Posted on 05/23/2007 8:41:01 PM PDT by fgoodwin
Episcopal break up?
http://www.catholic.org/views/views_news.php?id=24184
5/23/2007
Our Sunday Visitor
One could argue that the Episcopal Church in the United States has been on the brink of disaster for years. Thomas Reeves, in his book The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Christianity, quoted an observation made about the Episcopal Church in 1994 that seems no less true today:
The Episcopal Church is an institution in free fall. We have nothing to hold on to, no shared belief, no common assumptions, no agreed bottom line, no accepted definition of what an Episcopalian is or believes.
The Episcopal Church has been divided by a series of pronouncements and decisions that, in the words of Episcopal Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, are outside the boundaries of traditional Christian doctrine.
For Bishop Duncan, the ordination of a practicing homosexual as a bishop in 2003 was the dramatic final step that crossed that boundary, but critics say the struggle is ultimately over the authority of scripture, the role of Christ in salvation and the authority of a national church to reject traditional church teaching.
For the progressive Episcopalians who now control the levers of power in the U.S. church, scripture and tradition are being radically reinterpreted to justify policies that are at odds with mainstream Christian belief. Using their authority within the church, they have mandated changes that are now pushing the worldwide Anglican Communion to the brink of schism.
An ultimatum to the Episcopal Church by the leaders of the Anglican Communion have asked the Americans to stop promoting homosexuality by Sept. 30 of this year or face expulsion from the Communion.
A Catholic bystander to the crack up in the Episcopal Church may conclude that, but for the grace of God, a strong papacy and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, our fate might not have been much different. Despite varied and potentially divisive nationalist and cultural movements within the Catholic Church, however, its ability to both preserve its teachings while responding in new and creative ways to the needs of each new age remains the heart of its strength today.
The battles that have consumed our church for the past 40 years have been profound. Strong papal leadership, the Second Vatican Council and many grassroots renewal movements have helped us to avoid the worst temptations of our age.
While it is undeniable that we face grave challenges, Catholics can take heart our church continues to hold true to the teachings of Christ that it has safeguarded for two millennia.
Yet, even as we remain vigilant in our own house, we have reason to support Episcopal efforts to hold fast to these same traditions and teachings. Bishop Duncan recounts a message he received from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 2003: We are watching you, our brothers, you who are standing against these innovations are standing with us.
Pope John XXIII said that what separates us as believers in Christ is much less than what unites us. In the years since he made that statement, the gap has grown wider, in the words of Pope John Paul II. Every pope since Vatican II has reaffirmed a commitment to ecumenism, aware that our divisions are contrary to Christs prayer that they may all be one.
It remains our prayer that all the Christian churches renew and reform themselves so as to live more fully the gospel of Christ.
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Thanx
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There’s a quaint Anglican Catholic church down the street from me that used to be Episcopal before its parishioners took it and it’s art lock, stock and barrel...and won in court.
Maybe you need to read your Bible, hierarchy is in there. And maybe you also need to read some church history. Heresy comes and goes but the Church survives.
Oh and I am also in the South, and I DO READ THE BIBLE DAILY and often wonder about those Baptist Churches on every cvorner. 1st Baptist, 2nd Baptist west side Baptist, they split over something. Tidy your own house before you look into others.
Not necessarily true at all...Independent Baptist churches don't focus much on 'church'...They have their eyes on Jesus and it might surprise you how much they agree with each other while not having a hierarchy to rule over them...Except for the word of God, that is...
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