The rift has tested personal and professional relationships, spurred protracted court disputes over church property and prompted efforts to create a rival North American province.
“What you are seeing is a division between churches committed to the historical Christian witness and churches committed to the categories of contemporary cultural relevance,” said John Wright, professor of theology and Christian scriptures at Point Loma Nazarene University.
The fissure has played out painstakingly in San Diego County as one congregation after another has decided to break away and commit itself to bishops in Africa and Latin America.
I wonder how the diocese has fared in generating attendance figures for the other two parishes.
The lib-ruhls go about (insulting Bonhoeffer) saying it’s just the cost of discipleship, and chortling about how attendance will bounce back.
Actually, I haven’t heard them saying that lately.
What a sad news story to read during Christmastide. But, what a wonderful new beginning for a faithful congregation! To be rid of an episcopus malus is a bonus Christmas present.
I guess I don’t see it as so sad if a Godly congregation severs ties with an unscriptural leadership. I pray with excitement for those growing non-Episcopal congregations (such as mine) who are growing both in ministry and in number.
It’s all about power. Property is just a symbol of power for TEC heresiarchs. They literally do not care what happens to the property they seize under color of law, and they do not care if people in their dioceses walk away. Their hearts do not bleed, they feel no pangs of conscience, if their dioceses experience a decline in membership due to their decisions. They see it as a regrettable inevitability of the the righteous exercise of their authority. I frequently sit in meetings of the ruling bodies to which I belong and hear people talk like this. It’s all about power. Sometimes I say something, sometimes I don’t. It’s necessary for them to experience the consequences of their actions, and sometimes I tell them that’s what is happening, but it falls on deaf ears.
Every now and then someone walks a labrynth — And finds their way OUT! Escapees are frowned upon.
to drjoan:
God Bless you and your new Godly church. TEC is in my rear view mirror also. Very sad however, takes a long time to get over. Trying to find a new way to be faithful in a new (non-TEC) church and may have found it. Have begun to read – really read- the Bible, very difficult but very fruitful. I have been a very disobiedient Christian. Am determined to become obiedient.
San Diego has lost 20.1 percent of its ASA from 2002 through 2009. With problems at Holy Trinity, St. Anne, and St. Michael, it may lose as much as another 600 in 2010. Statmann
[blockquote] “I think they saw the handwriting on the wall,†he added. [/blockquote]
I think some leaders of the diocese need to reread Daniel 5.
“The vestry inquired about purchasing the parcel, which the county assessed at $714,782 in 2007. It said the diocese pegged the purchase price at more than $2 million, and that efforts to rent the church building were rebuffed.”