Posted on 10/22/2006 2:04:14 PM PDT by Peanut Gallery
As many as a third of this weekend’s convention delegates, based on voice votes, seemed to be willing to walk away from the denomination now. But Bishop Stanton asked his more conservative churches to stay with the diocese in spite of the national church.
“Separation is never a strategy,” he said in a speech. “Those who depart the church are not, I think, fulfilling Christ’s call but are fulfilling the expectations the world has about the church, that we cannot really get along,” he said.
Bishop Stanton is a leader in the conservative Anglican Communion Network and shares the opinions of many of his conservative members. But he wasn’t just making a rhetorical point about unity.
The largest church in the diocese – one of the largest in the denomination – pulled out last month. Christ Church of Plano may be followed by St. Matthias of Dallas, which sent a note but no representatives to the weekend convention.
After the convention, the bishop said his call for church unity would apply to the denomination only if it follows “the teachings of the apostles.”
Whether that’s happening is what created the rift in the Episcopal Church – and is roiling other denominations including the Methodists, Presbyterians and even the Southern Baptist Convention. In the conservative-led SBC, its leaders are battling over whether a “private prayer language” – commonly known as speaking in tongues – is in accord with the Bible.
Those battles may make the local survey particularly interesting. It’s an unusually detailed snapshot taken by a market research company whose owner is a local Episcopalian.
According to the survey, about three-quarters of the local leaders said the national denomination did not reflect their personal convictions or their Christian beliefs. About 70 percent disagreed with the right granted by the national body for the ordination of “people living in homosexual unions” or for local clergy to perform same-sex marriages.
Read it all.
Yes, that has been the death of Anglicanism.
One friend of mine said it was because it was the Church of the Status Quo. Once America became radical in the 1960's, the clergy followed.
Bishop James Pike was a piece of work.
That's 75% Christian, 25% Apostate.
The Anglican church exists because Henry VIII wanted to get rid of Katherine of Aragon, his first wife.
The Eastern and Western Churches broke apart in the 11th century because linguistic differences and arguments about the authority of the Pope and the insertion of the filioque clause into the Nicene Creed.
Sheep, over here on the right; goats, to the left.
Paging Mr. Atkinson...
St. Matthias in Dallas should become Anglican Use Roman Catholic. They have a lovely Mary Garden, and the people are extremely devoted to the Blessed Mother.
Ask your pastor or elders if the local church withholds its 'per capita'. If the answer is yes, you can probably safely continue to give at your old levels. If the answer is no, you shouldn't give them a cent, tell them why, and give directly to Christian missions and missionaries.
Thanks, will do that!
WHAT YOU SAID!!!
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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15
“Separation is never a strategy,” he said in a speech.
Separation may not be a strategy, but apostacy is not an option.
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