Rather wonderfully the Catholic church came to the rescue offering the abandoned congregation a place in which to worship. That congregation has since doubled, a clear sign of God’s blessing, wheras the church that remained has dwindled and died. Now for the really revealing part of this very shoddy episode”¦.

”¦having claimed that those leaving were not able to uphold the desires of the church founders the Diocese of New York has spitefully sold the building, at a third of the cost the congregation were offering, to the Muslims! How truly shameful that the Episcopal authorities were so full of hatred and malice that they could stoop to such depths.

Read it all.

Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton New York. (Been there many times. About one hour south of Ithaca and Cornell University.) One of the few growing and thriving Episcopal parishes in the diocese heck in the state. They left the Diocese of Central New York. They tried to keep their property. They were sued. They lost.

The family was abruptly evicted from the parsonage. The church building was closed. (People who came looking for the soup kitchen hoping for something to eat had to look elsewhere. That is an important point. I will come back to this.)

The Episcopal Church sold the building to Muslims.

Who paid one third what the Church of the Good Shepherd was offering. (There is some question about whether they had the funds to make that offer but that is not the most important issue here.)

To Muslims.

See those nasty traditional Anglicans do not believe in same-sex relations. They do not believe in women in ministry. Oh wait they do because the rector’s wife was associate pastor so I guess they do believe in women priests….

Read it all.

Take the time to read it all as well as looking at the pictures and there is a lot more there.

Like more than 100 churches nationwide, Christ Church broke with TEC over its well-documented liberalized faith (“Other Abrahamic faiths have access to God the Father without consciously going through Jesus,” presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has said). The church’s vestry voted unanimously to disaffiliate over “departure from doctrine” and to place the church under the Anglican Province of Uganda. The congregation approved, with 87 percent voting in favor out of over 300 ballots cast.

Division “happened over time,” rector Marc Robertson told me, and 30-40 disaffected members set up a congregation downriver calling itself “Christ Church Episcopal.” Last May TEC filed legal action against Robertson and the vestry, seeking to acquire the property on Johnson Square in Savannah’s historic district. TEC has filed similar actions against churches in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Texas. This case turns on state trust laws and laws of incorporation, and is complex given that Christ Church predates the existence of the state of Georgia. TEC asserts that church property should be subject to denominational “discipline,” which Christ Church forfeited when it quit the denomination, it says.

Funny things happen when a church takes a stand for the gospel. Sunday attendance at Christ Church is up and it accepted 28 new families””a record””for membership this past year. “We have a corporate sense of galvanization,” said Robertson, “and are doing well spiritually. Our biblical literacy has increased because we are driven back to understanding why we believe what we believe.”

Read it all.

Like more than 100 churches nationwide, Christ Church broke with TEC over its well-documented liberalized faith (“Other Abrahamic faiths have access to God the Father without consciously going through Jesus,” presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has said). The church’s vestry voted unanimously to disaffiliate over “departure from doctrine” and to place the church under the Anglican Province of Uganda. The congregation approved, with 87 percent voting in favor out of over 300 ballots cast.

Division “happened over time,” rector Marc Robertson told me, and 30-40 disaffected members set up a congregation downriver calling itself “Christ Church Episcopal.” Last May TEC filed legal action against Robertson and the vestry, seeking to acquire the property on Johnson Square in Savannah’s historic district. TEC has filed similar actions against churches in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Texas. This case turns on state trust laws and laws of incorporation, and is complex given that Christ Church predates the existence of the state of Georgia. TEC asserts that church property should be subject to denominational “discipline,” which Christ Church forfeited when it quit the denomination, it says.

Funny things happen when a church takes a stand for the gospel. Sunday attendance at Christ Church is up and it accepted 28 new families””a record””for membership this past year. “We have a corporate sense of galvanization,” said Robertson, “and are doing well spiritually. Our biblical literacy has increased because we are driven back to understanding why we believe what we believe.”

Read it all.

An L.A. diocesan press release is here and an ENS article is there.

From here:

“In God the Lord whose word I praise,
In God I trust and will not be afraid.” (Ps. 56:10)

Dear Church family,

I received a call at 7am this morning from Eric Sohlgren, our attorney, notifying me that our petition to the US Supreme Court has been denied. The court does not give reasons for its denials.

This is well and truly the end of the legal road for us and I know some of you are disappointed that we will never recover our property and that this kind of injustice will continue in other legal battles across the country. We especially think of our sister churches, St. David’s, All Saints and St. James and the road before them. Do keep them and other sister churches further afield in your prayers.
I know others of you are relieved that the legal wrangling is over and we can be about the work of the Gospel unhindered. Or you may be feeling a mixture of both disappointment and relief, as am I. Where ever you are, know that we will continue to walk forward together and that our Lord is with us.

The other question that rises is what was that all about? I am not sure that is a helpful question. Rather, we need to remember why we did what we did as we continue to trust God with the outcome. So let me remind everyone the main reason we felt compelled to appeal. It was for the sake of our sister churches so that they wouldn’t have to experience the pain and loss of being evicted from dear and memory filled houses of worship. So that they would not suffer the same injustice that we have suffered at the hands of false shepherds in the leadership of the Episcopal Church. By the way, I say that without bitterness or anger. It is simply a fact. May the Lord have mercy upon them.

So remembering why we did what we did, and remembering that the vast majority of our legal costs have been funded as though manna from heaven, we are to rest in God’s good purposes for us. He will continue to prove himself to be utterly faithful.

Finally, I want to leave you with the psalm verse that spoke peace to me in my evening devotions last night:

“In God the Lord whose word I praise,
In God I trust and will not be afraid.” (Ps. 56:10)

You may find it helpful to continue to pray this until is settles deeply in your heart.

So ”˜forgetting what lies behind”¦ [let us] press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called [us] heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:13-14

–(The Rev.) Rob Holman is rector, St. Luke’s Anglican Church La Crescenta, California

Diocesan officials also addressed a $4 million line of credit ”” of which $3.5 million has been spent to date ”” that it has taken out to fund a three-year lawsuit against 11 conservative churches that left the diocese in 2006 and early 2007. When market conditions approve, the diocese will sell parcels of unconsecrated land to help pay the $3.5 million.

The diocese seeks to win back millions of dollars of property taken by the departing churches, which left over liberal trends in the denomination. After the conservatives won the lawsuit at trial, the diocese appealed. The case will go before the Virginia Supreme Court this year.

The departure of the conservatives, which reduced the diocese’s membership by about 10,000, was referred to several times Saturday as causing much “pain” to the remaining Episcopalians. However, a last-minute amendment to form a “reconciliation task force” between Episcopalians and former Episcopalians failed for lack of time to consider it adequately.

Read it all.

MT: I’d like to talk to you a little about Grace Episcopal in particular. Can you give me an overview of the place of Grace Episcopal in the Anglican Communion? How does the relationship between the members of the Communion work in practicality?

TV: The Anglican Communion, coming as it did out of the Reformation, is what I call ecclesiastically schizophrenic. Basically we’re Catholic (just not Roman Catholic) but, with our Reformed fear of papal authority we’re very decentralized. Grace is a mission (meaning the Bishop is the rector, head, of the parish) in the Diocese of San Joaquin which in turn is part of the Episcopal Church. Each national church (e.g., Canada, Nigeria) is autonomous, within a loose confederation headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury who, however, has more of a bully-pulpit authority rather than a legislative one.

MT: What are the primary doctrines of Grace Episcopal? How are these connected to the broader Episcopal Church? Are there differences or are the doctrines consistent?

TV: Grace was founded as, and is, a welcoming and inclusive parish, which means, especially in Bako, that we fully welcome LGBT folk. We were also founded as an outreach parish, reaching out in love to others rather than focusing overmuch on ourselves. The two main tenets that separate Grace and the Episcopal Church (TEC) from the schismatics is that we embrace our LGBT sisters and brothers and we ordain women.

Read it all.

The American Anglican Council today made public an accounting of how The Episcopal Church (TEC) has spent millions of dollars in over 50 lawsuits, deposed or inhibited 12 bishops and more than 400 other clergy, and violated its own canons numerous times. The paper, titled “The Episcopal Church: Overbearing and Unjust Episcopal Acts,” chronicles each of these subjects and a number of other abuses or injustices committed against faithful Anglicans in the U.S.

“The Episcopal Church is systematically targeting, intimidating, suing, and ultimately persecuting orthodox Anglicans throughout the U.S.” said the Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, President and CEO of the American Anglican Council. “This paper illustrates the lengths to which TEC leaders will go to silence the voices of orthodox Christians in the Anglican Communion – Anglicans whose only offense was to stand for the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and Anglican Communion teaching.”

Read it all and especially take the time to click the link at the bottom to the full paper itself.

Read it all.

On behalf of the staff and former Sr. Warden’s we wish to thank you for your faithful commitment to engage the discernment process this fall. While the question before our congregation was a serious and sobering one, the depth and richness of the materials and sermons combined with your participation in LifeGroups has worked to deepen our corporate understanding of the Lord’s direction in our life and the call upon this parish, so, thank you.

Last night we gathered to count the response forms and by a 93% ”“ 6% margin the congregation has overwhelmingly recommended that St. Andrew’s affiliate with the Anglican Church in North America and separate from The Episcopal Church.

Read it all..

As two former Episcopal dioceses hold conventions this weekend, they are beginning to incorporate congregations from across the nation.

The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh will vote on welcoming Harvest Anglican Church, Homer City, Pa.; Church of the Transfiguration, Cleveland, Ohio; HolyTrinityChurch, Raleigh, N.C.; and St. James Church, San Jose, Calif.

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (Southern Cone) plans to receive St. Gabriel’s Anglican Church, Springdale, Ark., as a new mission station. It also will welcome two existing parishes: St. Matthias’ Anglican Church, Dallas; and Church of the Holy Spirit, Tulsa, Okla.

On Oct. 30, the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee went to court against St. Andrew’s Church, Nashville, which left the Episcopal Church in 2006 and has since announced its affiliation with the Diocese of Quincy (Ill.).

Read it all.

The Rev. Allan Hawkins, who leads Saint Mary the Virgin church outside of Dallas, said the Vatican’s decision could start unifying the Catholic and Anglican churches after a centuries-old rift.

“I didn’t think I would live to see this day,” Hawkins said during a recent Sunday Mass.

Saint Mary the Virgin is one of three churches in Texas to become Catholic after the Vatican’s 1980 approval of the “Anglican use” provision, which allowed U.S. churches to convert on a case-by-case basis but also retain their traditions and identity.

Read it all.

Massachusetts Episcopalians and Catholics this weekend weighed the Vatican’s invitation for traditionalist Anglicans to become Catholics, with some vehemently rejecting the idea and others saying its impact is unclear until more details are known.

Read it all.

The morning of October 11, 2009, all of St. Luke’s Anglican Church, La Crescenta were to worship in our original building for the last time before it was confiscated and handed over to the L.A. Diocese of the Episcopalian Church. It was sure to be an emotional time for all of us ”“ maybe even gut-wrenching.

Personally, I had many reasons to be angry and sad over losing the building. This was the place where I had met my wife, Kathy. This was the sanctuary where we were wed. This was where my Godson and his little sister had been baptized. This was where I had experienced the Spirit in worship for the first time after a long dry spell elsewhere. And I am only a member of five years ”“ how much more a loss for those to whom the beautiful stone and wood sanctuary and grounds had been a home for up to five generations!

Yet, that Sunday, as we began to sing familiar songs and speak the liturgical words, I did not feel anger or sadness. I did not witness people wailing and clinging to the walls. Instead, I found myself joining in with loud, strong voices of praise to our faithful God. There was strong emotion all right, but it wasn’t lamentation or mourning ”“ amazingly, as we left the building, the lingering emotion was joy.
Maybe this feeling was on account of the fact that we’d spent so many months letting go already (including the many notes of remembrance that members had posted around the grounds and were now collected in a Book of Testimony). Maybe it was a sense of release from the legal suspense. Maybe it was the word shared by Fr. Rob from Hebrews, Chapter 10 that rang so true and truly prophetic (read the entire chapter and be amazed). It was probably all those things. Most of all, though, the joy was from the living Spirit of Christ Our Savior, present with us in such a way that, afterwards, a member of the press was heard to say that he’d never heard worship quite like what he’d witnessed that morning. Even my 3-month-old boy, Jake, had been compelled to join in, shouting out during each chorus of “Lion of Judah.”

As we all gathered afterwards to check out our new worship space — and again as we had our first service there this past Sunday ”“ I was struck by the full reality of what had before been a concept: the Church, including our little St. Luke’s, is not a building. We had lost the beautiful building, yes. Yet, here was my wife. Here were the smiling faces of the ladies who had coordinated our wedding. Here was our baby boy, to be baptized next month. Here was my Best Man and his lovely wife; my Godson; my pastor; my buddy who had helped me to finish my last short film; so many friends who had brought Kathy and I meals and other support when we brought our baby home. Here was my spiritual family. Here was the Body of Christ.

I’d mentally assented to the concept before, but now I have experienced the reality anew: the Church is God living in and amongst all those peculiar and particular people who love him and are called according to his purposes. So, whether we win or lose legal battles over property, no judge and no religious authority can ever confiscate the Church.

Or our Joy.

Thanks be to God, hallelujah, hallelujah,

Keith Ray Putman

The marquee outside St. Luke’s Anglican Church in La Crescenta was a bit sardonic in its scripture from the Book of Hebrews: “You joyfully accepted confiscation of your property.”

That was the message delivered Sunday by the Rev. Rob Holman, in his last sermon at the Foothill Boulevard church that has been entangled in a legal dispute with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

“Next Sunday, as many of you know, we will be worshiping in a different building,” Holman said. “All because we have chosen to stand for the gospel and the authority of God’s word over our lives.”

Read it all.

A core membership of 200 former Christ Church members have raised $370,000 to pay for the initial startup, with the hope of raising more to buy the church outright.

This new parish has its roots in a deep division among conservatives and liberals within the Episcopal Church as a whole, strife that came to a head in 2003 with the consecration of the openly gay Right Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire.

The founders of this new church don’t consider this a split from the Hamilton parish, but the founding of a new church under the Anglican Communion, said David Greening, 58, of Beverly, a retired marketing and communications manager from Osram Sylvania. He’s the church’s senior warden.

“It’s more of a pioneering effort on our part,” Greening said. “This is not a schism.”

Read it all.

The church split from the Christ Church in Hamilton, said curate Brian Barry this week, although he more gracefully referred to it as a “planting.”

“Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church is a new missionary church plant birthed out of Christ Church (Episcopal) of Hamilton-Wenham, of which I was rector for 12 years,” wrote Rector Jurgen Liias on the new church’s Web site, www.ctr-anglican.org.

“If you seek a spiritual home for you and your family, if you seek to give your life away in joyful service to others in the name of Jesus Christ, come join us as we build God’s house,” Rector Liias continues.

Curate Barry explained that the church is a member parish of the Anglican Church in North America, which was formed earlier this year.

Read it all.

A majority of the members of St. Mark’s-on-the-Mesa Episcopal Church are leaving their church property and endowments worth over $2 million to form a new parish, Christ the King Anglican Church.

This past Sunday, September 27, the former priest-in-charge of St. Mark’s, The Rev. Roger Weber, along with two other clergy members, eight of ten staff members, and eleven of twelve members of the church governing board (vestry) announced their decision to leave the Episcopal Church and form the new Anglican parish. They will become part of the Anglican Church in North America, which was recently formed in response to widespread un-biblical teaching and practice in The Episcopal Church (U.S.) and the Anglican Church of Canada.

“This has been a difficult decision, but after the 2009 Episcopal General Convention in July, we have finally come to the point where we cannot continue in a denomination that rejects the authority of scripture and increasingly characterizes the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as tangential and non-essential, rather than Son of God, Lord and Savior,” said The Rev. Weber. “We’re excited about our future as part of the Anglican Church in North America, which is aligned with the majority of Christians worldwide who uphold biblical faith and teaching.”

Read it all.

May the Lord bless him.

Via email:

Largo, Florida ”“ By a vote of 174 to 13, the membership of St. Dunstan’s Church today voted to sever its ties with The Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) as a parish within the Anglican Diocese of Quincy, Ill. The vote took place during a special meeting convened following regularly scheduled church services this past weekend.

The ACNA unites some 100,000 Anglicans in 700 parishes into a single church. Jurisdictions which have joined together to form the 28 dioceses and dioceses-in-formation of the Anglican Church in North America include four former Episcopal dioceses (the dioceses of Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy and San Joaquin); the Anglican Mission in the Americas; the Convocation of Anglicans in North America; the Anglican Network in Canada; the Anglican Coalition in Canada; the Reformed Episcopal Church; and the missionary initiatives of Kenya, Uganda, and South America’s Southern Cone. Additionally, the American Anglican Council and Forward in Faith North America are founding organizations. The ACNA is headed by the Archbishop Robert Duncan, Archbishop and Primate.

When members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 335 Locust St., voted 2-1 in January to remain in the Episcopal Church of the United States, the Rev. Doug Blakelock, church pastor, and about 40 members separated from St. Mark’s.

“One third of the congregation did not want to stay in the Episcopal Church,” Blakelock said in the Oakland United Methodist Church sanctuary.

“Deacon Marion Kush and I led them out, and the very next Sunday we met here.”

The Methodist congregation graciously opened the doors for their neighbors to hold a Eucharist healing service on Jan. 18, Blakelock explained.

The breakaway Episcopalians founded St. Matthew’s Anglican Church. They have been worshiping Sunday afternoons in the Oakland church at 1504 Bedford St. ever since.

Read it all.

In December 2006, members of the original congregation split from St. John’s Episcopal Church as part of a larger national break by conservative congregations over same-sex blessings, ordination of a gay bishop and the authority of Scripture. The breakaway St. John’s Anglican Church continued meeting in the church, an 1890 shingled sanctuary and rectory.

The remaining Episcopal members re-formed under the Rev. Norman Cram, who came out of retirement to conduct services ”” first in a parishioner’s living room and later at Elim Lutheran Church.

A settlement recently was reached with St. John’s Anglican congregation after a unanimous California Supreme Court ruling involving churches in a similar situation in Southern California.

“To be back home means we can reach outside of our border to the community of Petaluma,” said Cram. “Currently, we have been exploring areas in which there are vacuums in ministry.”

“I think the congregation is counting on us to provide an atmosphere of love and acceptance, as well as a message of hope during these tough times,” he added. “There have been rapid changes in our culture, and we think we can provide a safe place for all people wishing to worship.”

Read it all.

The 750 churches in the newly formed Anglican Church in North America were once among the most charismatic churches in the Episcopal fold, said the Rev. Briane Turley, rector of Tulsa’s Church of the Holy Spirit Anglican.

Turley’s church is one of two Tulsa-area congregations in the new denomination.

Most of the congregations left the Episcopal Church over concerns that it was drifting from its biblical foundation.

“Most of the largest Episcopal churches have joined us,” he said.

Turley said that the largest Episcopal churches have tended to be evangelical and charismatic at their core.

“We’ve tended to attract the most evangelical, and the most Anglo-Catholic congregations,” he said, churches that adhere to the biblical record and also to traditional, liturgical forms of worship.

“It has to do with a thirst for the transcendent Christ, for knowing him, having entered into a deeper relationship with him,” he said.

Read it all.

Although the decision has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Anglican leaders in Petaluma decided to settle rather than engage in a costly legal battle, said their lawyer, the Rev. Lu T. Nguyen.

“My clients felt as though it just wasn’t worth the long-term fight,” Nguyen said. “This is a church. It’s purpose is not material gain but spiritual matters.”

Petaluma Episcopalians appeared happy Wednesday to have a place of their own.

After a majority of the congregation voted to split from the Episcopal Church in December 2006, the remaining Episcopal members re-formed under the Rev. Norman Cram, and held services first in a parishioner’s living room and later at Elim Lutheran Church.

The congregation now has about 50 members.

Read it all.

Among the [ACNA] founders was the Rev. Neil Lebhar, a Jacksonville priest and a leader of the regional movement of theological conservatives out of the denomination after an openly gay bishop was elected in New Hampshire in 2003.

With its archbishop and church laws now established, the new group represents a clean break with the past for former Episcopalians, Lebhar said.

“For the average person in the pew, I’d say the major thing it means is that our denominational battles are over and we can get on with the ministry and mission of the church,” said Lebhar, rector at the (Anglican) Church of the Redeemer on the Southside.

Read it all.

Take a look.

The Rev. Jeffrey S. Dugan, pastor at St. James Episcopal Church, is recovering today from surgery after suffering a broken thigh bone Wednesday in a fall at Acadia National Park in Maine.

Dugan, who’s been at St. James for nearly two decades, was hiking at the park when he fell, according to a report in the Bangor Daily News. Lois Wack, the church administrator, said that Dugan was at the park with his daughter.

Wack said that Dugan’s wife, Betty, went to Maine to join her daughter and husband, who was heavily sedated.

Read it all.

Via email:

HERNDON, Va. (April 9, 2009) ”“ The Convocation of Anglicans in North America announced that five congregations from five different states have joined the orthodox Anglican organization.

The new CANA members are as follows: Coventry, Alabaster, Ala.; Christ Church, Baltimore, Md.; St. Stephens, Tullahoma, Tenn.; Holy Trinity, North Augusta, S.C., and St. Edmunds, Elm Grove, Wis.

“We are pleased to welcome these new congregations into the CANA fellowship, a body of orthodox Anglican Christians here in the U.S. This is an exciting time to be Anglican given the renewed enthusiasm in this country and around the world. CANA provides an authentic connection to the worldwide Anglican Communion, which is what many Christians are seeking. We pray that each of these new congregations will grow in the fullness of our Lord Jesus Christ and continue to see lives transformed by the Good News of the Gospel,” said CANA Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns.

With the addition of these congregations, CANA now includes 75 congregations across the U.S.