Posted on 12/02/2006 12:57:29 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
FRESNO, Calif. -- In a public rebuke of the Episcopal Church, a conservative diocese voted Saturday to affirm its membership in the worldwide Anglican Communion after distancing itself from the American denomination over issues of sexuality and the ordination of women.
Some delegates to the Diocese of San Joaquin's convention called it a first step toward a formal break with the national church.
"The national church has forced us to this point where we have to pick -- is our ultimate authority scripture or is our ultimate authority an institution that has run amok?" said the Rev. Russell VanRozeboom, the diocese's chancellor. "This diocese has always shown itself to be resistant to the heresies of the national church."
Divisions erupted in 2003 when the Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member Anglican family, consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Traditionalists contend that gay partnerships violate Scripture.
San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield, who refuses to ordain women and gays, has publicly accused the church's first female leader, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, of promoting "heresy." Under his leadership, the Fresno-based diocese has stopped sending most funds to the national church and has considered a plan to affiliate with an Anglican diocese in Argentina.
The San Joaquin diocese's proposal to distance itself from the American denomination was approved by a majority of the 204 clergy and lay delegates. It formalizes the diocese's identity as a member of the Anglican Communion, rather than a member of the Episcopal Church.
The resolution was noticeably weaker than an amendment pulled this week that would have given delegates the choice to formally split with the U.S. denomination, which would have set off a legal battle over the diocese's millions of dollars in real estate.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Glad to see it. The liberal national Episcopalians have little moral authority.
It's about time brothers! I mean, you are waaaaay to slow to smell the brimstone. What happened, the gay bishop finally normalize the 10th and final commandment and decide that one wasn't really sin either? That's what pushed you over the edge? Welllll......welcome to the party but it took you long enough to get here.
A good first step. I'm waiting for the Confessing Methodists to break from the United Methodists. I'd love to be able to appreciate the Methodist church again.
Same thing is happening around Dallas: one congregation here has affiliated with the archdiocese of Peru.
This is a good thing. I was appalled by the new presiding bishop and her attitude that it's our duty not to have kids because the prime value of the Episcopal Church was "stewardship of the earth."
You can spend a very long time with a member of the Episcopal clergy without hearing the name Jesus Christ. They seem to be recasting it as a liberal political movement without "all the Jesus stuff."
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
FYI...
You must be smoking rope.
I flushed it years ago when this PC Neo-Unitarian stuff started.
I am not mad about it, just sad and disappointed. It was an important part of my life when I was young.
I will just note that the author of this piece apparently got his story wrong yesterday, as noted (at the end) here at VirtueOnline-News:
Episcopal diocese ends talk of split
By GARANCE BURKE
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (typically 3-9 pings/day).
This list is pinged by sionnsar, Huber and newheart.
Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com
More Anglican articles here.
Humor: The Anglican Blue (by Huber)
Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15
She said that? Wow. Gay and Gaia.
Yeah, she said that in the interview with what I guess will bee the official church publication: The New York Times. It was reported here in FR at the time, and Mark Steyn zinged her in a column. Here is Mark's column in the Chicago Sun-Times:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/steyn/149527,CST-EDT-steyn26.article
An interesting blog post:
http://www.peter-ould.net/?p=132
Don't miss the comment on her mother's funeral... this is a woman whose mother changed religions to get away from her whacky theology!
I have looked up the records on her pilot's license, mentioned in several news stories. The FAA records show her as Katherine Jefferts.
And yes, she is a huge gay activist. "Not that there's anything wrong with that." Just, not in my pulpit, thank you very much.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Good! Kids do not need to be brought into the Episcopal Church of Debauchery.
Where did you go?
Home. Some of the other denominations were as bad or worse.
Yes, some are, however some are excellent. We have been very pleased with the Anglican Catholic Church, There are a number of other excellent continuing Anglican churches, some more Catholic, some more reformed and some more evangelical. Many have also discovered the Orthodox Church or rediscovered a revitalized Roman Catholic church under John-Paul II and Benedict XV1. For those who are more committed to hard "P" Protestantism, we have also seen much solid instruction in the Presbyterian Church in America. The list goes on, but while the leadership of many of the old mainline churches has been infiltrated by the forces of confusion and hypocracy, Christ's church will always endure.
"Founded on a Rock"..Which brings us to "..And on this rock (Gr. Petra)", back to Rome.
Well, I was High Church and we had immigrants who used to attend by mistake for lengthy periods till they learned to their horror we were not THE Church!
Something in my 1640 WASP culture sits there like a rock of its own....
One hears of people abandoning churches. Sadly, this thread shows that churches can abandon people. I am comfortable with the Hymnal 1940 and the Book of Common Prayer. It is almost in the genes. Yes, I know they were compiled by Imperfect Mortals.
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