Posted on 04/10/2005 8:53:16 AM PDT by sionnsar
Connecticut's Episcopal prince-bishop Andrew Smith prepares to drop the hammer on six rectors:
The state’s Episcopal bishop has written priests at six churches notifying them that they could be removed as rectors of their parishes by next Friday.
The letters that Bishop Andrew D. Smith sent last weekend said that the priests had "abandoned the communion of the church" - a finding that could lead to the "inhibition of a priest’s ministry." That would mean the six priests would no longer lead their parishes. It also means the priests eventually could be defrocked.
Guess what for? Uh huh.
The six churches have been engaged in a struggle with Smith since his vote in 2003 in support of the election of the U.S. Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
The Rev. Christopher Leighton, rector of St. Paul’s Church in Darien, is one of the six priests who received a letter from Smith.
A statement that was circulated on Sunday to the St. Paul’s congregation said: "The bishop accused Father Christopher Leighton, without explanation, of having abandoned the communion of the Church, and he proceeded to threaten further action which would bring harm to Father Leighton, our parish and our mission."
Leighton said Smith is imposing "spiritual gag orders."
"The real story is our freedom to speak and our freedom to practice our faith is what is being inhibited."
The Episcopal Church's DEPO(Delightfully Easy to Pitch the Orthodox) plan has once again proven itself to be the fraud many of us always thought it was.
Leighton and the other rectors represent conservative parishes that opposed Robinson’s consecration. Since then, the six churches have sought to break away from Smith’s authority and be supervised by another bishop. That process, which the bishops of the U.S. church created in response to the Robinson controversy, is known as "delegated Episcopal pastoral oversight." It allows churches to report to a different bishop while remaining under the overall supervision of their own bishop.
But in Connecticut, the road to delegated oversight hit a pothole almost immediately. The pastors claim the delegated arrangement is inadequate to meet the needs of their churches. The churches wanted to be considered for delegated oversight as a group, but Smith wanted to work with each one separately. The rectors wanted assurances that they would be succeeded by other conservative pastors should they leave their parishes; in discussions over the past year on that issue, the priests and Smith have made little headway.
Because in Connecticut, reconciliation means Smith's way or the highway.
The rectors said Smith told them at a meeting several months ago they had until Feb. 15 to accept the delegated oversight provisions. But they said he gave no hint of the possibility of his recent action.
Frank? Last I checked, you were still presiding, Presiding Bishop. If you're serious about "honoring our differences," I would think you'd want to step in here and urge Smith to back off. I imagine you'd jump right in if Jack Iker or the Devil Bob Duncan tried to run a liberal rector so you might want to give Smitty a call. So you might want to step in here or else people are going to think you're dishonest. Insincere. A liar, even.
It's getting kind of hard for me to get all that angry about stories like this. Smith's only doing what Episcopal leftists do. It will be interesting to see how Dr. Williams reacts to this or if he does. Because Andrew Smith is providing Anglican conservatives with more ammunition than they can fire.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. So am I understanding this correctly - the six churches are being attacked because they are not supporting the Gay Bishop?
ping
By the time the the following sentence is thrown into the text, no one can have a clue what the controversy is:
Leighton and the other rectors represent conservative parishes that opposed Robinson’s consecration.
People either write for cute, or to convey information. Most adults can do both.
This is a sad example. I quit reading at that point.
"Guess what for? Uh huh. The six churches have been engaged in a struggle with Smith since his vote in 2003 in support of the election of the U.S. Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire."
Watch out. The sodomy-rights crowd will come here to heckle.
Yep.
"Guess what for? Uh huh. The six churches have been engaged in a struggle with Smith since his vote in 2003 in support of the election of the U.S. Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire."
The vast majority of the world's honest, decent Anglicans oppose the homosexual usurption in the US. These five priests are part of the vast majority of Anglicans.
Alternatively, the Roman Catholic Church has been welcoming former Episcopalian and Anglican priests and congregations en masse. The priests can stay married and be reconfirmed as Catholic priests.
Not exactly.
To be more precise, because their Bishop, Smith, supported the consecration of Robinson to Bishop, has ordained 2 homosexuals to the Diaconate, and not implored those in his Diocese to stop blessing same sex unions, these 6 Rectors have stopped sending money to the Diocese.
Every Church in a Diocese sends (or is supposed to) money to the Bishop for him to spend on various things, support of new ministries, Mission Churches, etc. These 6 stopped sending any money because they disagreed with Smith's positions.
Bishop Smith wrote a letter saying that they were removing themselves from being in Communion with ECUSA - and using all the legal power in ECUSA, has begun to the process of removing these Prists from their Churches, dissolving the Vestries, which means he'll move in and take over the property, and ultimately, defrocking the Priests - removing them from the Priesthood.
Unfortunately the Bishop is using powers given to Bishops in ECUSA while at the same time, he, Bishop Smith, is ignoring guideliness that were put out by the Primates of the Anglican Communion, and others that were stipulated at the ECUSA House of Bishops, March 15th 2005 - to cease ordaining homosexuals, and cease blessing of same sex unions.
It's now who has the biger gun and the better lawyer, and who can get either PB Griswold, or even the Archbishop of Canterbury to say something that will cause Bp. Smith to back off.
So far, it seems to be in the "meeting to communicate" stage between the Bishop and the Priests/Rectors, but I expect this will get escalated quickly.
Add one small fact about Episcopal Church. The vestry (board) decides what money to spend on what. The priest has no authority in whether money is sent to diocese. Also, many members of the Churches have designated that their contributions should not be used for the diocese.
CT Ping!
Thank you both so much for the information - it is good to understand what is happening there. We have been battling this for years and years in the Presbyterian USA church....... the gays are out to take over there as well, and seemingly winning.....
Yes, now that the parishes have gone public in solidarity. Note that Bp Smith wants to talk to each of them privately. They've checkmated this by insisting on a joint public meeting and then telling everybody in the USA who might care.
Smith is either going to have to back down (and perhaps even away) or he's going to simply drop the hammer all the faster. I note that parishes do not have to leave Anglicanism to be rid of apostasy. There are several quite orthodox, quite Anglican provinces already operating. You just have to look (I know for a fact that my own Province has a parish in Greenwich, CT, for instance).
In Christ,
Deacon Paul+
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
The last one of the night. Looks as though some Episcopalian priests GET IT. Good luck to them, and may they stand tall and speak the truth loudly.
Let DirtyHarryY2K and me know if you want on/off this pinglist.
LOL ;-D
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Yes, it is most interesting that Smith refuses to deal with them as a bloc. Divide and conquer is the tactic, elimination of dissent is the end.
Please note that there are informal groups of people that are mobilizing to show support by traveling to one of the parishes for a service this Sunday, to stand in solidarity with these parishes which are under attack for our common faith in Christ. You can find information about each of the parishes on this website.
http://www.aacne.org
http://www.americananglican.org
Perhaps some on your CT ping list might be interested...
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