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The Episcopal Church is Splintering
VirtueOnline-News ^ | 6/29/2006 | Mike McManus

Posted on 06/29/2006 4:29:09 PM PDT by sionnsar

I was an Episcopalian for 25 years, but left the church 19 years ago with a million others. Occasionally I attend Episcopal services because I love its liturgy.

However, the national church's recent General Convention offered two new reasons why many more orthodox Christians will leave. This week former Episcopalians who call themselves Anglicans, held a Requiem Mass at St. Paul's Cathedral in Portland, Maine, "in observance of the death of the Episcopal Church."

Why? First, the church elected as Presiding Bishop for a nine year term, Katherine Jefferts Schori, who has an earned Ph.D. in marine biology, is fluent in Spanish, but has never been a Rector (senior pastor) of a church. In her opening sermon she declared, "Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation. And you and I are His children."

Delegate Rev. Greg Brewer was shocked: "Biblically, this is wrong on several counts: Jesus is not a mother who gives birth: Jesus is the Word through whom creation was spoken, not birthed, into being. Jesus does not 'birth' us. We are reborn by the Spirit and adopted as God's children. Jesus is not a mother who births us; Jesus is a Savior who redeems us."

Schori voted for the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay man to be bishop of New Hampshire and allows and promotes same-sex unions in her Nevada diocese. She told the New York Times "We're not here to argue about matters of sexuality. We are here to build a holy community."

Brewer winced, "As if sexual behavior and holiness before God and one another have nothing to do with each other!"

The second reason many will flee this sinking ship is how the General Convention reacted to "The Windsor Report," issued by a special Commission appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in response to Robinson's election. It asked the Episcopal Church to do three things: stop electing and consecrating non-celibate gay Bishops, discontinue performing same-gender marital blessings and offer a sincere expression of regret for "tearing the fabric" of the Anglican Communion.

One resolution expressing "regret" for consecrating a "bishop living openly in a same-gender union"and asked "to refrain from...(the) consecration of bishops whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church" - was defeated.

A weaker resolution passed that expressed no regret, and simply asked "to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church." It made no mention of same-sex blessings now performed routinely in hundreds of Episcopal churches.

However, the House of Bishops did approve the consecration of a man to be bishop who was twice divorced and married three times, most recently to a divorced woman. Surely his "manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church."

Not to liberal bishops, 20 of whom denounced the vague resolution. Washington DC Bishop John Chane said he would "defy" it.

The vast majority of the world's 72 million Anglicans are not white Anglo-Saxons - but are black conservative Africans who do not ordain women, let alone gay men. They believe the issue is "primarily a moral and theological matter: sexual intimacy is intended by God to be limited to marriage," as Bishop John Howe of Central Florida put it.

"On the other side are those who believe this is a justice issue: homosexual men and women, gays and lesbians, have the same rights as heterosexual persons, and to deny those rights by refusing blessings or access to any Christian ministry, is a total violation of Christ's example and commandment to love others as he loves us."

This week the Archbishop of Canterbury recognized the split. He proposed that a shared theological "covenant" be written that each province would be asked to abide by. Those who did so would retain full status as "constituent churches." Those who did not would be "churches in association" without decision-making status as Anglicans.

"No member church can make significant decisions unilaterally and still expect this to make no difference to how it is regarded in the fellowship."

The Archbishop said his proposal could allow local churches in the United States to separate from the Episcopal Church and join the growing number of orthodox churches affiliating with the Anglican Communion.

Conservatives rejoiced. They argue that the Episcopal Church, which has abandoned the historic faith, should be pushed aside. But the future will be contentious. Most Episcopal bishops are fighting any parish's decision to leave and will not permit them to keep their buildings, though local congregations paid for them.

The Episcopal Church is splintering.


TOPICS: Mainline Protestant
KEYWORDS: ecusa; jeffertsschori; schism

1 posted on 06/29/2006 4:29:11 PM PDT by sionnsar
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To: ahadams2; angeliquemb9; Houston_Texans; impatient; weps4ret; kellynch; Crackhead Willie; meandog; ..
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

2 posted on 06/29/2006 4:29:49 PM PDT by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† |Iran Azadi| SONY: 5yst3m 0wn3d - N0t Y0urs | NYT: The Jihadis' Journal)
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To: sionnsar

or perhaps "has splintered"


3 posted on 06/29/2006 4:32:21 PM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. Slay Pinch)
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To: sionnsar

It's been invaded by the humanists. Only a dry husk remains of it's former glory.

Yet the Spirit can breathe on this army of dry bones...prophecy to the wind!


4 posted on 06/29/2006 4:34:21 PM PDT by ovrtaxt (Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock.)
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To: sionnsar

These openly defiant bishops have forgot one big point. If you truly repent of your sins and refrain from committing them you will be forgiven but if you continue to live in sin you will surely die. Their premise is as faulty as arab terrorists who pray for forgiveness and then still commit the act of terror that they ask forgiveness for. Maybe they'll be neighbors in hell when the final judgement is pronounced.


5 posted on 06/29/2006 4:37:45 PM PDT by MadAnthony1776 ("liberalism" = "do as I say, not as I do")
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To: sionnsar
Most Episcopal bishops are fighting any parish's decision to leave and will not permit them to keep their buildings, though local congregations paid for them.

Suppose a congregation wishes to retain "full status as a constituent church" but its diocese is "in association without decision-making status as Anglicans." Will this distinction have any effect on lawsuits over possession of church buildings?

6 posted on 06/29/2006 5:50:38 PM PDT by omega4412 (Multiculturalism kills. 9/11, Beslan, Madrid, London)
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To: omega4412

I'm not quite clear on what you're suggesting. Remain canonically resident in the diocese, but have an outside association elsewhere more orthodox? To a degree that is done now -- but once the battle really gets going, look for that to be disallowed too.


7 posted on 06/29/2006 9:02:18 PM PDT by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† |Iran Azadi| SONY: 5yst3m 0wn3d - N0t Y0urs | NYT: The Jihadis' Journal)
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To: sionnsar

Suppose an orthodox Episcopal parish wanted to secede from its non-orthodox diocese and affiliate with an orthodox bishop. Currently the non-orthodox diocese is likely to keep the parish property. But suppose the Anglican Communion classifies the orthodox parish as having "full status as a constituent church," and classifies the non-orthodox diocese as "in association without decision-making status." Could the parish then use this classification to argue in court that they are the legitimate owners of the parish property?


8 posted on 06/30/2006 8:20:15 AM PDT by omega4412 (Multiculturalism kills. 9/11, Beslan, Madrid, London)
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To: omega4412

I'm afraid you've taken this to a depth that I cannot answer, not being a lawyer.


9 posted on 06/30/2006 8:30:05 AM PDT by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† |Iran Azadi| SONY: 5yst3m 0wn3d - N0t Y0urs | NYT: The Jihadis' Journal)
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To: sionnsar
I'm afraid you've taken this to a depth that I cannot answer, not being a lawyer.

Don't worry -- at FR a lawyer or canon lawyer will probably come along and explain it to both of us! As I understand it from earlier posts, in church disputes the US courts (usually) defer to the rules of a hierarchical church, to minimize entanglement of secular courts in religious disputes. So the question is, will the US courts take into account the rules of the worldwide Anglican Communion, or just the rules of the US Episcopal Church?

10 posted on 06/30/2006 8:51:27 AM PDT by omega4412 (Multiculturalism kills. 9/11, Beslan, Madrid, London)
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To: omega4412

Well, there are really no "rules" the wwAC wields over TEC, so TEC's rules would win out. The *only* element that could be played here is TEC's constitution which *defines* TEC as a member of the wwAC. I have no idea whether that would be used to any effect in a court of law.


11 posted on 06/30/2006 9:27:33 AM PDT by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† |Iran Azadi| SONY: 5yst3m 0wn3d - N0t Y0urs | NYT: The Jihadis' Journal)
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That's part of the Protestant culture. Thousands of denominations, and tens of thousands of sub-denominations. Constantly creating new "true churches" that real "restorations" of the "First Century Christianity."
12 posted on 06/30/2006 9:30:51 AM PDT by george wythe
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To: sionnsar

It is obvious that you're an insider and I'm an outsider -- you are far more acronymble than I!


13 posted on 06/30/2006 9:41:56 AM PDT by omega4412 (Multiculturalism kills. 9/11, Beslan, Madrid, London)
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To: omega4412
It is obvious that you're an insider and I'm an outsider -- you are far more acronymble than I!

LOL! (oops)

14 posted on 06/30/2006 1:11:43 PM PDT by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† |Iran Azadi| SONY: 5yst3m 0wn3d - N0t Y0urs | NYT: The Jihadis' Journal)
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