Posted on 06/30/2005 6:35:43 PM PDT by sionnsar
TULSA, Okla — Another flagship congregation in the Episcopal Church U.S.A. has left the denomination over the issue of biblical orthodoxy and the denomination’s stand on homosexuality.
The leadership of Church of the Holy Spirit in Tulsa met with Oklahoma Bishop Robert Moody in late May to discuss the withdrawal. Church leadership said they hoped for an amicable parting of the ways.
Steve Juett, senior warden of the Church of the Holy Spirit, told the Tulsa World the decision to leave the Episcopal Church was not based solely on the gay bishop issue, but was the culmination of many things over many years.
“We feel that the Episcopal Church is moving away from the orthodox teachings of the Anglican communion,” Juett said.
The departure is the latest in a series of events that is having a dramatic impact on the size and structure of the Episcopal Church, which is a part of the worldwide Anglican Church.
On May 11 the Archbishop of Canterbury created a panel to discuss disputes between conservative Episcopal churches in the United States and their more liberal bishops.
In the United States and England, conservative churches such as Tulsa’s Church of the Holy Spirit have sometimes asked to be managed not by the bishops responsible for their region, but by other bishops who are more akin to them theologically. These so-called “flying bishops,” have generated controversy because they essentially enter another bishop’s territory without permission.
Archbishop Rowan Williams said the panel would be led by the leader of the Australian Anglican Church, the Most Rev. Peter Carnley. Bishop Frank Griswold, head of the U.S. Episcopal Church, gave his approval to the idea of a panel. Griswold has been a proponent of providing alternative pastoral care for Episcopalians of differing views, in part as a way to keep the American Episcopal Church from fragmenting.
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