Posted on 12/16/2006 8:34:10 PM PST by Huber
For about 30 years, the Episcopal Church has been one big unhappy family. Under one roof there were female bishops and male bishops who would not ordain women. There were parishes that celebrated gay weddings and parishes that denounced them; theologians sure that Jesus was the only route to salvation, and theologians who disagreed.
Now, after years of threats, the family is breaking up.
As many as eight conservative Episcopal churches in Virginia are expected to announce today that their parishioners have voted to cut their ties with the Episcopal Church. Two are large, historic congregations that minister to the Washington elite and occupy real estate worth a combined $27 million, which could result in a legal battle over who keeps the property.
In a twist, these wealthy American congregations are essentially putting themselves up for adoption by Anglican archbishops in poorer dioceses in Africa, Asia and Latin America, who share conservative theological views about homosexuality and the interpretation of Scripture with the breakaway Americans.
“The Episcopalian ship is in trouble,” said the Rev. John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, one of the two large Virginia congregations, where George Washington served on the vestry. “So we’re climbing over the rails down to various little lifeboats. There’s a lifeboat from Bolivia, one from Rwanda, another from Nigeria. Their desire is to help us build a new ship in North America, and design it and get it sailing.”
Together, these Americans and their overseas allies say they intend to form a new American branch that would rival or even supplant the Episcopal Church in the worldwide Anglican Communion, a confederation of national churches that trace their roots to the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Who is trying desperately to stave off the inevitable.
The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, is now struggling to hold the communion together while facing a revolt on many fronts from emboldened conservatives. Last week, conservative priests in the Church of England warned him that they would depart if he did not allow them to sidestep liberal bishops and report instead to sympathetic conservatives.
For Virginia, the stakes couldn't be higher.
If all eight Virginia churches vote to separate, the Diocese of Virginia, the largest Episcopal diocese in the country, will lose about 10 percent of its 90,000 members. In addition, four churches in Virginia have already voted to secede, and two more are expected to vote soon, said Patrick N. Getlein, secretary of the diocese.
But some people still have their heads in the sand.
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, said in an e-mail response to a request for an interview that such splits reflect a polarized society, as well as the “anxiety” and “discomfort” that many people feel when they are asked to live with diversity.
“The quick fix embraced in drawing lines or in departing is not going to be an ultimate solution for our discomfort,” she said.
Wrong, Kate. Only when we honestly admit that it is more reasonable to expect half of a room to remain dark when we turn on a light than it is to believe that the two mutually-exclusive views of the Christian religion in the Episcopal Church can ever be reconciled will we all be happier and all be able to get on with our primary missions. Ours to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a fallen world and yours to implement the Millennium Development Goals(peace and blessings be upon them).
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Bring it on, man!!!
Bring it on!!!
Hi folks. I brought my sister to vote at our parish (Apostles in Fairfax) today, and results will be released at a parish meeting tomorrow at 7:00 pm, although Truro and The Falls Church will have press conferences earlier in the day.
May The Lord's will be done...after tomorrow, there is no turning back.
Oops, I didn't realize it was past midnight already!
The New York Times, which has been carrying water for the revisionists for decades, suddenly realizes the consequences? Hmmm.
Interesting that the focal point of this crisis at the moment is in Virginia, where the Anglican Church was once the established church.
Interesting. The "bishop" of my benighted ultra-liberal ELCA synod says that the heart of Lutheranism is "tolerance for ambiguity". (I thought it was justification by grace through faith for Christ's sake.) Katharine Jefferts-Schori says that the heart of Anglcanism is "tolerance for diversity". They both sound the same. Something must be very wrong--they can't both be right.
[Orthodox Anglicans' mission is] to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a fallen world and [liberal Episcopalians' mission is] to implement the Millennium Development Goals (peace and blessings be upon them).
The standard muslim phrase that follows the name of any "prophet" is "peace be upon him" (pbuh). I wonder if the author's use of this phrase was deliberate, to mimic the muslims. After all, if liberal protestants are nothing else, they are total suck-ups to the muslims, including the very worst muslims!!!!
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