An Elm Grove church says it will leave the U.S. Episcopal Church to join a rival, more conservative province.
Wednesday’s announcement makes St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church the first Wisconsin congregation to break with the Episcopal Church since the new Anglican Church in North America formed earlier this month.
This is an example of build it and they will come. The question for TEC is how many more now that a real rival is forming. Virginia may be a blood bath for them. The next question becomes how many more once the moratoria on gay bishops is lifted and gay marriage becomes de jure within TEC and not just de facto in certain diocese.
Good for them! This is an excellent development in a parish that we’ve been praying for for quite some time.
The chart seems to indicate that half the congregation left in 2005. ASA dropped from near 200 to less than 100 with membership proportional. What happened?
Teacher says, every time a congregation leaves TEC, an angel gets his wings.
God bless this congregation!
Good for St. Edmund’s! My younger daughter was baptized there.
And note the comment about property. The spokeswoman says that the parish owns the rectory and the land, but who owns the church is in question. So, if DioMilwaukee wins, it could rent the land on which the building stands? More fun for lawyers.
Milwaukee got a new bishop in 2004 and the long time rector of St. Edmund’s died around 2005. Both of those things could have affected ASA.
monika
So the dam keeps breaking.
Ephraim, no need to shore up the ruins when God is doing a new thing!
It’s just such self-satisfied comments as #7 that makes me smile.
Azusa — the guy that obviously is irked with Ephraim Radner — maybe Ephraim sees your new ACNA as “ruins” which you are propping up.
But no matter — hopefully you can feel good about yourself.
[roll eyes]
“Ruins?” No, our ACNA is a bold new structure, and one which is badly needed to replace a tottering and crumbling edifice.
RE: ” . . . our ACNA is a bold new structure . . . ”
Certainly some think so. ; > )
Getting closer – only 150 miles away……
Don
#8: Self-satisfied? Moi? I wish! I hugely respect Ephraim Radner’s scholarship, intellect and commitment (though not his prolixity), & could wish I had a portion of it. But there are times we have to admit that some battles are no longer worth fighting, and often it is easier to see the problem (& to analyze it endlessly) than what to do about it. We mustn’t be bound to accidents of birth & circumstance.
Well, obviously Ephraim Radner believes the battle to be still worth fighting.
[i]Further comments about Dr. Radner will be deleted as off topic to this thread.[/i]
This is unfortunate. If they had just held their horses, in a diocese with a really centrist bishop who has been nothing but gracious, who knows what good might have come?