Haven and the Rev. Don Helmandollar of Trinity Church in Bristol.
The six parishes sought last May to be supervised by a different bishop because of their dispute with Smith over Robinson.
In addition, six parishes and five of their priests - excluding Hansen - filed a federal lawsuit last September alleging that the priests threatened with suspension were fraudulently charged with abandoning communion and denied due process because they were not tried in religious courts.
The plaintiffs also contend that diocesan officials violated state law when they took over St. John's Church in July and appointed a priest to fill in for Hansen.
Smith said Saturday his decision removing Hansen was not related to the lawsuit.
How can you keep a man in a position
of leadership, which supposedly ahears to
the precepts and command of the religion
he's a part of, and then turns around and openly
condones a sin which it's tenents reject?
It was really the other way around. The church left the communion and these priest were still in communion that is the issue. More examples of liberal intolerance and forcing liberalism on "right-thinking-patriots".
"It was really the other way around. The church left the communion and these priest were still in communion that is the issue. More examples of liberal intolerance and forcing liberalism on "right-thinking-patriots"."
Bullseye! Like these Episcopal priests, I couldn't stand belonging to a denomination that had suddenly ceased to stand for anything and had officially decided to pick and choose which scripture to obey based on the which politically correct whims ticked their fancy. Even though I'd been a life-long parishoner, it was a relatively easy decision to make, as a number of married Episcopal priests have done, to join the Catholic church.
In a short time, I'll have been there two years....two years of spiritual happiness.
The un-church removed a priest for not sucking up to a queer? All very clear here, dear.
"Episcopal to Catholic isn't that large of a moral jump. The Episcopals have a gay bishop and the Catholics are eat up with them as well."
It is true that there are many, many gay bishops and priests in the Catholic church. There are also more than a few gay parishoners. And not all of these gays, either in the laity or in the clergy, are chaste either.
So what, then, is the difference between the Episcopalian Church and the Catholic Church in this regard?
The difference is obvious and elemental!
The Episcopalian leadership took the deliberate step of knowingly and openly ordaining a known and open homosexual, who proudly made his homosexual public. And the Episcopalian Church has taken the position that homosexuality is alright, that it is not the deadly sin that it has always been considered.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has stated, from the papacy itself, that homosexuality is incompatibility in the priesthood.
Asking priests or people to be without sin is ridiculous. There are plenty of pedophile Baptist ministers too. But the Baptists and Catholics, quite unlike the Episcopalian Church, do not pretend that these human failings are anything but that: failings, sins, bad, wrong. The Episcopalian Church says that homosexuality is NOT a sin anymore, has ordained an open, practicing homosexual adulterer as a minister, and is systematically elminating all of the clergy who say that is wrong.
The difference between the Episcopalians and either the Catholics or the Baptists in this regard is like night and day. Sin is universal. The Catholics and Baptists call sin in their clergy sin. The Episcopalians call sin in their clergy not-sin-anymore. And faithful Anglicans in the Episcopal community are rightly sickened by the whole spectacle.
Leaving the Episcopalian Church for the Catholic Church over this issue is not trading gay clergy for gay clergy, although there's plenty of that in both places. It's trading open, promiscuous proud gay clergy in a religion that says this is no longer a sin, for closeted, secretive gay clergy who have to hide what they are doing, because their religion utterly condemns it. That is a fundamental difference.
I think you may have it backwards.
"The conflict stems from Smith's support for the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the church's first openly gay bishop. "
'Smith' is the Episcopal Bishop that removed Hansen from his duties because he WOULDN'T support the gay bishop, along with 5 other priests.
Unless you were talking about the Smith, the Episcopal Diocese leader.
If so please forgive me.!
FYI
In these churches, the most important commandment is increasingly: "Thou shalt worship queers."
One has to believe the goal all along was not to have a gay bishop per se, rather, the goal was to provoke a radical change in policy and church doctrine. The leftists pull this new doctrine out of thin air and anyone who does not quickly accept it is purged. Now they have one issue over which to purge conservative clergymen. It won't stop there. Their "doctrine" will be more and more based on politics, so there will be purges of clergymen who support Israel, who oppose abortion, etc.
Welcome home! The suspended pastors (the Connecticut 6) are heroes. God bless you and yours!
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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Later pingout.
You may be correct, but my point still
holds true. You have a religion which
condems homosexuality, but you have
priests who condone it...It's so convoluted
and perverted it defies logic.
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
I guess you've never ran onto hypocrites in other philosophical, belief systems? Are you that sheltered?
You sound like you have bought into the horse manure that there is no right or wrong--that all is relative. How sad.
Trouble is, while you want to believe that so you can do whatever you want whenever you want with whomever you want--you can't really live consistently that way.
When you get to a stoplight--you will continue to drive as though it's right for the opposing traffic to stop at their red light for you! How irrational and perverted! They should realize that there is no riht or wrong and just drive however the blazes they feel like at the moment.
There aren't any rules! How silly and perverted to think otherwise!/sar
There can be no authority like God! Life has never shown us any need for any authority! What a silly perverted idea!/sar
Life, liberty and hedonism for all! Those are the only "rules." Mankind has never shown any ned for any others!
What is it so far--45-49 million murdered infants in the interest of hedonism and convenience! Certainly no rules needed there except . . . of course, the rule of doing whatever the blazes feels good at the momen, only. To blazes with consequences.
There can be no consequences! What a silly, irrational, perverted idea--consequences! Next people will think that if they plant watermelons they should reap watermelons! What craziness that would be! What a perverted thought!
God? Designing life, marriage and family a certain way? His priority? His law? How silly! Everyone knows only chaos, perersion and death are the only rules. /sar
By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 23, 2006
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060123-123255-7755r.htm
EXCERPT:
Virginia's largest Episcopal parish, in a letter to the church's 2,200 members, yesterday called on Virginia's the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee to "repent and return to the truth" over supporting the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop of New Hampshire.
Leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal said in their eight-page, single-spaced letter that "no compromise on this issue is possible," although they refrained from specific threats. In the past, the parish's rector has threatened schism.
"A Christian leader does not approve of sin, or purport to declassify it," the letter said to Bishop Lee, who backed the 2003 consecration of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. "Rather, he calls sinners to repentance and proclaims the Good News that sin can be forgiven and new life can be obtained in Christ."
The letter was sent to Bishop Lee on Oct. 4 but was not made public until yesterday. Calls to the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia yesterday for comment were not returned. Bishop Lee, however, did meet with parish leaders soon after the letter was sent.
The letter is modeled after Matthew 18:15-17, which advises Christians that "if your brother sins against you," one is to first privately show him his fault, then repeat the message accompanied by "two or three witnesses."
If the exhortation still is ignored, Christians are to "tell it to the church," the pattern that church leaders followed yesterday. If still nothing happens, the offender is to be treated "as you would a pagan or a tax collector," the verses say.
But church leaders made no threats from the pulpit yesterday about the letter, just a casual mention by one of the priests that congregants might be interested in picking up a copy of it after the service.
The letter was signed by Falls Church senior warden Sam Thomsen and junior warden Teri Ballou.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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The "three legged stool" is now a SHAFT!
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