The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh agreed to drop legal action against a Moon church that split from the national organization over issues such as abortion and gay clergy.
Part of the agreement allowing St. Philip’s church to keep its building and property stipulates it must cut ties with the newly formed Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh for at least five years.
The St. Philip’s congregation voted Tuesday night on the settlement.
But wait! How can TEC demand this when, everybody knows, “churches cannot leave the denomination. Only people can.”
From a worldly viewpoint, the TEC has performed brilliantly in advancing its agenda/world-view in the last decade:
–With a new lesbian bishop in LA and the lesbian wedding in Boston within the last year, they seemed to be increasing the pace of where they want to go. 2003-2010 must have been a wait and see period.
–with the boycott of the Orthodox Primates and the ignoring of the problem by the other Primates, the TEC has apparently neutralized pressure from the Anglican communion, while still being able to claim Anglican membership, which it seems to value (for legitimacy?)
–current TEC membership can be stabilized either by agreement with the agenda (the leadership?) or by maintaining the inertia of the “pew sitters” by ritual, emphasis on local affairs and church buildings (with slowly declining membership I doubt if it would want to rock the boat too much in any of these areas, which are fairly irrelevant to where it wants to go). You don’t hear a peep of opposition from within the TEC, either as to goals or methods, from non-Orthodox types. Any priest who has dealt with divorce knows that this approach to a parting of ways is the most demonic.
–the Presiding Bishop repeatedly reaches out to non-Episcopalians by a combination of neo-Marxist appeal, new age theology and Catholicism lite (perhaps seeing considerable opportunity in Latin America). The theology may actually be pagan, as it looks like a combination of Roman Empire (incorporating conquered people by incorporating their gods in the pantheon) and “Don’t-Worry, Be-Happy.” With regard to Latin American, I would be very surprised if the Vatican is blind to the policy.
–it is trying to snuff out its American Orthodox rival in the cradle, by depriving it of buildings (which the TEC does not need and can’t afford) and now congregations. The five year deadline is either the most the TEC could get or how long it thinks before the ACNA goes away or is no longer relevant (like lots of other Orthodox that have split away in the past). If it begins to sell its surplus of churches to non-Christians, for the highest price, it will then be actively reducing the Christian foot print in America. It has spent considerable sums and accepted unprecedented debt to win this legal war, knowing that it can out spend the opposition 20:1.
I wonder if this is an “815 approved” model for parishes wishing to avoid litigation and keep their churches? We just saw a negotiated settlement out of Newark of all places, so maybe TEC has finally seen the value of negotiation as it looks at the gallons of red ink it has created fighting all these legal battles.
I don’t see where the loss of one parish hurts ACNA, really. However, if this were to occur in many places with many parishes it could end up hurting.
One follow-up question. Anglicans aren’t congregationalists. Does anyone know who will provide Eccliastical oversight during the 5 years they are neither in TEC nor in ACNA?
There was very little recognizably Anglican about St. Phillip’s to begin with- and what more proof is needed than this decision by the rector and congregation…
Two points:
First, Eric’s comments that they focus on ministry rather than litigation and church politics is IMO a worthy of consideration. He is putting the gospel ahead of the organization. St. Phillips in Moon has grown because the gospel is proclaimed in a way that the people can identify. Maybe we should pay attention. Our style may be different, but the results can not be denied.
Second, this resolution does put light on TEC’s heart. It isn’t about property or fiduciary responsibility. This is all about authority. For at least five years they can, at least on paper, decrease the numbers of ACNA.
Didn’t AMiA opt out of ACNA? If so, St Phillips could connect with AMiA for episcopal oversight.
I doubt St. Philip’s is eager to adopt any episcopal oversight.
#8 No bishop = not anglican by any definition or measure I can think of. Point 4 of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral states “The historic episcopate, locally adapted.” This is sure one heck of ‘locally adapted’. They might not care, or ‘want’ a bishop, but that then begs the question of, fine Christian congregation and well shephered though they may be, how Anglican/Episcopalian they ever were.
But, the more important point, IMHO, is not that the congregation took the deal, but that this demand by TEC also puts the lie to its commitment to yet another core precept of Anglicanism.
Peace to ALL,
-ms
Indeed it does, #9. And one of the tragedies in all of this is that we have both in the US and elsewhere in the Anglican Communion begun to look less and less episcopal and more congregational.
The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh has lost their appeal and unless they decide to appeal to the PA Supreme Court all the parishes will be negotiating for their property. Given the extreme hardball the TEC diocese is employing I expect many parishes will be out on the street…
A tree is known by its fruit and faith without works is dead.
We have been involved with the Anglican Church in East Africa, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania for almost 15 years. We still are. During our first ten years we had active involvement with the Diocese of Pittsburgh, but since the split nothing from either side, not withstanding the fact that we continually get requests for solar electrification from the church in Uganda and Tanzania.
Could it be that St. Phillips simply looked at the example being set by either diocese: ACNA – Pittsburgh, or TEC – Pittsburgh and concluded that their faith was dead?
RE: “During our first ten years we had active involvement with the Diocese of Pittsburgh, but since the split nothing from either side, not withstanding the fact that we continually get requests for solar electrification from the church in Uganda and Tanzania.”
So the thesis would be that because Pittsburgh [either] is not specifically giving to solar electrification through that particular mission that they are dead?
???
That seems odd.
[ACNA] Pittsburgh is quite active, I believe, in mission and ministry. And certainly the ARD has been a wonderful development.
St Philip’s and the other largish evangelical congregations that have left TEC/ACNA around Pittsburgh in recent years are what some call “Sydney Anglicans.” By TEC standards they are low down in the basement and too inclined to read scripture straight ahead. They probably also choke on addressing ++Bob Pittsburgh as “Your Grace.”
We Anglicans/Episcopalians would be a lot stronger in our witness if we better accommodated Rectors who preach in plain clothes and spread the Gospel rather than proclaiming it from a fixed position.
Sarah – we’ve been involved with the Church of Uganda ever since the ArchBishop asked us to put a program together. We are involved with the Anglican churches in other countries as well.
What I am saying is that there is a pattern within the dioceses that split and, in particular with the breaking away part that, once they break, we see them turn inwards and more interested in funding their own things rather than what the church has been asking for.
We have generally seen the giving fall off rapidly across the split. This has been true even with individual churches breaking away, where once we were very involved. Suddenly, after the split, nothing.
Their is a great sin in this schism – the level of faithfullness to overseas mission seems to decline, at least from our perspective. I suspect it is the cost of fighting lawsuits that results in the decline.
RE: “Their is a great sin in this schism – the level of faithfullness to overseas mission seems to decline, at least from our perspective. I suspect it is the cost of fighting lawsuits that results in the decline.”
Well, I can’t discount your own informed perspective of your particular mission.
But I’ve seen *more* faithfulness to overseas mission and far far more interest — both internally to TEC [among conservatives] and externally within ACNA. More interaction, engagement, money — across the board. To put this bluntly I can look directly at *me* and see a stark difference from 7 years ago — and my friends too, who have a greatly renewed interest. I think, for instance, of the orphanage in Kenya founded by a layperson in California. I receive [and have posted] some of her fundraising work often in the past two years alone. I think of the recent missionary to Uganda who needed housing and fellowship on her visit to SC and how simple it was for me to find that for her — very very simple, with an eager crew to hear her at a lunch meeting. From that engagement came much more interaction including an eventual board membership with one of the hosts.
I could describe numerous instances of engagement and yes, money-giving. But I’m guessing that *qualitative* examples are not what is needed, but rather a quantitative study on how people’s minds, hearts and pocketbooks have been changed in regards to our Anglican brothers and sisters in overseas Provinces.
There were many orphanages founded in Uganda and elsewhere before the split, but the difference then, was we had resources to provide electric light because of the faithfull giving of the specific disoceses and churches before the split. Now these orphanages, schools and missionaries still all come to us asking for electric light, power and clean water to help care for the babies or power for recharging laptops to educate the students, and recharging cell phones to carry on with the mission of the gospel, or clean water at health centers to preserve the health of a community, but we have to turn many more away now. Occasionally, we get larger gifts that allow us to electrify a whole orphanage or school, such as the Good Smaratan Orphange near Masaka or the Maranatha School (Kids Uganda) in Mityana, but theses gifts are mainly from non-demnominationally-affiliated interests or TEC churches that have not broken away.
Before the split in the church, we were electrifying hundreds of facilities per year and providing clean water to many health facilities in Uganda. Now we are doing more in other countries, because funding supports it, and much less in Uganda.
It could be that Uganda no longer needs electricity for ite rural facilities, orphanages, schools, health centers, etc. But I suspect, if you asked them, they would say, that the lack of light, power and clean water is a crushing burden.
Gee Whiz Alden. Maybe if the so-called othodox bishops still in the Episcopal Church would have the cojones to do more than issue paper pronouncements and actually stand up to the apostate tyrants in NYC we wouldn’t be spending our time fighting for our properties in litigation.
Not I, nor the orphans of Uganda had anything to do with 815, nor the congregations who split nor the ensuing litigation but it hurt our efforts to help them immensely just the same. I suppose what you are saying is the Devil makes us do it. I’ve got more than ten schools/orphanages in Uganda requesting help, is that what I tell them?
You could tell them to give thanks for their Archbishop, Henry Luke Orombi, who is a man of action, as you say, “A tree is known by its fruit and faith without works is dead”.