Posted on 12/09/2005 7:57:12 PM PST by Dane
NEWS Episcopalians face up to decline
Friday, December 9, 2005
By JOHN CHADWICK STAFF WRITER
The Episcopal Diocese of Newark, for years the epitome of liberal Protestant Christianity in America, acknowledged Thursday in an unusually candid report that it has suffered a steep slide in membership and needs a bishop who can revitalize its struggling parishes.
The diocese, which covers seven northern New Jersey counties including Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Morris, has lost nearly 24,000 congregants, or 46 percent of its membership, since 1972. That's nearly three times the average decline in the Episcopal Church nationwide, the report said.
"Many congregations are struggling," the report said. "A significant number have been incurring operating deficits, and some are in fear for their very existence."
The 47-page profile, titled "Signs of Grace," aims, in part, to serve as a guidepost for clergy and lay people involved in the search to replace Bishop John P. Croneberger, who will retire at the beginning of 2007.
(Excerpt) Read more at northjersey.com ...
You are very lucky. Often I long to live in Christian community.
We converted to Catholicism and have been extremely happy. Good solid Scriptural preaching, faithful priests, hard-working parishioners, and best of all GOOD MUSIC. We have a choirmaster who has a doctorate from Juilliard and a passion for Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony, and he LOVES the old English composers like Byrd, Tallis, Farrant, etc. He's even been known to throw in a ringer in the form of modern English composers like Howells. So we got rid of the heresy and kept the good English music.
One additional point, leaving aside all the obvious theological issues in the Diocese. I've attended several weddings in various churches in the diocese over the past 5 years..and while the numbers cited..an average of 250 parishioners per church would seem to be a basis for a viable parish..these churches are all OLD and HUGE..they were built in a time of much larger parishes, and they probably need a minimum of 700 in a parish to sustain them, let alone make the necessary repairs..It's comparable, if you will, to a 80 year old widow, still living alone in the 14 room Victorian house where she and her late husband raised their 8 kids..
If you want on/off the ping list let me and little jeremiah know.
I wish I had heard Medved's interview with Spong. I hope he eviscerated him. Sometimes I think Medved is more Christian than he is Jewish.
Bp. Spong once wrote that "a God that would sacrifice his own son to satisfy his offended sense of justice is no God for our generation". I almost stroked out when I read that. If I remember correctly, it comes from his book, "The Easter Moment", although it might come from another of his heretical books. It has been 12 years since I read that.
How about THIS?:
This is not a joke nor an overstatement. In all truth and seriousness, leaders of the Episcopal Church USA are promoting pagan rites to pagan deities. And not just any new pagan deities: The Episcopal Church USA, though its Office of Women's Ministries, is actually promoting the worship of idols specifically condemned in Scripture.
"A Women's Eucharist: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine" is taken almost completely (without attribution) from a rite from Tuatha de Brighid, "a Clan of modern Druids … who believe in the interconnectedness of all faiths." But who cares where it's from? Look at what it says. Here's how it begins.
We gather around a low table, covered with a woven cloth or shawl. A candle, a bowl or vase of flowers, a large shallow bowl filled with salted water, a chalice of sweet red wine, a cup of milk mixed with honey, and a plate of raisin cakes are placed on the table. You might be wondering: What's with the raisin cakes? Is it just Communion wafers with raisins? No.
The plate of raisin cakes is raised and a woman says, "Mother God, our ancient sisters called you Queen of Heaven and baked these cakes in your honor in defiance of their brothers and husbands who would not see your feminine face. We offer you these cakes, made with our own hands; filled with the grain of life—scattered and gathered into one loaf, then broken and shared among many. We offer these cakes and enjoy them too. They are rich with the sweetness of fruit, fertile with the ripeness of grain, sweetened with the power of love. May we also be signs of your love and abundance." The plate is passed and each woman takes and eats a cake.
I read that they also have a rite for childbirth, and for girls reaching puberty.
I heard that Episcopalians were bad a chess, cause they couldn't distinguish their Bishops from their Queens.
They have had married priests for 500 years. Married life and libertinism do not go hand in hand. It's the homos that have ruined it. The Catholics have been blessed with great leadership that has refused to let the doctrines be tampered with. With God's help we may weather the storm of liberal homosexism. The Episcopal church is dead. I am a cradle Episcopalian.
If you didn't want to get started, why did you bring it up in the first place?
I miss the music too. I like the music we do in my Catholic choir, which unfortunately is probably rare, but I miss those good old 4 part harmony Episcopal hymns. We just flat don't do them, or if we do it's unison. But the anthems are good, very good at times.
I believe that John Paul's mission was to call the young people. And in the process showed that they wanted, by the millions, to be part of REAL Christianity.
I believe Benedict's mission may be to reveal the hunger for the ancient orthodox Catholicism, which is ultimately a symbol of the ancient undying morals that seem so utterly lost today.
And I should say that together John Paul and Benedict (by the Power of the Holy Spirit) have called me, and I've answered the call to leave the Episcopal Church behind and join the Church that isn't afraid to dream big dreams, and still has this out-of-date notion that it can save the world through traditional means and values. Not that there aren't apostates a'plenty, but the doctrine doesn't bend in the wind.
"and needs a bishop who can revitalize its struggling parishes."
Maybe they should name another gay one.
There's a joke about the last two conservative episcopalians are sitting in the pew, and the servers carry in a golden buddha in the procession and place it on the altar, and they cense it with smoke, and start bowing down to it and the one turns to the other and says "OK, that's it, one more thing like this and I'm out of here."
He prefers a world in which there is no homo/hetero but the strong penetrates the weak, dominates the weak, kills and tortures the weak. A lawless world in which the sacred groves and high places supplant the morality we've spent so many centuries to develop. My God what an evil generation this is.
Fiorenza loves those illegals though... sorry, off topic, but that's something that's causing me a great deal of cognitive dissonance in the Catholic Church.
I was still waffling when Rector announced he was getting divorced. Sealed the deal.
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.