WP: Why We Left the Episcopal Church

[MountainLaurel]

Submitted under the idea of knowing thy enemy . . .

When even President Gerald Ford's funeral at Washington National Cathedral is not exempt from comment about the crisis in the Episcopal Church, we believe it is time to set the record straight as to why our church and so many others around the country have severed ties with the Episcopal Church. Fundamental to a liberal view of freedom is the right of a person or group to define themselves, to speak for themselves and to not be dehumanized by the definitions and distortions of others. This right we request even of those who differ from us.

The core issue in why we left is not women's leadership. It is not "Episcopalians against equality," as the headline on a recent Post op-ed by Harold Meyerson put it. It is not a "leftward" drift in the church. It is not even primarily ethical -- though the ordination of a practicing homosexual as bishop was the flash point that showed how far the repudiation of Christian orthodoxy had gone.

The core issue for us is theological: the intellectual integrity of faith in the modern world. It is thus a matter of faithfulness to the lordship of Jesus, whom we worship and follow. The American Episcopal Church no longer believes the historic, orthodox Christian faith common to all believers. Some leaders expressly deny the central articles of the faith -- saying that traditional theism is "dead," the incarnation is "nonsense," the resurrection of Jesus is a fiction, the understanding of the cross is "a barbarous idea," the Bible is "pure propaganda" and so on. Others simply say the creed as poetry or with their fingers crossed.

It would be easy to parody the "Alice in Wonderland" surrealism of Episcopal leaders openly denying what their faith once believed, celebrating what Christians have gone to the stake to resist -- and still staying on as leaders. But this is a serious matter.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/07/AR2007010700982.html

:eyes:

[EST]

1. If it wasn't all those things, why did it happen on the heels of

the ordination of an openly gay minister?

[mopinko]

2. really

what a steaming load of horseshit.

[elehhhhna]

3. SInce they have absolutely NO clue about what this Jesus guy

was talking about they should just STFU.

"Oh I quit my church because it welcomed all humanity." GOOD RIDDANCE.

[xchrom]

4. before it was women, you guys HATED ordaining women --

you should up with your hate at every ordination of women bishops -- particularly the suffragan -- and made hateful spectacles of yourselves.

then it was eugene robinson -- you became convulsive in your hate and disgust.

not it's people who think freely and intelligently -- as if to draw attention away from the first two.

may you all choke on the bile you spew.

[nealmhughes]

5. Most Episcopalians I know (and I am a former vestryman and lay reader)

do not regard the Creed as poetry or the Cross as barbrism or theism as dead.

We also do not see why the historic mission of the Church is threatened by female clergy -- since the orthodox belief is that "In Him there is not East nor West, no male nor female."

These are the same people who lament the loss of the old prayer book...and we've had a new one since 1979. These are the people who do not wish to amdit that the Church is a human institution, founded by Jesus Christ, in orthodox belief, on the Day of Pentecost, but human all the same...whose orthodoxy is guaranteed by the succession of bishops one to the other in line from the Apostles.

When they attack the EC in their rants and schisms, they attack orthodoxy, while claiming to promote and preserve it! It is time for we Episcopalians and Evanglical Lutherans and Methodists to unite in orthodoxy and to seek to live our lives as Christ wanted us to do, not to fight over women and gays. I'm more concerned with world hunger and peace than the use of thee and thou over you, myself. I'll remain loyal to the vows I took at my confirmation.