Episcopal Mega Church In Gay Dispute Pays $1.2 Million To Leave

[TechBear_Seattle]

And so the exodus begins. Unable to handle Christian charity, religious bigots leave.

Episcopal Mega Church In Gay Dispute Pays $1.2 Million To Leave
by The Associated Press

(Plano, Texas) A theologically conservative Plano church will pay the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas $1.2 million as part of an arrangement governing its departure from the diocese.

Christ Church, formerly Christ Church Episcopal, will pay the lump sum to the diocese and will continue paying down $6.8 million of debt on parish property, according to a report that appeared on The Dallas Morning News Web site on Saturday.

The article continues at http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/091806church.htm

[msongs]

1. not much Jesus in that church nt

[brentspeak]

2. This thread would be better served in religion/theology or GLB

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Unfortunately, in this country...

There is little difference between religion and politics, especially with regards to conservative politics. This parish is schisming because it refuses to accept socio-political changes that are being reflected (albeit reluctantly) within it's denomination. That this has become a trend in a denomination where ties of collegiality are more important that Jesus Christ Himself is definitely news. That this is a growing trend in the United States, where social progress is clashing head-on with religious bigotry, and no doubt the first of many more such schisms... that strikes me as Late Breaking News.

[0007]

10. Strikes me as Late Breaking News also.

[Rowdyboy]

11. Your opinion. Personally, I find the Episcopal fight both political and..

relevent. Apparently, the vast majority of people who responded to this thread feel likewise.

[donheld]

17. It's late breaking news

I'm glad I saw it here.

[WolverineDG]

3. Hey Tech Bear

My cousins belong to an Episopal church up there in Seattle, the more open-minded kind I should add. :hi:

dg

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. My prediction: a few high-profile churches will leave,

but most will stay. In general, people become Episcopalians to get away from fundamentalism.

The opposition to the new Presiding Bishop is ironic, because she was elected both by a majority of the mostly male House of Bishops and by a majority of the lay people (House of Deputies) at the General Convention.

[gratuitous]

5. My prediction: Not even a few

Although Episcopalian churches are a bit more affluent than those in my denomination, I suspect that more than a few congregations will find themselves unable to buy their church building and property from the Diocese, which is the actual deed holder of most church property. And the idea of enriching a denomination they've come to despise by paying it for "their" church will not sit well with quite a number of congregations.

[Rowdyboy]

12. Isn't Katherine cool! I'm so happy about her election....

All I can say that there is only ONE openly unpleasant family in my small town southern Episcopal church and absolutely NO interest in leaving the diocese and joining with the conservative African/Asian bishops.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. And certainly not in my parish...

...where there are three gay men on the vestry and a woman priest and two women deacons on staff. :-)

[Rowdyboy]

15. We've had at LEAST 2 openly gay men on the vestry and one very clear

closet case so we're not that far off. Don't you love finding spirituality in a denomination that actually allows you to think?

[TechBear_Seattle]

18. Feh! My old church is more liberal than your church

Yeah, I know this isn't a contest. And even though my journey has taken me elsewhere, I still like to brag about the St. Mark's Cathedral parish in Seattle. We paved the way for Gene Robertson to become a bishop when, in 2000, we hired a partnered gay priest to become the new dean. Until the General Convention of 2005, the V. Rev. Robert Taylor was the highest placed openly gay person in the church hierarchy. :hi:

[regnaD kciN]

13. Could we get Truro to leave, please...?

;-)

Truro Church, in Fairfax, Virginia, is the favored Episcopal parish of the Religious Right. Everyone from Clarence Thomas to Oliver North has shown up there at one time or another. Their Rector was just consecrated Bishop by a group of African Anglican Bishops, charged with establishing a new U.S. denomination that respects "traditional Anglican morality" (i.e. "a woman's place is in the pew and a gay's place is in the closet"). Strangely enough, despite the fact that he's now a Bishop in a denomination trying to replace the Episcopal Church, he also claims to want to remain the Rector of an Episcopal Church. :crazy: Good riddance, I'd say.

[xchrom]

6. good. i must add though the conservative episcopal churches are

also against the ordination of women.

so it isn't the issue of ordaining gay folk as bishops alone.

and lydia leftcoast was right -- i for one became an episcopalian to get away from fundies -- or constrictive theology at all.

[JerseygirlCT]

8. It's so very sad that holding on to their bigotry is more important

than all that the church is supposed to stand for. How sad to cause this much grief and anger just to stand firm with hate.

[Slyder]

9. My Kansas Episcopal church

left the denomination too over gay issues. I find this so ironic. The pastor was willing to throw Leviticus in our faces, but not Mark 10:11, about divorce and remarriage being adultery. A reading of Leviticus indicates that a number of modern practices and customs are an "abomination." Biblically speaking, folks who are divorced and remarried are as much sexual perverts as homosexuals. I thought there were a total of seven deadly sins with lust just being one of the seven. But now morality has been reduced to sex. You can lie, cheat, steal, commit hubris, and still be considered a good Christian, but don't lust. Pharisees and hypocrites!

[Dem2theMax]

16. Six Episcopal churches in my area have left recently.

One was the church I used to go to. I saw the change starting three years ago and stopped going. The Reverend was leaning far to the right. Last Saturday, with NO warning to anyone but his chosen few (read bigots,) he resigned. The very next day he was using another Episcopal church to hold his service. He has a new name for 'his' church, a congregation full of right-wingers, and apparently lots of money from said new congregation.

When I think of what he has done to the church he left behind, all I can think to say is 'how Christian of him.' :sarcasm: