Therefore:
Lutheran (EL C S*A) Ping!
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Be rooted in Christ!
Posted on 07/08/2012 1:45:39 PM PDT by NYer
July 8, 2012|10:00 am A day after a legislative body of the Episcopal Church voted to sell the denomination's New York headquarters amid budget cuts and declining membership, church leaders on Saturday adopted legislation to give transgenders the right to become lay and ordained ministers.
At the church's ongoing week-long General Convention in Indianapolis, Ind., the House of Bishops approved proposal that would amend two canons to prohibit discrimination based on "gender identity or expression" in the lay and ordained ministry discernment process and in the overall life, worship and governance of the church, Episcopal News Service reported.
The House of Deputies, the other legislative body of the bicameral General Convention of the Episcopal Church, must approve the legislation to pass at the convention.
The bishops' move overlooks the fact that 200,000 members and 300 parishes have left the denomination in the past few years partly due to the church's leftist policies on social and political issues. Nine years ago, the church approved its first openly gay bishop.
For many in the church, Saturday's resolution was about "inclusion."
"I am pleased that these resolutions did pass in that they have the very significant effect of validating, in the eyes of the church, the humanity of those who are transgender," the Rev. Carolyn Woodall of the Diocese of San Joaquin was quoted as saying. "We are greatly misunderstood and there is a widespread lack of knowledge about what it means to be transgender."
The Rev. Susan Russell, a deputy from the Diocese of Los Angeles and a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activist, said the resolution brings the church "another step closer to making all the sacraments available to all the baptized."
"The courageous witness of our transgender brothers and sisters has been an extraordinary gift to the church as we continue to grow in understanding and appreciation of the diversity of God's beloved human family," Russell added.
Some church leaders opposed the resolution.
"I believe we need to have more discussion in the church, in our congregations, in order to be able to speak in a way that is theologically sound, that gives a deeper understanding of what it means to be a transgender person," said Bishop Andrew Waldo of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina.
"We are entering into a time of individualized eros … the freedom of every individual to self-define every aspect of who they are in such a way that we no longer have any kinds of norms. We are entering into the chaos of individuality," said Bishop Mark Lawrence of the Diocese of South Carolina. "It's an idol that will break us," he warned.
Leaders of the church are also scheduled to vote on a liturgy for same-sex weddings during the convention, which concludes on Thursday.
In recent years, the membership of the Episcopal Church, which is rooted in the Church of England, has declined to below two million, and the average Sunday attendance is as low as 657,831.
you talking about Gene Robinson? his parents are members of the Disciples of Christ
“you talking about Gene Robinson?”
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I do not understand your question, or which of my post you are referring to.
I do know about Vicky Gene, but I made no reference to him.
I did reference a young priest in west Tennessee.
Also keep in mind, I have been out of the loop and the USSA since 2004.
The Episcopal church is bisexaphobic.
Everyone is born with a corrupted sinful nature. That's the whole reason we need a Savior. That doesn't, however, make sin normative - to the contrary. We're not sinners because we sin, we sin because we're sinners.
There is some truth to property values being the objective of radicals, but I’m just as willing to admit that an old church building is useless for the most part except as a church building. Those with decent location will always be sitting on a valuable lot, but to demolish an old church building, particularly those preferred by 19th & 20th century episcopals, is not an inexpensive project. There are also tons of buildings they own that are not on high demand property.
So, they sit empty, they increase in decay, they become eyesores.
One dastardly deed that could be accomplished by bodies of believers considering moving from that denonination would be to declare their buildings the level of historic site that doesn’t qualify for public money but does make it much harder to move on the real estate market.
The son-in-law of a fellow church member has Lithuanian parents who fled the Russian invasion. Recently the son was able to return to that home town in Lithuania and to the church building his parents had remembered fondly. It had ceased being a church building under the Russians and been used for grain storage and is now a dilapidated old building, useless to everyone.
Thus shall it be for all of these. Cathedrals don’t care for themselves.
ah, ok. For some reason I thought you were talking about Vicky Gene..
The Episcopalians have gone nuts -- on purpose. You know the hymn,"The Spacious Firmament on High"? It's a paraphrase of the first part of Ps. 19. After a description and praise of the heavens it says, [they have no voice but] In reason's ear they all rejoice."
In the '70's in seminary, we were allowed to 'design' services, and I put together a celebration of St. Francis Day (Oct 4) with some good music 'n stuff, and that hymn. A bunch of the faculty complained about the exaltation of reason.
It certainly can be said that's it's a tendentious paraphrase, but there was more to their complaint. The seminary was going through a neo-Calvinist phase and they saw a HUGE gulf between reason and revelation, this despite the Anglican "three-legged stool" of "Scripture, reason, and tradition."
More recently, my FIL, former Pepsicola bishop of Maryland said I was "too rational." (Me! Can you imagine?)
If you read, as I do, with horrified fascination, reports from General Convention, you see that the debate is scarcely a debate at all! Having jettisoned reason, what is left for them but to babble at one another? they use words like 'inclusivity' and the rest like magic and incantatory words.
And here's another thing: Lewis is very good about this.
(1) One of Satan's favorite tricks is to get everybody to run over to the side of the boat whose gunwale is already almost under water. Even if there were some good reason to ordain practicing homosexuals, prudence would suggest that the Pepsicolas 'digest' that move for a decade or two or three before launching off into new gender theories. But having sacrificed something like a third of their membership to one kind of inclusivity, they're still afraid they're not inclusive enough.
(2) To take one virtue -- one of the lesser ones at that -- and to exalt it while depreciating others just won't work. You simply cannot DO justice or courage without prudence and temperance. Justice become severe condemnation (or lackadaisical 'mercy') and courage becomes recklessness. Similarly, without justice and courage, temperance and prudence become fussiness and timidity.
But the Episcopal Church is all about bold new initiatives into unexplored realms of "tolerance" and "inclusivity."
Look: Justin Martyr, in the 2nd century or so, reported (he did not PREscribe, he DEscribed) that the unbaptized were not admitted to Communion. But the Pepsicolas are in many places practically ignoring that -- despite canons prescribing the exclusion -- and are now asking that the canons be changed to make their disobedience obedient.
They do not follow their own tradition nor their own law. How can they justify this disobedience?
Why should they "justify"? They have already rejected reason. How COULD they justify? By the exchange of mantic babble at their diocesan councils or General Convention?
They thought, like Icarus, to fly to the sun rather than to travel, as the Church must,between earth and heaven in deep humility. Like Icarus, now they begin to fall into the sea.
Therefore:
Lutheran (EL C S*A) Ping!
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Be rooted in Christ!
“day after a legislative body of the Episcopal Church voted to sell the denomination’s New York headquarters amid budget cuts and declining membership, church leaders on Saturday adopted legislation to give transgenders the right to become lay and ordained ministers.”
I say we start placing wagers on how long it takes for the Episcopal church to completely go belly-up.
I wager one year from now they will be in serious trouble and in two years they will be closing parishes across the country.
I also wager more of their nuns will leave and join our convents.
any takers?
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