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Posted on 10/12/2003 7:48:36 PM PDT by ahadams2
The Schism of 2003
Will the global Anglican church split in two over gay bishops? A meeting this week may decide
By DAVID VAN BIEMA
At the opening of a spirited gathering in Dallas last week that often felt more like a tent revival than the rump caucus of a denomination sometimes known as "God's frozen people," Episcopal Bishop of Pittsburgh Robert Duncan wished Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, "the wisdom of Solomon." Williams, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, will preside this week over a meeting in London that may decide the future of the denomination in the U.S. and around the world, so he can certainly use the good wishes. But what gave Duncan's salutation its special bite was that he specified the Biblical anecdote in which Solomon chose between two women claiming parenthood of a baby, "so that the true mother of the living child [could] raise him." The analogy was clear. The baby is the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. (ECUSA), and Duncan, a high-ranking conservative insurgent, sees the current controversy over homosexuality as a custody battle for its body and its soul. He seemed to be expecting to get custody.
Like other mainline denominations in the U.S., the Episcopal Church is deeply split over questions of gay ordination and marriage. But in August in Minneapolis, at its triennial General Convention, it appeared to become the first to implode over the issue, as 62 of its 107 normally conflict-averse leaders confirmed the election of a popular, openly gay priest named V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Outraged, more than a dozen bishops rejected the vote and threatened to remove their congregations permanently.
The possibility of such a schism sent shock waves through the 70-million-strong Anglican Communion, the global network of churches descended from the Church of England. In recent years, the Communion's power base has shifted from liberal-but-shrinking Western churches to booming, socially conservative Third World congregations, and most of the primates who lead the burgeoning provinces sided with the anti-Robinson camp. The Minneapolis vote came a month after openly gay priest Jeffrey John renounced his appointment as a Church of England bishop following a similar outcry, and on the heels of an even more controversial decision by a Canadian diocese to bless gay unions. With Anglican unity at stake, Williams called this week's two-day primates' meeting in London. Participants at the Dallas meeting predicted one of two possible outcomes: the voluntary or involuntary replacement of Robinson; or a departure by conservatives, who will pull their members and their money out of Episcopalianism and join the Third World bishops in a new Anglican alignment.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
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That just cracks me up.....
True story (or so I was told by my Gaelic teacher) - an evangelist from the city happened to visit a small "Wee Free" Presbyterian congregation in the western Highlands of Scotland. During the service he began his usual waving of hands and loud cries of "Amen!" and "Praise the Lord."
After awhile, one of the ushers tapped him on the shoulder and whispered sternly, "We dinna praise the Lord here."
. . . . bada bing.
A true story about Episcopalians: In the great settlement of the Western United States, as westward the course of empire trended its way, the evangelists followed. The Baptists walked; the Methodists rode horseback; the Presbyterians took the stagecoach. But the Episcopalians waited until they invented the Pullman car . . .
Have you ever read a little book called Oh Ye Jigs and Juleps written by a little Virginia girl around the turn of the last century? At one point, she opines about the difference between Baptists and Episcopalians . . . something along the lines of "Baptists sing 'there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins/ and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.' We sing 'crown him lord of all.' I think it is much more ladylike to crown him lord of all than to go plunging around in a bloody fountain . . . "
My great grandfather immigrated from Scotland in his kilts. Nobody laughed. (His nickname was "Big Boy" and he was 6'8".)
That branch of the family was very stern Presbyterian. I may be the only Episcopalian child on record who received for my confirmation a copy of the Westminster Catechism, from my Very Presby maternal grandmother.
If you've never heard an old-fashioned singing, just go here and here to find one near you. It's worth the trip.
Samples can be heard here, sung by the Word of Mouth Chorus, which keeps the "rousing" part true to its original nature, but more musical. Some of the clips do not have the words, but are sung to the "sol-fa" notation for those who don't read staff notation. Listen to "Cowper" (the words are by the English poet) for a marvelously complex fuging tune, composed in the 20s IIRC. "Northfield" is one of the old 18th c. New England singing school tunes. But if you want the real, unvarnished, backwoods singing with the bark on, try this old Alan Lomax recording (but if you're a musician, you won't be happy). Harp of a Thousand Strings
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