Petaluma church severs relationship with Episcopal Church

PETALUMA -- A Petaluma church has voted to sever its relationship with the Episcopal Church, the latest in a growing list of defections prompted by the national church's stance on gays and lesbians.

An "overwhelming majority" of St. John's Episcopal Church believe that the national church has "acted contrary to Holy Scripture and the church's traditional teachings regarding sexual morality," according to a written statement from the church.

Those feelings are largely based on the 2003 ordination of a gay priest -- V. Gene Robinson -- as the bishop of New Hampshire. The decision to ordain Robinson, who lives with his partner, sent tremors throughout the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, of which the 2.3 million member Episcopal Church is a part.

Apparently, they are waiting until the resolution of the Primates meeting before aligning...

"After three years of prayer, study, consultation, and tears by the rector, vestry and congregation over the divisions that have torn our denomination asunder, St. John’s Episcopal Church, in Petaluma, California met in a properly noticed parish meeting on Sunday, December 17, 2006, and by a vote of the vestry and parish, agreed to sever their 150-year relationship with The Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Diocese of Northern California. By the same vote, our name was amended to St. John’s Anglican Church as we will seek to be in communion with an orthodox diocese within the Anglican Communion.

Beginning with the decisions of the August 2003 General Convention of The Episcopal Church, it had become painfully clear that there exists a great theological difference between us and the national church leadership regarding the authority of the Bible and its teachings on human sexuality. With the consent to the election of V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, a divorced man now living in an openly homosexual relationship, the overwhelming majority of our members decided in good conscience that they could no longer continue their financial support of Church structures which they believed to have acted contrary to Holy Scripture and the Church’s traditional teachings regarding sexual morality.

Especially troubling to this parish family has been The Episcopal Church’s continued refusal to heed the appeals of the majority of Anglican leaders worldwide to turn from their current course of action and return to the agreed upon teachings of the Scriptures and the Anglican Communion. The 2006 General Convention of The Episcopal Church not only voted down the resolutions calling for compliance with the teachings of the wider communion, but elected a new Presiding Bishop of the U. S. Province who is a vocal advocate of the revisionist teachings that are dividing our church. Our national leaders have spoken clearly that they intend to walk apart from worldwide Anglicanism.

St. John’s chooses not to join our national church. Instead, we have, from the beginning of the crisis, disassociated ourselves from these revisionist teachings and actions. Now, seeing their unwillingness to repent and change course, St. John’s has left The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Northern California and will be associating with an orthodox province of the Anglican Communion. Under their jurisdiction, we will await the final resolution of the divisions before us, a resolution that our international Anglican leaders will settle, and that we hope will be soon.

St. John’s has stood for orthodoxy and biblical teaching for the last 150 years in our community. We pray that our actions to disassociate from The Episcopal Church will be a witness to the world at large that we, one congregation among hopefully many in Northern California, are still standing for God’s Word and the historic Christian faith.

St. John’s will continue to hold services at the corner of 5th and ‘C’ streets in Petaluma, as we have done at this site since 1858.

Contact Information:

The Rev. Dr. Lu T. Nguyen
For St. John’s Anglican Church"

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.