What brought 100 parishioners to a Sunday Adult Forum at St. Paul, Chattanooga, for three Sundays in Advent?
“Reasonable and holy conversations” about sexuality, facilitated by members of the Bishop’s Committee on Inclusivity, were the big draw. In the course of three Sundays in December, more than 100 adult parishioners came together for plenary sessions and for 14 small group discussions each Sunday.
I have relatives searching for a new parish – these conversations were the last straw.
Ah yes, the “reasonable and holy conversations” about sexuality. Having attended a number of these “conversations” more than ten years ago, I imagine that references to the Scriptures were not permitted so that “personal experiences” might be “shared” in a “non-judgmental” way and everyone might be free to speak what was on his/her heart. Thank God some people know right off what a charade “reasonable and holy conversation” is.
To stick with Hooker’s characterization of Anglicanism, the title (and content) ought to be “Scriptural, Reasonable and Traditional Conversations About Sexuality” (with, he would argue, a primary focus on the Scriptural aspect).
Perhaps Fr Fishburne wants (ummmm, feels called) to be a bishop someday.
Since when did [i]holy[/i] start getting used with the meaning of “polite” or “non-rancorous”?
#3–There you go again wanting to quote scripture. Don’t you know (1) that’s bigotted and a violation of civil rights (we know you opposed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and you that think slavery is good, but we will skip over that for now); (2) the writers of the old testament were racist homophobes and Paul was a latent homosexual who dealt with his own sexuality by condemning perfectly natural love. BTW–if you have ever been to a diocesan forum on sexuality in just about any diocese in TEC, that is the holy and reasonable (one way) conversation you would have had.
I’m sure certain ummm… persons in the WWII German govt had reasonable conversations with people in Vichy. And with Mr Quisling, too.
The Dio of E. Tenn. has a familiar pattern. The 2002 through 2009 experience was quite mild with Members down 3.8 percent, ASA down 12.3 percent, and inflation adjusted Plate & Pledge down 3.4 percent. (I ranked them at 11 of 95 considered.) For Size and Money, there were 20 of its 49 churches with ASA of 66 or less in 2009 and 22 of its churches had Plate & Pledge of more than $150K. Not bad at alL. BUT then for the future, Infant Baptisms were down 16.8 percent and Marriages were down by 32.8 percent. Rather bleak. I also doubt that such conversations will reverse these trends . Statmann
#6 David Keller – thank you for helping me to see the error of my ways. That pesky Hooker keeps infecting my thoughts.
I am out of TEC and in ACNA. One of the kickers for me was the new bishop stating the now oft quoted, “Heresy is preferable to schism.” I ultimately decided that while it was okay for my wife and me to stay and fight for orthodoxy, it was not okay to have to keep telling my children that orthodoxy in doctrine matters, but we were tolerant of our church’s terrible doctrine in order to facilitate change. I suspect we would eventually have left anyway, but we felt strongly we were not fulfilling God’s call to us as parents by staying.
#9–(1) You are most welcome. (2) I’m with you. I am still in TEC but ready for an out, which may be just around the corner.