Posted on 01/22/2006 7:26:33 AM PST by Huber
The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church has approved the Church’s membership in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), an organization whose literature states its “primary role is educating the public to make clear that abortion can be a moral, ethical, and religiously responsible decision.”
My understanding was always that ECUSA's "teaching" on abortion and on every other sin that's not racism, sexism, "homophobia," or some other leftist cause current this month basically boiled down to, "We'd rather you didn't but we're not about rules here." Apparently, I was dead wrong.
The vote during the Jan. 9-12 meeting held in Des Moines, Iowa, came upon a recommendation from the Executive Council’s Committee on National Concerns. John Vanderstar, an Executive Council member from the Diocese of Washington who proposed the resolution, said it was intended to clarify the Church’s relationship to the organization.
In 1978, the Executive Council rejected a proposal from the Episcopal Women’s Caucus and the Episcopal Church Women (ECW) of the diocese of Washington to join the organization. (In 1994 the organization changed its name from the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice).
The A word is a tough sell, isn't it?
On May 19, 1978, Episcopal News Service reported the Executive Council "voted against participation in the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights on the grounds that the Coalition’s stand was inconsistent with that of General Convention.” However, the Episcopal Church Center joined the RCRC on behalf of the Episcopal Church in 1986.
The Episcopal Church. We're so independent that we don't even listen to ourselves.
Mr. Vanderstar noted the vote by Executive Council did not change the Church’s position on abortion, which has been an “unequivocal opposition to any federal or state legislation that would interfere with a woman’s right to make a decision on terminating a pregnancy.” He said the vote to approve membership in the RCRC was taken “so as to lay to rest any suggestion that [Executive Council’s] 1978 action tainted that membership.”
And there you have it. ECUSA has always been a pro-abortion "church." But let him be accursed who offends the pro-abortion lobby. Pro-life Episcopalians are horrified.
[Georgette] Forney told The Living Church she was displeased by the vote, saying she believed it is important that standards be created stating what types of organizations the Church can join. She sees RCRC membership as incompatible with the Church’s mission, and said it is impossible to see “children as a gift from God but celebrate the ‘right’ to kill them.”
The Pontificator is exactly right.
A Christian community that supports the unconditional legal right to abortion has ceased to be Christian; it has ceased to be Church. A Church that is not willing to stand against the evil of abortion cannot be the Church that Jesus Christ founded. The lampstand has been taken away.
If you belong to the Episcopal Church and if you believe that abortion is unjust killing, how can you in good conscience remain in communion with it? How can you remain an Episcopalian? The Episcopal Church has ceased to be “neutral” in this moral battle. It has joined the forces of darkness. Flee, for your soul’s sake!
I would go even further. If you are a pro-life member of a conservative Anglican church and your church still has any kind of connection with ECUSA, even the most remote and theoretical, you and your church are compromised. If you are a member of a solidly pro-life denomination that has regular "ecumenical dialogue" with the Episcopalians, you and your denomination are also compromised.
I don't think it will happen but I would love for the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Churches to say that because of this approval, all ecumenical discussions with the Episcopal Church about anything at all were terminated. And that unless the Episcopalians were expelled, all ecumenical discussions with the Anglican Communion would also come to an end.
This is one time when straddling the fence is more virtuous than enthusiastically casting one's lot with evil. The ECUSA Executive Council's vile action ought to be reason enough to leave ECUSA even if no one had ever heard of Gene Robinson.
"Moving to the a Baptist denomination is quite a leap!"
___________________________________
I began reading my Bible seriously and found a home in a church that places great emphasis on knowing Scripture.
Thou shalt not cut short a life.
Look in kindly judgment on the decision we have made and assure us in all our uncertainty that your love for us can never change.
Otherwise our conscience might bother us. "Go, and sin all you want."
Make sure I stand way clear if that lightening bolt hits!
Not much left to say is there, but "Adios."
I hope what you meant was, "During my last year in the EPISCOPAL Church..." and not Anglican in general. As a member of a continuing Anglican congregation that has nothing whatsoever to do with ECUSA, let me assure you that our position on abortion is no different than that of Rome. As far as I, personally, am concerned, the church I grew up in is dead. It's been a sad time for the faithful who have been forced out, but we will persevere.
Especially considering that ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran) employee health insurance covers abortion for any reason during the first twenty weeks.
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