Posted on 06/24/2006 2:23:36 PM PDT by GMMAC
New bishop has feeble following
By MICHAEL COREN
Toronto Sun
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Pass another cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich, please. Better still, make it a sherry because, darling, the Anglicans are in a spin.
Last week the U.S. Episcopalian Church, the American equivalent of Canada's Anglicans or the Church of England, chose Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the new leader of its 2.3-million-member denomination.
The lady bishop is an oceanographer by training and thinks that, "the great message of Jesus is to include the excluded."
Golly, who knew? I thought the great message of Jesus might have been what Jesus said was the great message of Jesus. Something along the lines of loving God and our neighbours, but also hating sin and sticking hard and fast to moral laws and godly purity.
Asked if homosexuality was a sin, the good lady replied that she didn't think so.
"I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us."
As for all those references to sexual sin and God's detestation for homosexuality in that Bible thing that some people read, the bish said that it was written "in a different historical context by people asking different questions."
Oh I see. Different time, different people. So turning the other cheek, helping the poor and loving those who are hard to love don't apply any longer because we now ask different questions.
Poor Bishop Schori, she really is rather out of her depth. Which is ironic, in that she's an oceanographer.
Thing is, none of it really matters. Her church boasts 2.3 million members but the vast majority of them are over the age of 60 and the denomination is in a terrifying decline.
The diocese of Newark for example, the centre of liberal Protestant Christianity in America, has lost 46% of its members since 1972. Put simply, it will cease to exist within a generation.
The numbers in Canada for the Anglicans are similarly disastrous. Between 1961 and 2001, the church lost 53% of its members, slimming down from 1.36 million to a mere 642,000.
In the period between 1981 and 1991, Anglican church membership decreased by 13%. Between 1991 and 2001, the numbers dropped by more than 20%. In other words, 13,000 people are leaving every year.
It will virtually disappear within the lifetime of most people reading this column. The same is true of every mainline Protestant denomination, including the Presbyterians and the United Church. Overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly old and, let's be clear here, overwhelmingly liberal.
Theirs is a liberalism that says that the Bible has to be edited rather than followed, that we can ordain homosexuals and that sin is whatever someone like Michael Moore says it is.
In case you believe that all churches are in such trouble, there are 60 million evangelicals in the U.S. -- and the numbers grow each year. There is similar success for such churches in Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Roman Catholicism lost people in the more liberal 1960s and '70s, but the numbers are climbing exponentially because of Pope John Paul and a newly empowered orthodoxy.
The causes of the failure are obvious, but the solutions would require people to put Christianity before fashionable politics. Not going to happen.
Better make that sherry a double.
Yes, but why is this any different than still voting RAT because your pappy did or your great-pappy was a truman democrat? RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
Whole books have been written about the decline of liberal protestantism which strain to say as much as this brief observation.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (typically 3-9 pings/day).
This list is pinged by sionnsar, Huber and newheart.
Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com
More Anglican articles here.
Humor: The Anglican Blue (by Huber)
Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15
Said well, and well said.
that's the key thing the "inclusioners" fail to get, though they often say it - the things that challenge us are often sins, and our obligation is to overcome them - or at least make the sincere effort. We cannot redefine the teachings of Jesus to avoid the effort.
Bears repeating!
Michael Coren ping.
GLENDOWER
Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command The devil.HOTSPUR
And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil By telling truth: tell truth and shame the devil. If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither, And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence. O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!MORTIMER
Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat
Very sad. But God will not be mocked and twisted to suit the latest fashions.
New bishop has feeble faith.
LOLOLOL! You owe me a new keyboard.
It's a good church. I know, as an ex-episcopalian, plenty of pious, well-meaning, good-hearted people who believe in God and believe in Jesus, and are attracted to the easy grace, tradition, beauty, and style of Anglicanism.
The national church is an embarrassment and it's destroying the denomination. Obviously there must be plenty of sick, dysfunctional parishes that are supporting the deconstruction. In Mass and Cali, I would guess.
I think that it's got to play out. Without being enabled by those conservatives within that obviously don't have the votes any more to prevent the decay. It will crash, and out of the rubble that which is worth preserving will be preserved. Like many doddering liberal institutions today.
Here's Cal Thomas' take:
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_3977633
Oh, there was plenty of deconstructing going in right here in the middle of the Bible belt. All three dioceses in North Carolina are deeply revisionists.
What a great post name for this thread.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.