Six years ago, Georgette Forney, head of an Episcopal Church pro-life group, asked the church to create a healing service for people like herself and others she encountered who had had abortions.
She terminated a pregnancy when she was 16. “For 19 years I was fine. I never thought about it,” she told a committee that was considering liturgy legislation at the 2003 General Convention. Then, one day, without warning, she opened an old yearbook and “felt the presence of my child.
“I did not expect this, I did not plan for it, and I was overwhelmed when it happened. I didn’t know how to cope,” said Forney, president of Anglicans for Life (formerly the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life or NOEL).
My compliments to Ms. Sheridan (the reporter) for using the term “pro-life” instead of some negative euphemism, and also for presenting Anglicans for Life as a valid [i] Episcopal [/i] witness.
News like this presents ample temptation for spin – looks like ENS really made the effort to be objective. That is appreciated.
Fr. Dan Martins has a pretty severe criticism of the calendar changes [url=http://covenant-communion.net/index.php/features/holy_women_holy_men/]here[/url].
Georgette Forney is a real heroine. Her tenure as president of Anglicans for Life has included some creative new efforts to bring the pro-life cause home to people who’ve written it off, wrongly, as anti-women. In particular, her “I Regret My Abortion” campaign has been especially effective. She’s done a tremendous job, and this lobbying effort is one more example of her creativity.
Naturally, the TEC Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music blunted its impact, and apparrently toned down or removed all mention of repentance and sorrow for the wrongness of choosing to have an abortion, but it nonetheless was a noble effort. Bravo, Georgette!
David Handy+
This paragraph at the end caught my eye:
“Dioceses also have submitted liturgy-related resolutions to convention, including requests for convention to authorize the development of rites to bless same-gender unions and to use gender-neutral language for prayer book marriage services. Other diocesan resolutions include proposals to create an Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday and to provide prayers and other liturgical materials for a new Creation Cycle to be celebrated during Pentecost, “affirming the sacredness of God’s creation, of spreading hope about God’s reconciling work in creation and an understanding of environmental stewardship and ecological justice.”â€
What could the use of “gender-neutral language for prayer book marriage services†possibly be but a revision of the theology of marriage?
What can possibly be the purpose of a “new Creation Cycle to be celebrated during Pentecost,†except the replacement of an actual Feast and Season of the Church with a “Gaia-fest†with roots in paganism, not Christianity?
ECUSA is getting sillier and sillier, and less and less Christian. I just wish those running the asylum would have the decency to admit it.
Georgette Fornay is, indeed, a modern-day heroine. Her efforts, and those of her colleagues, to protect the life of the unborn are outstanding and deserve the respect and support of all Anglicans. Will General Convention approve the new prayers? I doubt it. They will politicize them out of existence or water them down to mean virtually nothing. Should Anglicans be a stronger voice for the unborn. Yes.
Rachel’s Tears, Hannah’s Hopes–Although it acknowledges that some people experience unresolved guilt and should be received like any other penitent, it is deficient in its doctrine of sin. Language of confession, repentance, amendment of life, and healing is avoided. Comfort and reassurance are the focus.