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.
I’m amazed at the level of denial in the TEC loyal Pittsburgh diocese. There is apparently widespread acceptance of the idea that nothing changed at all regarding gay bishops or same-sex blessings/marriages. The deception starts from the top. Assisting Bishop Johnson insists that D025 did nothing and the moratorium “is still there. We did not repeal it…I don’t see that there would be any threat to the moratorium unless we get presented with another partnered lesbian or gay bishop. That would be the test. But [this resolution] was a clarification, reminding us of where we are in the Episcopal Church.” He claims that “we did not move the clock forward”, whatever that means. Standing Committtee President Jim Simons argued that D025 is only “a description of where the Episcopal Church is, and a statement of fact” (leading to the obvious question of why, if this is an accurate depiction of D025, he voted against it). He lauds an editorial which flatly denied that C056 “OK’d prayer for gay couples”, saying this denial “gets it right”. So when I see the Senior Warden at St. Mark’s saying things like, “The church has not officially approved same-sex marriage or the ordination of gay bishops. It has only opened discussion. At the convention, they didn’t do what the fear was that they would do”, I am not surprised. They have believed the outright lies that the leadership has been feeding them. Of course I think most of them want to believe it as well. I was simply stunned to read that at the post-convention forum held at St. Paul’s with the Assisting Bishop and lay and clergy deputies, during the open question and answer session, the audience proved completely uninterested in these key resolutions, according to the diocesan press release, “no one directly asked about two attention-getting resolutions dealing with sexuality”.