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
Well said!
The Church of Jesus Christ is, and forever more shall be, the Church triumphant no matter how hard it's enemies may work to bring it down. Satan and the world may attack from without while apostate pretenders attack more subtly from within, but Christ's body on earth will prevail over all. We have the unconditional promise of our omnipotent Lord that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church.
Great!!!
When the church decided to switch from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer to the "New" Prayer Book my parents said, "This is the end of the Episcopalian Church as we know it." Shortly thereafter we stopped going. It is amazing how wise some parents can be. I was a teenager at the time and really was developing my own thoughts and feelings towards my own spiritual life, and really loved the Episcaopal church. I thought it was the most beautiful 1 hour of worship there could be on a Sunday.
I was devastated when we left, but knew that if my parents said it was time to go they were right.
I keep hoping for smarted heads to prevail but it seems they are hell bent on destruction.
Maybe a miracle will happen.
Well, I guess if He wanted to he could, but why would He hide any evidence of it?
The African churches will keep Anglicans going. The Episcopal Church and most of the other mainstream denominations will fail, unless they start making major changes now.
I see that the UMC has moved back from some of its liberal positions.
The Anglican rite is different from the Episcopal. It is growing as people flee from the cynicism and hypocrisy of a rite that elevates to shepherd a man whose personal desires and ambition are inimical to the welfare of the flock.
Anglicanchurch.com, I believe, provides information about the true Anglican Church, the one that existed in England up to the 9th century before the popes set out to gain temporal power by dominating all Christian churches. b
"I feel like an old friend has died"
Your entire post is right on the mark. I am also so saddened by our decision to leave our church. I was brought up Episcopalian and miss the beautiful, formal services that I attended as a child. The church of my youth no longer exists. We didn't attend midnight mass this year. Instead we held our own religious service at home. We used the Book of Common Prayer and read passages from the Bible. The grandchildren sang "Silent Night" and we talked a little bit about what Christmas is all about. We didn't take Communion, but I guess that God will understand. I hope so anyway. Peace Be With You, Gorzaloon.
There's a fine line between Vicky Gene Robinson, and Vicky Sue Robinson (the singer). In more ways than one, apparently.
I am becoming Catholic now since my perspective on Catholic Theology has changed, but I did attend a Traditional Anglican Church for a while, and they were very reverent, using the 1928 Prayer Book. Take a look here on Freeper sionnsar's Traditional Anglican page: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com/ you might like one of them.
Good! The Orthodox clearly should have no dealings with the morally bankrupt liberal Protestants!
Most Orthodox were never happy with the arrangment
The Greek Patriarchate under Athenagoros was the main culprit.
Don't know what weed you are smoking but the Greek Orthodox Church is most definitly not into the leftist socialist agenda.
The local priests were most vocal about traditional marriage and how it is up to each mother and father to pass this on to their children.
Every week a pray for the troops and the president.
(Just because the USA is a member of the UN does not mean we are an islamic dictatorship)
how about exanding these numbers four years?
There will be a critical mass which will make individual parishes unsustainable.
When average attendence is less than fifty how many churches can survive? How many priests will need to find outside work?
In 1923 in Germany, a think-tank is established that takes on the role of translating Marxism from economic into cultural terms, that creates Political Correctness as we know it today, and essentially it has created the basis for it by the end of the 1930s.
The Origins of Political Correctness ( t Is Cultural Marxism) An Accuracy in Academia Address ^ | 2000 | by Bill Lind Posted on 12/26/2004 12:37:10 PM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308645/posts
Strange as a reform movement within a reform movement may sound, there is a pan-Lutheran (Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) oratory of biblically conservative, liturgically steeped clergy that has gathered for mutual support and to resist the tide of modernity.
I encourage you to check out the website of the Society of the Holy Trinity http://www.societyholytrinity.org Read the page on "The Rule" http://www.societyholytrinity.org/rule.htm, paying particular attention to the section entitled "Parish Practices". Then look at the membership directory http://www.societyholytrinity.org/stswebdirectory.htm to see if there are any STS members serving a congregation within a reasonable driving distance. Although not every parish is practicing every aspect of the Rule at this time, most subscriber clergy are committed to working toward those goals and have a deliberate plan to achieve them incrementally. These clergy would be delighted to receive visitors and/or new members who share those commitments.
Like you, they are somewhat embattled within their own denominations. They would welcome your support and you would benefit from their ministry.
2Tim 4v3:
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
The Bible proving itself right once again..
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