Posted on 04/29/2013 7:09:21 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
That is what is happening to the female religious orders in the US. Many of them half a century ago threw out their habits and became social service organizations and threw out theology at the same time so that they could help girls get safe abortions etc., Those orders now send out incessant requests for donations to support their retired members because there are few young members now to take care of the elderly ones. The orders that maintained tradition, especially the contemplatives are full of new blood. Young women do not take vows to do social work. They go to work for the government for that.
In my parish there are nuns from two different orders represented; One is contemplative and the sisters are under 30 and dress like nuns. The other is a modernist order. Those sisters are senior citizens and dress in "civvies" and are not much concerned with religious orthodoxy or intensity. They are essentially clerks for the parish, in sinecures of a sort.
? and again- ?
Rev. Ian Markham on Anglican Ordinariate: “Not Cricket.”
The goal of the Ordinariate was to avoid shredding up Anglican culture.
Amen!
Attended an Episcopal Church in early 70’s and found them tied into structure of service and embracing liberal thought. Very little preaching on the Bible. Have since attended independent Bible Churches as they are more concerned with the “Word of God” than appeasing current popular trends.
(KJV) Matthew 7:
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
In my childhood, the Methodist Episcopal church was very conservative and frowned on any drinking at any time, and forbade dancing, card playing or movies on Sunday. Our family went to church a minimum of three times a week. All that started to change with the merger with United Church of Christ into the present United Methodist Church. The classic episcopal liturgy, the confessions, the sense of mystery and reverence all faded away, to be replaced by pop culture.
The first time I took an in-depth theology class in the 90s, I got up and left the UMC. It became very clear that the Bible was pretty much radioactive for most of the so-called "preaching" and teaching I had encountered in Methodism since around 1968 or so; and I was stuck on stupid there because we were the fifth generation of family in that church.
I remember talking one time in my early adulthood with our much beloved family pastor, the one who had officiated at my parents' wedding; and he was expressing amazement that his roommate in seminary "would read a Bible verse fifty or sixty times before sitting down to write a sermon -- fifty, sixty times!" He just couldn't understand why anyone would do that. I wanted to ask him "Who is this guy, and where is his church?" but family ties kept me silent. Silent no more. Now I say to anyone who will listen,
"Luther and Wesley are spinning in their graves!"
Hi, Prov, I remember meeting you at Mologne House, Walter Reed; and remember you as a pro-life Christian.
I read your post with interest, having been so offended by my last ten pastors before I actually left the UMC either being gay and lying about it, or being very pro-gay and promoting the involvement of obviously gay leaders with the children's ministries. This is in the northeast, Philadelphia and Baltimore conferences. I have not experienced this degree of heresy in the UMC when I visit family in other regions. I am so glad to hear what you wrote.
This ought to be renamed “the Catholic-bashing thread” .
Reminds me of a former co-worker,claimed to be an annoited Baptist minister,so abrasive and so full of himself, that he couldn’t find a church to hire him.He also had a whole bunch of very unlikely personal experiences to relate,and purposely loaded up on debt before declaring bankruptcy.He had a real passion for condemning Catholics.
Amazing all the hatred that is preached “in God’s name”.
Catholics worship God the Father, not God the Mother.
Oh! Wait!
You must be referring to our worship of Mary.
Which we don't do.
Try again.
Anyone know what happened with the building, grounds, and $$$..did TEC try to grab it...that’s been the big issue, and problem, with other parishes that have left, or attempted to, over the years..the so-called Dennis canon..
“He had a real passion for condemning Catholics”
Was his last name Swaggart? LOL.
In VA, they get to keep their property (at least last I heard). Here (GA), they do not.
But the idea of grabbing the property may not be such a good one in the long run. With the exception of churches that happen to sit on extremely valuable real estate (as in downtown Savannah and Atlanta), what that means in reality is that the diocese is taking on responsibility for buildings that are usually old, high-maintenance (those slate roofs and stonework), and not easily liquidated to cash. With declining membership and declining income, that's a herd of white elephants many bishops may come to wish they had never stolen.
Your Christian example is inspiring.
The old (1928) BCP was revised in the 70s and "brought up to date". The new language was essentially indistinguishable from what Fr. Z calls "the Lame Duck Translation", the execrable mis-translation of the Catholic Mass that was also introduced in the 70s.
The Catholics learned from their mistake and have instituted a new re-translation that is not as impressive from a language standpoint as the '28 BCP, but is a marked improvement on the Lame Duck and is theologically sound. TEC has refused to learn - it did keep much of the old language as a "separate but equal" "Rite I" but it is not much used and was basically a sop for the old-line Piskies. Of course, even the '28 BCP had some theological problems, which those of us who were "High Churchers" resolutely ignored for years.
That cognitive dissonance has enhanced the appeal of the Ordinariate to the High Church wing of TEC. Unless, of course, they're completely in the tank on the political issues (see "Smoky Mary's" in NYC).
I don't tell you what you believe -- please don't presume to tell me what I believe.
We were received into the Catholic Church after much prayerful study and conversation with various Anglican groups and Catholic parishes. Your idea that there is any "goddess worship" going on is unfounded and really borders on silliness.
I know a couple of REAL goddess worshippers (i.e. Wiccans, poor deluded souls) and the Blessed Mother is no doubt shocked at their goings-on. She rejects worship (although we give her great honor as God's mother) and in every way points us towards her Son. "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it."
You are being far to kind to the PB of TEC, and the idiots who advise her...they've spent millions on litigation...but they have to grab the parishes, and then let them fall in disrepair and disuse....they can't allow vibrant churches t o secede..and thrive....they "cure" the patient by killing him...
The truth is un-Christian? That cannot be so.
I stand with Charles Spurgeon on Antichrist:
“It is the bounden duty of every Christian to pray against Antichrist, and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the popery in the Church of Rome there is nothing in the world that can be called by that name. If there were to be issued a hue and cry for Antichrist, we should certainly take up this church on suspicion, and it would certainly not be let loose again, for it so exactly answers the description.”
“Popery is contrary to Christ’s Gospel, and is the Antichrist, and we ought to pray against it. It should be the daily prayer of every believer that Antichrist might be hurled like a millstone into the flood and for Christ, because it wounds Christ, because it robs Christ of His glory, because it puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement, and lifts a piece of bread into the place of the Saviour, and a few drops of water into the place of the Holy Ghost, and puts a mere fallible man like ourselves up as the vicar of Christ on earth; if we pray against it, because it is against Him, we shall love the persons though we hate their errors: we shall love their souls though we loath and detest their dogmas, and so the breath of our prayers will be sweetened, because we turn our faces towards Christ when we pray.”
Huh? Maybe the "Episcopal bashing thread by Catholics". Not sure I see any Catholic bashing.
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.