Posted on 12/26/2004 3:08:03 AM PST by Lindykim
The Christian Underground http://www.christian-underground.com READ IT - LEARN FROM IT - PRAY OVER IT - SHARE IT --- Why 85 Episcopal churches closed their doors December 25, 2004 By Les Kinsolving
New Hampshire's Episcopal bishop, the Right Rev. Vicky Gene Robinson, continues to attract extensive coverage in our nation's left-wing dominated Old Media – because he is the only known Anglican (or Episcopal) prelate who left his wife and daughter and who now lives unmarried with his sodomist lover. The decision to consecrate him a bishop has caused a worldwide rift in the 77 million-member Anglican communion. There are further consequences at home in the United States.
Already reported has been the loss of $900,000 in pledged offering to the denomination's largest diocese: Virginia. Now there are more serious reports nationwide.
Episcopal religion writer David Virtue reports the following national denominational statistics for 2003 – which are very likely to be even worse when the 2004 reports are in next December. He reports: Attendance statistics for the Episcopal Church USA in 2003 reveal a church in continued steep decline with nearly 36,000 active baptized members leaving for greener theological pastures, a significant drop from 8,000 on 2002. Another 24,000 Sunday worshippers left the ECUSA last year, more than twice the previous year.
In 2002, the church claimed a membership of 2,320,221. In 2003, it was down to 2,284,233, the church officially declared.
If this walkout of 36,000 – while evangelical denominations continue to grow – seems grim, the next statistic is horrendous: Some 85 parishes closed their doors – 7,395 in 2002 to 7,220 in 2003. How much effort and financial sacrifice in building and maintaining all those parishes is now lost?
That is more than twice the number of parishes that exist in the Diocese of New Hampshire, the majority of whose clergy and laity elected Vicky Gene without any apparent concern about what so many of their fellow Episcopalians regard as a biblical abomination.
Further statistics:
-- Average Sunday attendance in 2002 was 846,640. In 2003 it was 823,017.
-- The percentage of churches with any increase in average Sunday attendance also dropped from 39 percent to 34 percent.
-- The most startling figure was that the median average Sunday worship attendance of all Episcopal churches across the whole country is 77 members (down from 79).
Despite all this, Bishop Robinson was a special guest on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" which program was fair enough to allow one of Robinson's fellow bishops, Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, to appear with him.
Bishop Duncan told the nationwide broadcast: The purported statistics do not bear out vs. Gene Robinson's view that the acceptance of homosexuality would make churches grow.
In a question from Terry Gross, who asked whether gays and lesbians coming into the church were counterbalancing folks who were leaving, Duncan responded saying: "The latest statistics show we lost 36,000 members last year, three times what we lost the year before."
Les Kinsolving hosts a daily talk show for WCBM in Baltimore. His radio commentaries are syndicated nationally. He is White House correspondent for Talk Radio Network and WorldNetDaily. His show can be heard on the Internet at www.wcbm.com 8-10 p.m. Eastern each weekday. Before going into broadcasting, Kinsolving was a newspaper reporter and columnist – twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his commentary.
moderator@christian-underground.com http://www.christian-underground.com/archive/read.php?sid=51 Posted to the CU: 2004-12-25 12:42:31 CST ======================================== We will Pray WHEN we want School - WHERE we want Work - The Street - The Mall - Persecute Us At Your Own Peril! The Christian Underground http://www.christian-underground.com
1900 years ago, a Jewish carpenter in the Roman Empire predicted that "the gates of hell" would not prevail against His church. The Greek word for church is "ecclessia," and it means "called-out ones." When Jesus made this prediction, there was no church, but only 12 followers, and one of them was a traitor. Jesus was then crucified and resurrected from the dead. This documented historical event was so convincing, that almost immediatly, His prediction came true, and this "ecclessia" or "called-out ones" still exists to this day.
For 1900 years, Christ's church has been martyred, attacked, and ridiculed by skeptics and heretics throughout the world. It has endured intense persecuton throughout the ages of history, yet it continues to make converts in every land and in every time, even though there is spiritual apostasy and sinful hypocrites among its members.
Sinful men need to quit making excuses. They need to get their eyes off the spiritual apostasy and the sinful hypocrites in the visible churh, and turn their eyes to Christ. Then He will place them in His invisible church. And that, my friends, is not a bad place to be!
Proof that Christianity is not merely a form of entertainment.Nor a School where one might learn to be.
Homosexual behavior is NOT compatible with Christianity,Nor
is is compatible with the Military.Nor should it be forced
upon society as an acceptable,perhaps preferable alternative.It is as Paul declared "unnatural" And that Truth is proven by the decline of the church that has
turned away from God.
The attraction of the Episcopal Church is it preserves most of the Catholic tradition but is Protestant. For those of us who do not believe in transubstantiation, it would be a good choice.
I joined the Episcopal Church recently (after being a Methodist for over 40 years) and left more recently because of the appointment of Robinson. It is difficult to find a denomination that is not under attack by the left and compromising principles.
Then on the right of the Protestants there are some very principled denominations (or non-denominational), but they are flawed by the ridiculous convolutions of "literalism".
One could ask the same question of you and your wife...
It's so inspiring to see people making the decision "for the Word.
" Romans 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves (AIDS) that recompence of their error which was meet. Notice that even at the time of the Apostles this was happening in the Church at ROME! yuch
Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
I would ad that the Unitarians want you to accept all others who believe something a little.
You are right about why someone would love the church. I love it myself, and for the same reasons.
But not all Episcopal churches are the same. Mine is serious, and as biblically oriented as any of the new "Bible" churches, for instance, but is reverent and soothing at the same time. And my congregation is very very concerned about what the heirarchy has done to the church, and we are working to do something about it.
Let's see what comes of all this mess. As my rector says....."God will win in the end."
I highly recommend this treatment of THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL if one cares to examine a source for all this mischief - of course, one is also free to dismiss it as a conspiracy fit.
http://www.lesbianstudies.com/frankfurtschool/
May I ask you, what attracts you to Buddism?
Would you give me an example?
A welcoming attitude toward sodomy?
The WCC is the base of the anti-church. Once the union with their root (the so-called irreligious who worship the creation, rather than the Creator) is complete, the root and base will begin to bear a very ugly and poisonous fruit. Hence, the beginning of the end....to which I say, maranatha!
Good morning....FYI
Could you elaborate a little about the ridiculous convolutions of "literalism".? Just seems like a blanket statement and painting with a broad brush to me.
Mr. CGG and I left the ELCA for the LCMS about 12 years ago. One of the criteria was that the church did not belong to the NCC.
What's the matter with "literalism"? It seems to me that we would do well to apply some literalism to the Bible as well as the Constitution.
Take a look at the Frankfurt School stuff, either it is a nutty conspiracy spasm or Atkinson is on to something.
what diocese are you in?
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