Posted on 07/13/2009 7:00:06 PM PDT by Steelfish
July 14, 2009
Schism closer as US Anglicans vote to overturn ban on gay ordinations
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
A formal split in the Anglican Church worldwide moved closer yesterday after clergy and laity in the US voted to allow the consecration of openly gay bishops.
The Archbishop of Canterbury expressed “regret” over a decision by Anglicans in the US that represents a blow to his hopes for Church unity. Dr Rowan Williams made clear his concern after the Episcopal Church voted at the triannual General Convention in California to overturn a moratorium on gay ordinations.
Clergy and laity in the US backed a motion that “acknowledges that God has called and may call any individual in the Church to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, in accordance with the discernment process set forth in the Constitution and Canons of the Church”.
This means that anyone will be able to be ordained regardless of sexuality if the US bishops back the move when they vote on it in the next few days, making formal schism inevitable.
The vote represents a snub to Dr Williams, who flew last week to the convention and pleaded in a sermon on Thursday for the Episcopalians not to do anything to “push us further apart”, thereby jeopardising the fragile Church unity he has struggled so hard to maintain.
Dr Williams has found his time as Archbishop dominated by having to deal with the fallout from the consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, an event that has taken the worldwide church to the brink of schism.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
“...jeopardising the FARCE he has struggled so hard to maintain.”
If the individual is not sexually active, I have no problem with this.
If they are sexually active, it is a sin & the church is domed!!
(My mother was Episcopal, I was baptized in the Episcopal church. I’m glad she’s not alive to see what it has become)
Split and get it over with. The “gay ordination” church will die off in 25 years anyway.
I don’t see the problem. People who can’t abide homosexuals behind the pulpit and in the leadership, should vote with their feet and join a church that more closely follows scripture.
A wonderful site for news about Orthodox Anglicanism is VirtueOnline at http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/index.php
I was also baptized and confirmed as an Episcopalian. This saddens me and I know it’s the end of the once-great church. God will NOT be mocked.
***I don’t see the problem. People who can’t abide homosexuals behind the pulpit and in the leadership, should vote with their feet and join a church that more closely follows scripture.***
It’s about legitimacy. If you can warp (especially in secret) the basis for an organization, then you have the ability to legitimize your own particular predilections and have the organization consider them mainstream.
You may have misunderstood me. I would vote with my feet and join a church that did not ordain homosexuals.
Nope. That's why the Catholic “gay church” actively and continuously recruits ... alter boys, young priests, older priests, nuns....
This “leader” is so focused on preserving the “unity” he treasures so much that he is missing the sin.
You may have gotten this one wrong. The Catholic Church realizing its cancer extirpated it with zero tolerance. The rule of Benedict is that when it’s pruned, it grows.
Anglican ping
***You may have misunderstood me. I would vote with my feet and join a church that did not ordain homosexuals.***
Apologies for the less than clear post. What I meant was that the reasons for suborning an institution are normally that one wishes to legitimize one’s actions or beliefs that in opposition to that institution.
Our hope is that the US Anglicans move away from their current path and start back onto the Via of Christ.
***You may have gotten this one wrong. The Catholic Church realizing its cancer extirpated it with zero tolerance. The rule of Benedict is that when it’s pruned, it grows.***
Looking at the current field of bishops in the US, there is only overwhelming evidence of that. I think that there are only a handful of Marxist liberation theologians in a see in the US. BXVI is greater than any of us (and I was a fan before he was chosen - and scarcely dared to hope) had even expected. Not only is he a very able administrator, but he has the Orthodox, even, excited because of his teachings and his pronouncements.
One of our Orthodox friends considers him as a possible Doctor of the Church - the first in nearly a millennium.
Piskies can cheer up though, when they watch their congregations wither and die. The ELCA Lutherans are right behind them and will join the Gay Pride Charade at their Churchwide Assembly in August. Maybe they can merge and form some kind of demonic communion together..
If Archbishop of Canterbury had a clue, he’d have said, “Go ahead - make my day!”
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15
We used to be Episcopalian (shoot, I was a sixth-generation Episcopalian) but GC 2003 was too much for us. Since we're "high", the logical safe harbor for us was the Catholic Church, but I was well aware of the homosexual predator problems there.
Not wishing to jump from the frying pan into the fire, I thoroughly looked into the issue from every angle I could (including talking to some lawyers who had been involved in the original prosecutions here).
Not only was the archdiocese here extremely proactive about cleaning things up and making sure that nothing of the sort happened again, Benedict XVI is replacing homosexual sympathizers with extremely orthodox bishops, inspecting seminaries and religious orders, and generally cleaning house on the highest levels.
I don't for a moment imagine that (1) they can get rid of EVERYBODY all at once, or (2) that a few lowlifes won't sneak through. But the Church has taken a very proactive approach (and its actions have been audited favorably by an outside consultant), while a lot of other churches, schools, and so forth are in complete denial.
“If Archbishop of Canterbury had a clue...”
He’d have taken the proactive position and booted the whole damned Episcopal Church - and damned it is - out of the Anglican Communion. It was becoming obvious by the ‘80s and certainly by the ‘90s that the homosexual activists had targeted the weakest of the mainline churches for takeover. The last couple of diocesan conventions I attended were dominated by the topic, to the exclusion of just about everything else except racism, guns, and the environment. It was more like attending a legislative session than a church convention. Not much “Jesus” talk to be heard there, I’m afraid. A born and raised Episcopalian, I finally bailed in 2003. I’m almost grateful Mom had Alzheimers by then and didn’t have to see what her beloved church had turned into before God took her home.
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