Posted on 07/13/2009 9:18:18 PM PDT by SmithL
The Episcopal Church moved Monday toward affirming their acceptance of gays and lesbians for all roles in ministry, despite pressure from fellow Anglicans worldwide for a decisive moratorium on consecrating another openly gay bishop.
Bishops at the Episcopal General Convention in Anaheim, Calif., voted 99-45 with two abstentions for a statement declaring "God has called and may call" to ministry gays in committed lifelong relationships.
Lay and priest delegates to the meeting had comfortably approved a nearly identical statement, and were expected to adopt the latest version before the meeting ends Friday.
Leaders of the Anglican Communion have been pushing Episcopalians to roll back their support for gays and lesbians since 2003, when the U.S. denomination consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. Anglican body.
Robinson's election brought the 77 million-member Anglican fellowship to the brink of schism. Last month, breakaway Episcopal conservatives and other like-minded traditionalists formed a rival national province called the Anglican Church in North America.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
fyi
They just don’t get it..
Self destruction isn’t pretty.
“”God has called and may call” to ministry gays in committed lifelong relationships. “
It’s kind of interesting that they bother with the “lifelong relationships” stuff. I guess that makes the Episcopalians feel better about blowing off utterly unambiguous scripture.
But if you’re going to blow off scripture, why bother requiring the lifelong relationship thing? There is certainly no scriptural basis for drawing a line there—you are already way over the line. So you might as well let cruisers be bishops as long as they think the Holy Spirit has shown them to the holiness of cruising, or whatever.
Why are they discriminating against polygamists? Shouldn’t the church include all the baptized?
Every Catholic Church I visit seems to have former Episcopalians who left because of the gay issue. It’s getting worse. Some Episcopal churches in my area are becoming ghost towns or spliting up.
The ECUSA use to be a beautiful church.
I was a senior warden of one.
I left the EC over 10 years ago when it went off the cliff.
Me too.
Kudos for some of the best tags I’ve ever read.
“episcobaal”
Funny funny stuff.
As for this move, a pity really, shameful actually, the Left have seized the Robes in Education and in many of the Mainline Churches with the Episcopalian Communion suffering heavily for such nonsense.
Why not simply become Unitarians and be done with the charade?
ECUSA can’t get to hell fast enough.
It’s one thing for people to fight against their own sin problems and fail.
It’s totally different when you’ve got a denomination out there telling people their particular sin is actually good and God-blessed.
I can understand allowing them in the congregation. Hearing the sermons and the words of God could help them to change. I don’t see what possible benefit could be drawn from having them in the clergy.
“Why not simply become Unitarians and be done with the charade?”
What I don’t understand is why Unitarians bother to meet at all. If you can believe anything or nothing or everything, then why not just stay home and not miss any of the football games? Makes no sense to me.
bookmark
“I don’t see what possible benefit could be drawn from having them in the clergy”.
BENEFITS? One big “group stoop”. GROUP SERVICING AFTER THE SERVICE!!
It would be one thing if these were gays who realized it was homosexuality is sinful and disavowed practicing it, but “committed lifelong relationships” I mean that is ridiculed in just about every book of the bible. I could even understand ministers who once engaged in the practice and realized their sins, but actively involved, this is just mind-boggling.
I’m in a very conservative diocese, so I don’t see this coming our way anytime soon. But if it does, I’ll switch from Anglican to Roman immediately.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15
My wife and I did the same at that time!!!
I believe that the real fight in the Episcopal Church goes way beyond the issue of Homosexual clergy and bishops. The left wing radicals whom have seized control of the church do not believe in God. Theirs is an attack from within to destroy religion, and they are succeeding with the Episcopal Church.
I left years ago and urge other to do the same. Those who say that all of this does not affect them because they are in a conservative parish/diocese do not understand what is happening. Leave now and take your money with you and join the fight for church property. Don’t let those Godless Communists have a blade of grass of any of it.
sigh.....
That is exactly correct. Homosexual clergy and bishops is a loud and obvious symptom of something different.
The left wing radicals whom have seized control of the church do not believe in God. Theirs is an attack from within to destroy religion, and they are succeeding with the Episcopal Church.
Perhaps, but I tend to disagree. I happen to know a few folks like this, and they believe in God fully as much as you or I do. They're very often quite sincere in their beliefs.
The real problem is that the left wing radicals are ... left wing radicals. As with most left wing radicals, everything they do is (apparently) bound up with whatever political agenda they happen to espouse.
You see it all the time: leftists will plan their menu, buy their clothes, and plan their vacations based on their political agenda. They'll agitate in their kids' preschools, little leagues, and 5th grade band classes based on their political agenda. They will, of course, go to all the meetings and get on all the committees, and in so doing gain influence over the process and therefore gain control over the results of the process ... based on their political agenda.
They'll do all that ... and it's therefore no surprise that they'll carry their agenda over into the Church. The homosexual agenda in the Church is nothing more than an extension of the secular version. Same with abortion, the Palestinians, AIDS, or whatever.
Quite simply, it is a mistake to treat this behavior as a strictly Episcopal (or other denominational) issue. It is not even a religious issue. It is a "world-view" issue based on the left-wing perspective, and it intrudes into all aspects of life.
To understand the issues in the church, you need to recognize and understand the use of Alinsky tactics every bit as much as you do in politics and elsewhere.
The danger we conservatives face is not opposing their agenda per se, but rather being so opposed to their agenda that we also reject the fact that in many cases their agenda finds its roots in an actual Christian duty -- even if they've perverted that duty to their own political ends.
Very well put. As you point out, they are dedicated to a "world view" held sacred by the left. I believe that view to be incompatible with Christianity because it demands a denial of God's existence. I do believe that there are many lefties who are believers, but they are merely serving as useful idiots for the left.
The most vocal proponents of this heresy, also are happy with divorce....and clandestinely at least push for “polyandry.” This is why they call themselves LGBT as one cannot be actively bisexual or “transgender” and also be monogamous.
It’s all a bunch of religious rubbish—the leaders of which are secret agnostics anyway.
The Episcopal Church is a Full Communion Partner of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; hence these deliberations and decisions will likely become weighty arguments at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August in Minneapolis. "Following the example of our Full Communion partner" will hold more gravitas than following the example of global Christianity as there is no international Lutheran structure parallel to the Anglican Communion. Kyrie Eleison. 28 posted on
Which denomination are you? In Jan. 2008, I decided to join a Missouri Synod church. In Mar. ‘08, my dad, a retired ELCA pastor, told me that the ELCA committee on sexuality recommended that the ELCA never ordain gays or hold gay weddings. In Nov. ‘08, I joined an ELCA church. Next month, I might regret my decision, depending upon the vote at the ELCA churchwide assembly.
Anglican, not Episcopalian.
Their policy is to do it and look the other way.
BTW, my sister's church and the church of my youth just voted to leave the ELCA. A representative from the synod office even told the parishoners at the church that you could not count on the Bible to be the true word of God--that it may only be a collection of stories and not to be taken literally.
Why bother going to church? Go fishing instead.
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