Posted on 01/05/2007 6:30:35 PM PST by sionnsar
I mentioned some time back that my church-- The Falls Church in Falls Church, Va.-- was breaking away from other Episcopal Churches in what amounts to a pretty big shake-up for the Anglican Church.
I'm not a member, but I attend regularly, along with about 2,500 other worshippers, including Alberto Gonzales, Fred Barnes, and Porter Goss. It's a conservative, Bible-based church that thinks Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life," and doesn't cotton to the "evolving" teachings of the Episcopal Church that aren't so sure about that whole Jesus thing, which is the entire basis of our faith.
It is a lovely church that welcomes people of all denominations, or no denomination in my case. It is a church that sends folks to build houses in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, that recently broke ground on a community building in urban, Southeast D.C. for ministry there, that brings children from other countries to America for complex cardiac surgeries they can't get at home, that sends missionaries beyond its walls, and that serves thousands of people within them. In short, it's a regular American church.
But how does the Washington Post characterize it? First paragraph:
Parishioners say it happens quietly, unobtrusively: As the sick make their way to the altar, some worshipers begin speaking in tongues. Occasionally, one is "arrested in the spirit," falling unconscious into the arms of a fellow congregant.
Now, I have seen people speak in tongues. I've seen it in Pentecostal services, and in non-denominational services in Georgia, when I was in school there. It happens. No problem with it. I was raised in the South. People love the Lord in many different ways. But I have been going to The Falls Church regularly for over a year, and I have NEVER, EVER, ONCE seen anything even remotely close to anyone speaking in tongues in that congregation.
When I read the lede, I had to check to make sure he was talking about my church, so far off was it from my own experiences. If anything, the congregation at The Falls Church is achingly normal, with its merino wool V-neck sweaters, and Vera Bradley diaper bags, and 2.5 children per family-- shaggy-haired, flip-flopped teenaged boys and dirty-blonde pre-teen girls flipping their first sets of highlights.
But noooo, in the Washington Post, the church is something else indeed (emphasis mine):
But the votes appear less sudden or surprising when one realizes that for more than 30 years, Truro and The Falls Church have been part of a "charismatic revival" within mainline Protestantism, said the Rev. Robert W. Prichard, professor of Christianity in America at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.
Charismatic, in this case, refers to an ecstatic style of worship that includes speaking in tongues, a stream of unintelligible syllables signifying that the Holy Spirit has entered the worshiper. It is a hallmark of the fast-growing Pentecostal movement but unusual for Episcopalians, who are so thoroughly associated with solemnity and tradition that they are sometimes referred to teasingly as "the frozen chosen."
Yeah, that's us! Listen, I'm not saying it doesn't happen in my church sometimes, but I have NEVER, EVER seen it or even a hint of it, which makes me think this is a very unfair characterization. In my experience, we sing praise songs instead of straight-up hymns. We have a drum set in the sanctuary. Sometimes people raise their hands toward the ceiling while singing. Cuuhhhrazzy stuff, huh?
But to the WaPo writer--conservative congregation breaking off from the wise and kind liberals? Must be a bunch of backwoods, shine-swillin', snake-handlers, right Cletus???
Well, looky here:
Parishioners say the practice continues today in both congregations, though not at Sunday morning services. Some members have never seen it.
Coulda used that in the lede or near it for some context, no? But that would have ruined such a neat picture! Ooh, it gets better:
Unlike many Episcopal churches nationally, neither Truro nor The Falls Church was active in supporting the civil rights movement or in protesting the Vietnam War.
Snake-handling bigots and war-mongers! Is there anyone out there who thinks that little bit of "context" wasn't just a cheap shot? This church full of racists, by the way, is breaking away to join the lily-white Anglican province of Nigeria.
The last two paragraphs finally get down to the real disagreement between the conservative Episcopals and the Episcopal Church:
Many say the rift involves something deeper -- whether the Bible is the word of God, Jesus is the only way to heaven and tolerance is more important than truth. When he was a newly ordained priest almost 20 years ago, Wright said, he talked with several other priests about how to respond to a teenager who asked, "Do you really believe in the Resurrection of Jesus?"
"The rest of the priests agreed that it was a sticky question, and they felt that way because they didn't believe in it, but they didn't want to say so," he said. "That's where the Episcopal Church has been for the last 20 years. It's not where we are."
Yeah, we believe in Jesus. It is Christ that makes us Christians, and being a part of a larger organization that does not believe that, and that may someday keep my church from preaching that, does not serve Him. So, we break away.
The Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Oh, and the snakes and the tongues. Don't forget those.
I'm gonna e-mail this guy and find out if he got directions to the right church.
Update: My commenter Don makes a great catch. The writers of this article refer to the Episcopalians as the "frozen chosen," but that's a common nickname for Presbyterians.
I wrote an e-mail to the WaPo writers:
Dear Mr. Cooperman and Ms. Salmon,
I'm a blogger who also happens to attend The Falls Church. Your characterization of it as primarily "charismatic" and tongue-speaking based on a visit to the healing service was completely misleading. I've been attending the church for over a year, and have never seen anything even approaching tongue-speaking or "charismatic" worship.
I've been to Pentecostal services; I've seen people speaking in tongues. I know charismatic. To insinuate that The Falls Church is a church of that ilk is silly and inaccurate.
Which services did you attend, and how many, before you wrote this story? I imagine most people who've ever attended The Falls Church would quarrel with your characterization of it.
Also, the "frozen chosen" is a common nickname for Presbyterians, not Episcopalians.
I hope to hear back from you about how you came to characterize the church this way. Thanks for your time.
--Mary Katharine Ham
http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/f580f0f3-2c72-4ec2-8345-f6c08ec41516
My husband OTOH is clear through aboriginal Irish on his mother's side. I met his grandpa when we were first dating - and a more Central Casting Irishman of the coal-heaving variety you would never meet. Great big huge man, even in his 80s, fair where the sun hadn't burned him red, jolly twinkling gray eyes (that he passed on to his grandson and to my daughter).
When my daughter was in Spain, everybody thought she was Irish, and when she said she was American they all exclaimed, "No! No! Impossible!" She could walk down a road in County Mayo barefoot and with a shawl on her head, and blend right in. She's more Irish than either one of us, got it from both sides.
We have a regular on the Undead Thread who lives in Mayo. It's very scenic, in a drippy way.
. . . if you're properly equipped, it's not bad. Sturdy waterproof shoes and a good rain jacket with vent zips and a hood!
Your dog has spoken to you then? *\;-)
Rather more seriously, my father (a now former Episcopal minister) has been a Charismatic since sometime in the 70s. Per AnAmericanMother's observation, he is definitely well out on the Evangelical wing of the church, which is where I was raised.
Dad accepts that I am now out on the Anglo-Catholic wing, though I think that saddens him a bit, even more so that I got there by leaving ECUSA. I wish I could show him the joy and beauty of our worship (he has even celebrated in our church as a supply priest, by dispensation of our bishop), but I also think that maybe that wish goes in both directions.
I am not a Charismatic and cannot envision being so (for all I've spent a couple of summer camps with many of same), but as an heir of the Elizabethan Compromise I'm not at all ready to pronounce anathema on them either.
AAM, may I say this in defense of AM1176? We don't know why she quoted that source: I saw it as a reach into enemy territory/propaganda. (Or maybe I misread her post...?)
Strange coincidence department - at that time her church (St. Dunstan's) was so small that it didn't have a building of its own. They set up a folding lunchroom table in the old gymnasium at the local Catholic parish, draped a tablecloth over it, and had their service there. The gymnasium was the weirdest building I ever saw -- it was round and the roof went almost down to the ground, it looked like a flying saucer and was known locally as "The Great Pumpkin". It was wrecked out when they built a real church, to make room for a parking lot and one of the classroom buildings of the parish school.
And now we are parishioners at that same Catholic parish. Go figure.
I stand in the dock, convicted. Decades of being a bagpiper and years of Scottish Gaelic classes have lent me a certain persuasion to things Gaelic. (My car's license plate frame is in Gaelic; at stoplights I've become really good at reading lips in the rear-view mirror, usually: "What does that say/mean"? - and many other variations on the theme.)
Gaelic orthography is substantially simpler than English, with VERY few exceptions; the problem is that the Gaelic rules are unknown to non-Gaelic speakers. Anglophones look at the proliferation of letters in Gaelic words without understanding that these "extra" letters tell you exactly how to pronounce the word.
English is a very expressive language. And so is Gaelic (calling in my multi-polyglot wife, LibreOuMort, on this!), though in ways hard to express to one who hasn't encountered it.
Paste & copy usually works: sionnsar
I wouldn't go THERE for an honest description of the controversy, which is what I thought we were trying to discuss . . .
. . . but, you could be right.
And I will say this, AM1776 probably just meant that as a passing comment . . . and had no idea that she was throwing a rock at a bunch of folks who had had rocks thrown at them since at least 2003 and were a bit sore and bruised . . . as Kipling said in one of his short stories, not knowing what djinns she should evoke.
I have been assured by other Freepers, that you were not trying to insult my sister, I am sorry if I took it wrong.
I really do not like to get into theological discussions with anyone, and especially here on Free Republic. AS I said, I am a Methodist, and raised a Southern Baptist.
I know what is going on within your Church is much more personal to you, than to me. With that said. Maybe I could make a joke about Southern Baptist, which I do know a lot about.
The Joke:
It seems that a Southern Baptist was stranded on an island out in the South Pacific by himself, for years before anyone found him. When they found him, they noticed he had built three huts. The Rescures asked the Stranded Southern Baptist what the three huts were for.
The Stranded Baptist, pointed to the first hut and said that is my Home, and then he pointed to the Second hut and said that is my Church.
The Rescurer said, well what is that third hut for? The Southern Baptist said that is my Old Church.
And concerning the use of the "gay City" it was the first resource I found, when I used the search engine.
Yes, I didn't know.
It's more than divisive. Jesus said "I bring the sword" and he means for his church to stand before the gates of hell.
St Michael, the patron St. of soldiers has no problem with the sword.
Turn the other cheek doesn't imply - submit to Satan or deny christ.
The liberal protestants have twisted the truth by semantics and deny the divinity of Christ, his bodily resurrection and the Mysterium Tremendum of Christinaity as a whole.
AM1776, apology is accepted and issue is buried. My error (as I have been advised "backchannel", i.e. by my my wife and others) was in making a grammatical jest -- engineers and grammar can be dangerous combination. I am sorry.
Your post was funny -- I've heard an Anglican variation of it, though I don't recall the particulars. Maybe someone can post it here... (and ping me, please?).
If your sister has any questions about matters Episcopalian/Anglican, do aim her in my direction and I'll do what I can! I am no expert, but I learned quite a bit from my ping list predecessor Arlin Adams, RIP, and have many references.
The revisionist bishops are now threatening to take away church property from people whose great-grandparents are buried in the cemetery, and defrocking priests for no reason other than that they refuse to agree that "the Holy Spirit is doing a new thing."
We got out in 2003 -- fortunately all our folks are buried in a family cemetery and not anywhere near our former church.
I know all about engineers, I am married to one. My error was in not reading close enough and scanning over in a hurry.
You know how it is with family, it is alright to fight among yourselves, but let someone else come into the fray, and watch out.
Reading about the squalor and superstition of India, Pakistan and South Asia brought me to the realization that Christianity is an umbrella formed by millions of souls. The strength and effectiveness of that umbrella is due to the commitment of each soul - each link in the chain. Each soul either adds or subtracts from the efficacy of the body of christ.
Ministers and churchmen who deny the divinity, and the ressurection of christ are like poisoned water wells that pollute and destroy an entire community. Tolerance for those who harm to the christian community - even through ignorance - should be abandoned. period.
The scary thing is that the persecution is now coming from WITHIN.
I am sorry, I know that is disappointing to you. I have had some disappointments in Church leadership before.
I have to say, I just got wind of this problem within your church during the Holidays, and my sister was telling me about it, and we were also having some wine, and Christmas Treats, so I might of just missed a few details. However my sister did not seem too Bruised, but she did mention her church was now associated with a Church in Africa. Whatever that means.
Then it was brought to my attention again with the Gerald Ford service at the National Cathedral.
I hope you find the right church for you, I like tradition in Church too. Don't care too much for the fancy stuff.
We were "high church" - as my dad says, up in the rafters with the bats - so we swam the Tiber and are now Catholics.
It's amazing to me how little difference there is in theology between an Ultramontane Piskie and a Catholic. When we sat down with our current rector (who is everybody's idea of a Faithful Irish Priest with No Nonsense About Him), the only points of difference were the validity of Anglican Orders and the supremacy of the Pope. As my husband told Monsignor, "we can deal."
My 18 year old daughter still marvels occasionally at how little has changed.
That is good to know, they seemed happy with the change. God Bless! Glad we got this all straightened out. Freepers are a feisty lot.
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.