Posted on 05/16/2006 6:58:05 PM PDT by sionnsar
The vestry of the Episcopal Church of the Advent in Crestwood, Missouri, a few miles southwest of here, really hopes that GenCon doesn't commit the unforgivable Episcopal sin:
The vestry at Advent/Crestwood, one of the Diocese’s six Oasis congregations that openly welcomes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) individuals and their families and friends, has written a letter to the Diocese’s General Convention deputation urging it to reject resolutions the vestry members feel would be a retreat on the full inclusion of GLBT persons in the Episcopal Church.
The letter to the deputies and Bishop George Wayne Smith was approved at the Advent vestry’s May 8 meeting and cites three resolutions it has concerns about and three resolutions for which it wants the deputies to vote their approval.
For starters, ECUSA already said it was sorry conservative Anglicans are Nazi bigots. So it has nothing it needs to repent of.
The vestry supports language in Resolution A160 that expresses regret for the pain some have experienced because of the actions of the 74th General Convention in 2003 at which consent was given to the election of an openly gay man as bishop of New Hampshire, but says it cannot support "any language of repentance which would imply we would take back that action if we could."
"Homosexual bishop" ought to become a title rather than a description.
The Advent vestry urges the defeat of Resolution A161 dealing with the election of bishops, saying it, in effect, is asking dioceses not to elect persons in same-gender relationships as bishops. That would send a confusing message say the vestry members. "The ordination of Gene Robinson signaled that we meant what we said about full inclusion in the ministry of the Church." Going back now, they added, "would leave many of our members confused" and would drive away many of those who have joined the Episcopal Church since 2003 because of its "prophetic stand."
And we'll marry anybody we damn well please.
The vestry said it was "saddened" that Resolution A162 on public rites of blessing for same-sex unions will come before the convention. While in favor of same-sex unions in principle, the vestry says it understands the Episcopal Church’s need to not go forward with such blessings while the entire Anglican Communion engages in a listening process on the issue.
Instead of A162, the vestry would like the deputies to support resolutions affirming the "full and equal claim" for all baptized persons to the sacraments and rites of the Church, protecting the human rights of homosexual persons, and amending Church canons on who can exercise ministry in the Church.
Then Advent got off this sociopathic piece of dishonesty.
The letter from the Advent vestry also urges the General Convention to ask the Anglican Communion to hold all its members to the same standards of adherence to the resolutions of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, in particular, to ask the Communion to demand an explanation of Archbishop Akinola of the Anglican Church in Nigeria about his support of legislation in Nigeria that criminalizes homosexuality.
"If [the Episcopal Church] is expected to participate in the listening process urged by the Windsor Report, we believe that our General Convention can demand the same from other provinces of the Anglican Communion," said the vestry in its letter.
As for Dr. Akinola, that's an easy one. That's Nigeria's cultural context and, thus, none of ECUSA's business. Frank Griswold, 2003:
Concerns of sexuality present themselves differently in our various contexts. I believe that as we continue to struggle deeply and honestly with matters of sexuality we will have much to learn from one another and we will become more mutually responsible and interdependent in the Body of Christ. Being in communion, however, does not in any way mean that you as Primate or your Province necessarily agree with the actions taken by the Diocese of New Hampshire or the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
What else did the 1998 Lambeth Conference say about homosexual activity besides the listening thing? Oh yeah:
1 commends to the Church the subsection report on human sexuality;
2 in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage;
3 recognises that there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation. Many of these are members of the Church and are seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God’s transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships. We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ;
4 while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialisation and commercialisation of sex;
5 cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions;
And that part of 1.10 was dead-on-arrival in ECUSA before the ink was dry.
Advent is an Oasis congregation and thus is about as hard-left as they come. But once again, we see why the Anglican situation will not, cannot and should not be salvaged. There are two religions in ECUSA, they cannot be reconciled and calls for "dialogue" and "conversation" are shams. Because to congregations like Advent, there is only one right answer and Episcopalians should keep yammering until conservatives realize what that answer is.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. The ECUSA needs to adopt truth in labeling laws so that the unsuspecting general public knows what its getting.
GLBT wiccans with no belief in the absolute divinity and authority of Christ have transformed the ECUSA into a new-pagan cult.
Just like with every other secret society - the general throng that pays their money thinks all is well while those running the show have their separate agenda and live off the ill-gotten proceeeds.
Pareto's rule works again - 80% pay and pray and the 20% running the show are corrupted GLBT nazis. It' s Madame Blatavsky and the Pink Swastica gang all over again.
If you have numbers for that, I'd be interested. I've heard of two (I think), but that's hardly enough to say "most."
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