Free Republic

The former Hebron United Methodist Church is now being brought back to life by All Saints Anglican parish. The congregation that broke away from the national Episcopal Church and went out on its own in January has now purchased the 130-year-old former Methodist church, which had seen only limited use for several years, for $260,000 and is now in the process of preparing it for full-time use and a possible opening in September. -snip- The activity comes just a week after the cash settlement of a law suit filed against the parish by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in June....

Can Jesus be the son of God and Joseph? At Christmas, Christians celebrate the birth of God's only son. Some believers, however, wonder if Jesus Christ is God's son only. The ancient "illegitimacy tradition" and its modern proponents propose that Jesus may have had a human father. That idea upsets one of the central mysteries of the Christian faith—the virgin conception. But it's entirely in keeping with more essential tenets: Jesus' role as the Messiah, and God's love for the poor and downtrodden. What's more, the illegitimacy tradition responds to many strange utterances about Jesus' birth in the Scriptures themselves....

Our correspondent talks to Gene Robinson, the gay bishop who has become the focus of Anglican schism THE spectre of schism haunted the opening of the General Synod of the Church of England this week. In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, 14 primates led by the Archbishop of Nigeria, Dr Peter Akinola, thundered against “unrepented sexual immorality, an offence so flagrant that Paul insisted that the sinner be expelled from the fellowship, and one of a type of sin which he said would cut the offender off from the kingdom of heaven”. While Dr Williams...

Affirmation of Faith (All stand) Let us declare our faith in God. We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What Anglicanism needs now most of all is some good old Erastianism. It's time that we got back to the old time religion of the Church of England. Henry VIII wanted the Latin Mass, celibacy, requiems and no Pope. He made it so. Mary Tudor wanted full Romanism. She made it happen. Queen Elizabeth wanted to appease the masses, so she ratified compromised Masses. Charles II wanted more saints day in the Church's Kalendar, and it was so. Erastianism works. Even St Basil the Great and St Gregorian the Theologian knew that when the Church is weak and overly heretical,...