When conservative members of the Episcopal Church announced plans to found a new denomination this week, the fissure had a direct impact on one local church and appeared uncomfortably familiar to members of another.
No churches in the local Episcopal diocese planned to join the new denomination, called the Anglican Church in North America. But a Scranton parish was among the small denominations that had previously left the Episcopal Church that formed a coalition to develop the new province.
Grace Reformed Episcopal Church, on Laurel Drive, is a part of the Reformed Episcopal Church, which broke away from the mother Episcopal Church in 1873 for broadly evangelical reasons. The pastor of the local church, the Rev. Paul Howden, said the presiding bishop of his denomination helped lead the way in forming the coalition of conservative denominations and Episcopal dioceses that on Wednesday joined to make the new province.
For the small denomination ”” there are about 10,000 members of the Reformed Episcopal Church ”” the new province signals a much bigger alliance than it has had in its history as a breakaway group.
“Instead of feeling lonely and isolated with so few churches throughout the country, we go from 10,000 to 100,000 members,” he said, referring to the estimated number of adherents in the new province.
Hope looks up to God….
“If the Church of the Good Shepherd is indicative of the larger Episcopal Church, a positive reformation can follow a fissure. Mr. Shotto said the Rev. Bergman’s departure “ended up being the best thing that’s happened to our parish because it made us reflect on ourselves and examine our strengths.†In recent years, the parish has grown its membership and increased its outreach efforts, especially to the homeless.”
Not according to their parish reports, which shows a continuing drop in members and ASA. Not made clear by the article is the fact that Fr. Bergman and the parishioners who left with him succesfully formed the latest Roman Catholic Anglican Use Parish.
Give it a rest already, “Already Gone”! We know you are biasedly Roman. But be glad for the little kid on the block sometime. Or at least don’t spit in his wine.
Justinmartyr- I’m not sure what I said that triggered such such uncharitable remarks, but I was simply making two points. First, the claim, presumably by the TEC Church of the Good Shepard, that they have grown in recent years is simply not true according to their official statistics available on the TEC Congregations website. Second, the article leaves the impression that Fr. Bergman and those who left TEC simply became Catholics. In fact, they formed an Anglican Use parish, which is, in point of fact, currently the latest one. This was an exceedingly difficult thing to do, hense my comment that they were successfull in doing do. Finally, of course I’m “biasedly Roman” — I’m a Roman Catholic. However, I fail to see how exactly how my comments “spit into” the “little kid on the block”s wine (or who’s wine your referring to — Good Shepard? TEC? REC?), an allegation I regard as beyond the bounds of civil discourse on this blog.
Justinmartyr, are you advocating that we should be unconcerned by this statement right here? “In recent years, the parish has grown its membership and increased its outreach efforts, especially to the homeless.”
Do you think that under any circumstances this graph provides evidence of any sort that “in recent years, the parish has grown its membership”?
http://tinyurl.com/5el8pe
Again, the false propaganda:
[i]When conservative members of the Episcopal Church announced plans to found a [b]new denomination[/b] this week,[/i]
No, what is being formed is a new province in an old denomination, the Anglican Communion.