Posted on 06/26/2006 12:26:36 PM PDT by sionnsar
The Episcopal crack-up begins as one of the largest and wealthiest Episcopal churches has finally had enough:
Saturday, June 24, 2006
My Dear Friends,
I am thankful for the many prayers and expressions of support that you have offered Fran and me during these past two weeks. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church, as difficult as it was, achieved clarity and showed a direction and corporate mission for ECUSA that is unmistakable. I would invite you to read the daily posts I wrote from Columbus found on our website. By God’s grace, the Convention has given your Vestry and me clarity as well.
Over the past three years many laypeople, clergy (including myself) and bishops have worked zealously to communicate the clear choice that was before the General Convention; however, the Episcopal Church has not only broken the faith and apostolic witness but appears determined to continue in that path. We cannot go with them.
Christ Church has been a mission of Jesus Christ for the last 21 years. In those years we have seen a blessing from God and an energy that continues to this day. We are very thankful for this and we also sense a deep call to be right stewards of this mission and ministry. Our commitment to this biblical faith and apostolic ministry is secure thus that we find it necessary to take bold steps to protect our mission and provide for the future of our ministry on our property.
Therefore, at a specially called session on June 23 and 24, the Vestry unanimously agreed to the following statement:
The mission of Christ Church is to make disciples and teach them to obey the commands of Christ. The direction of the leadership of the Episcopal Church is different and we regret their departure from biblical truth and the historic faith of the Anglican Communion.
As the vestry of Christ Church, we declare our intention to disassociate from ECUSA as soon as possible. We are thankful for the shepherd role of the Right Rev. James Stanton and his standing in the Anglican Communion, and we regard him as our apostolic leader.
We assure the clergy, staff and congregation of Christ Church that throughout this process we will continue to worship, teach, pray and study as we have in the past with renewed and vibrant commitment to the mission of Christ Church.
Over the next few weeks we will explore the ways that this separation will be best realized. Both the vestry and I will keep you informed and updated as needed, and you can be assured of our prayer and definite actions. We likewise would request your patience and prayers. But rest assured that our church is Anglican now… and will always be within the great historic family of the Anglican Communion.
You should know that our bishop is aware of our decision and is very supportive. As we move forward together I ask for your prayers, support and blessing on the work ahead of us.
In Christ,
The Rev. Canon David H. Roseberry, Rector
Matt Kennedy points out that Christ Church has a higher average Sunday attendance and more money than the entire Diocese of Nevada.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. I'm an atheist, but have an affinity for the Episcopalians. That church seems very grounded.
Very interesting. This is a huge church. My chuch (small and rather liberal) is in this diocese. I wonder what our Bishop (Stanton) has planned.
Also we have a woman priest. Would becoming Anglican affect that? I would really hate to lose her. She's topnotch and the best priest we've had in 20 years.
That is a very charitable way of phrasing the status of that church.
"That is a very charitable way of phrasing the status of that church."
In my experience with them, Episcopalians seem unpretentious, that's all. Not like the Catholic church.
Interesting choice of words. And also interesting that you extend your own personal experience to somehow express something universal about two very large religious organizations sharing one signal characteristic: they both have local parishes displaying the widest possible variety of interpersonal relations.
I expect that a cathedral church would always tend to show rather high-flown (one could say 'pretentious') characteristics, while the local suburban and rural parishes would be far friendlier and companionable.
Those last two synonyms for 'unpretentious' were what you had in mind, yes?
So you're saying high fallutin' city folk are pretentious and rural people are not? In the church setting, I find that not to be true. It's he who thinks that he has the fast route to heaven that is pretentious, rural or urban.
I thought most atheists were Episcopalian...
(ducks and runs)
I would have used the word 'hypocritical' but I suppose tastes vary in the matter. Also I did contrast cathedral churches with others. I should have said any other local parish, including city ones.
Just trying to get at what 'pretentious' might actually mean, when one is contrasting the entire Episcopal church (the 'non-pretentious' one) with the entire Catholic Church (that would be the 'pretentious' one).
I'm thinking it's tough to draw any single uniform distinction between entire churches. Even certain Episcopal churches have rigorously orthodox beliefs, while certain Catholic ones are quite, flexible, shall we say.
Perhaps this latter dimension was more along the lines you were thinking?
"I'm thinking it's tough to draw any single uniform distinction between entire churches. Even certain Episcopal churches have rigorously orthodox beliefs, while certain Catholic ones are quite, flexible, shall we say.
Perhaps this latter dimension was more along the lines you were thinking?"
Yeah, a little closer. My personal experience with a couple of churches of each denomination has lead me to this opinion. I shouldn't blanket an entire religion, I guess. That'd be like blaming Democrats for ALL of the world's ills.
Will this cause a fight over who owns the church building?
You're right, they don't control near enough of the world nor have done.
Still, on past practice, I don't feel inclined to trust the Democrats whether at prayer or in power. So had I to make the choice, I would take the risk of some Catholic 'pretentiousness' to avoid Episcopalian 'heresy'.
You know, I was at a wedding this weekend and was chatting with some relatives (we're pretty much all practicing Catholics...and there're loads of us, ten kids are the norm) and the situation of the woman Bishop came up.
One of my relatives by marriage (himself a convert from non-specific Protestant) said he was happy about the Bishop because it would lead to mass conversions to Catholicism by orthodox Anglicans.
Now we all know there are several more orthodox places to end up that the ECUSA (ok many), but whether these good folks end up Catholic is splitting hairs at this point.
I for one did say a prayer that this would come to pass when the Shrine I attended yesterday (a very orthodox one at that) skipped the third verse of Alleiua, Sing to Jesus....WHEN THERE ARE ONLY THREE TO BEGIN WITH!!!!!
Anyway, please tell your friends that if they're planning on swimming over, to PLEASE, bring the choir with them!!!
God Bless,
Most of the ones I've met have been Reform Jews.
It doesn't sound like it. +Stanton appears supportive of the move, and could just give the church its deed back.
That could upset some of the other dioceses...
LOL! You could send some kids to next year's Choir Day Camp here (this year's is sold out).
ping
In many respects you're correct ... but that also depends on the particular person/parish, and also the topic in question. The issues in the Episcopal Church are being driven by people whose agendas are not noticeably different from the secular leftist political agenda. Those folks, it must be said, are extremely pretentious when it comes to their pet political projects.
>Also we have a woman priest. Would becoming Anglican affect that? I would really hate to lose her. She's topnotch and the best priest we've had in 20 years.<
How are you and your church different from the ones with homosexual clergy?
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