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Episcopal protest hits collection plate

Actually, when I was an Episcopalian, we called it an offering plate.

>The primates, from 13 Anglican provinces, represent 45 million parishioners, more than half of the world's 70 million Anglicans.

The primates

"This is a result of the uproar they said would never happen," said Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council... "If you stand on the air hose, the diver surfaces pretty quickly to see what's going on."

The Diocese of Virginia, for instance, is giving 16 percent of its budget...

Of the three bishops in the diocese, Rt. Revs. Lee, Jones (coadjutor), and Gray (suffargan); only The Rt. Rev. Gray, a former Marine, voted against Vickie Gene... Yet I'm surprised at the 16 percent, especially noting how the diocese is wailing and gnashing its teeth over the amount its budget has dropped over Lee's and Jones' endorsement. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, that of trashing the RITE of matrimony when DoV priests are allowed to marry gays and lesbians. At that point I hold my nose and convert to Roman Catholicism!

Imagine collections at the Chapel if we were in this situation.

>> Conservative Episcopalians say the budget reduction is a direct result of the Nov. 2 consecration of V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, the first openly homosexual ordained ...

I am a non-practicing Episcopalian. I have to disagree with the slant on this article. I believe that budget reductions are much more than the gay bishop issue. I think that for many Episcopalians, the homosexual Robinson issue was a triggering point, and budgetary matters will only become worse in the future.

I stopped going to my local parish church several months after 9/11. This is long before Robinson became an issue. Certainly there have been problems with queers in the church before. But I liked my priest. He did a great job, but his job was always on the line. There was a significant number or people within the parish that thought our priest was too conservative. This was despite his efforts to grow the parish. And the people did come. The youth program was reinvigorated. Many new families were joining the church, and many long lost members were finding their way back to the church. Then 9/11 happened. At that time, Presiding Bishop Griswold went out of his way to appease terrorists. He made a number of comments that where anti-Bush, anti-War, and anti-American. I can handle some of the anti-War comments coming from the head of the church, but the anti-American, hate-America type of comments I could not abide. His words were divisive. This certainly divided me from the church. But like they say in politics, all politics are local … it’s also true in church.

Concurrently with Presiding Bishop Griswold’s comments, our parish was changing. With the growth that we sustained in the last several years, we talking about expanding out church facilities, adding parking lots, and getting a couple additional priests. And the priests did come and I left. My wife was on the selection committee for the new priests. The stories that she could tell are amazing. In the interviewing process there was everything from those that did not believe that Christ died for our sins, to others that think the Bible is just a collection of faire tales. However, there were qualified priests. The selection committee selected two priests over several more qualified. This caused a major split in our parish. One priest was to be hired to run the youth program. When I asked my wife about him, about all she could say is the guy likes fantasy football. I probed deeper. I talked to others on the selection committee. This guy had no substance whatsoever, and I guess the fantasy football thing was the only thing that could remember. As it turns out, on the first Sunday after our new priest was hired, he arrived at church with his former wife. He spoke about how great it was still to be friends with his divorced wife, and how she will be attending each Sunday and would be involved in other church events. This was the guy running the youth program, BUT NOT WITH MY CHILDREN. In a few weeks following, I explained my position to many people in the church and then my family and I left the church.

This was at a time when my life was deeply affected by 9/11. That is another story in itself, but I won’t dig that up. I needed a church to turn to deal with some issues. I found a church that was unwilling and unable to help me, but completely willing to pervert the minds of my children. Today, membership at my local parish is at an all time low. All of the new families that joined the church have left. The lost members are lost again. Needless to say, the expansion plans have been cancelled. I assume that similar things have occurred throughout the Liberal Episcopal Church.

It is a shame that the short fall was such a small amount and points up what moral trouble there is among everyday people in their ability to make moral judgements and stands.