Around the Episcopal Church
An Episcopalian and a Baptist meet for lunch….
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/the-end-of-evangelical/598423/
Evidence that at least some leaving the Episcopal Church understand neither what they are leaving nor what they are becoming. “We don’t answer to the Episcopal church USA, but we do answer to the Archbishop of Canterbury in England and he has a seat at the Vatican,” says Vallas.”
https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2019/sep/24/stringers-oceansides-conservative-anglican-st-anne/#
Firefighters with the Winston-Salem Fire Department rescued a construction worker having a medical emergency on top of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
https://www.journalnow.com/news/local/man-rescued-from-atop-church-in-winston-salem/article_9befd1a5-7ec4-5671-983c-cb6390c15c24.html
Ten story scaffolding collapsed on top of an Episcopal church in San Antonio
https://www.ktsa.com/scaffolding-collapses-in-downtown-san-antonio-lands-on-st-marks-episcopal-church/
and
https://therivardreport.com/st-marks-church-leaders-grateful-no-one-inside-building-when-scaffolding-collapsed/
Louisiana church hosting a Bob Dylan mass (wasn’t Dylan a Jehovah’s Witness for a while?) BTW, William Miller, the rector, is a genius at publicity
https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/keith_spera/article_615761e2-deed-11e9-b360-e33e6668898d.html
Five bishops are in DC to promote restoration of the refugee resettlement program.
https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2019/09/24/bishops-meet-with-federal-lawmakers-to-advocate-for-episcopal-migration-ministries-refugees/
Down Under
From Australia, on the sacrament of confession and whether or not its biblical
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-23/fact-check3a-are-the-rules-of-confession-in-the-bible3f/11528838
Essentially “emerging church” in New Zealand
https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/life/115302596/back-to-basic-christianity-growing-in-popularity-as-some-traditional-churches-struggle-to-pay-the-bills
England
Cornish vicar quits post to start new “Anglican” church
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/controversy-cornwall-town-vicar-starts-3360310
Anglican Communion
New Primate for Nigeria
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/09/breaking-archbishop-ndukuba-elected-as-new-anglican-primate/
And a new archbishop for Southeast Asia
https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2019/09/27/archbishop-elected-for-anglican-church-in-south-east-asia/
Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) yesterday voted to join and support the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Israeli occupation
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190927-anglican-church-of-southern-africa-votes-to-join-bds/
And Other Interesting Items
An article about how the actors on God Friended Me have been led to examine their open beliefs (and mentions Bp Curry)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-mysteries-of-god-friended-me-brandon-micheal-hall/
An article about how the MSM ignores or misinterprets religious news
https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2019/9/19/podcast-thinking-why-do-many-reporters-avoid-theological-news-on-religious-left
image: Scaffolding Collapse on East Martin between Navarro and Jefferson/KTSA Photo-Elizabeth Ruiz
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People have been leaving organized religion in droves, in general. The trend picked up in the 1990’s when many were repulsed by the religious right. Mr. Vallas had a number of facts wrong, including his characterization of +Gene Robinson as well as gender in the Bible. I know that these days, everyone “knows” they’re right. But facts and truth matter. Paul says we can only know the truth in part. That requires a certain openness, especially regarding our treatment of others.
Article #2: “Evidence that at least some leaving the Episcopal Church understand neither what they are leaving nor what they are becoming.”
This is truly a demeaning, spiteful comment spawned by the sour grapes in the EC communion wine.
The editorial comment focuses on the misunderstandings of the quoted former member about an Anglican/Vatican connection, but the EC editor missed the real story—200 congregants left, and St. Anne’s in Oceanside collapsed into insolvency and was sold. That was ten years ago, and those who left are still together as a vibrant Christian church. In the last four years, the TEC has lost over 120,000 members to death and liberal politicking. Perhaps the self-styled social justice warriors should become humble social justice disciples who lead by example rather than by smug condemnations of those who do not share their politicized theology.
I would add that, given that the article is not very clearly written (it is hard to follow which congregation is being discussed, sometimes) and given a few freshman-level blunders (“not solvent due to… insolvency”) I think it is possible that the “has a seat at the Vatican” quote may be a garbling of whatever the interviewee actually said.
(Sorry about that long, ugly sentence complaining about long, ugly sentences.)
CF last article listed in this week’s roundup.
The EC editor took license with what one former member reportedly said, as “evidence” of what some former members believe, ignoring the clear statement that the former member (Vallas) was: “Speaking only for himself.” One person’s errant comment is not proof of what other people believe. The TEC seems obsessed with denigrating the ACNA when clergy should take comfort that exiting members at least felt some loyalty to Anglican traditions as opposed to abandoning the practice of the Christian faith altogether. The article is a rather inspiring account of a congregation’s perseverance after losing their church facility to the local Diocese. The TEC does not fare well in a comparison of this story of St. Anne’s in Oceanside to the travails of St. James in Newport Beach where, after the majority of the congregation left, B+ Bruno locked the 100+ remaining loyal congregants out in the street in his efforts to sell the sanctuary to a developer.