Both men are religious — [Joseph] Eppink is Episcopalian, [Ralph] Panelli is Roman Catholic — so a church wedding was necessary for them.
The couple booked the First Lutheran Church in Albany, Babcock’s place of worship. They said they would have loved to have the ceremony in Eppink’s church, but Bishop William Love of the Albany Episcopal Diocese has barred priests from participating in same-sex marriage ceremonies. The congregation supports the couple. The Sunday after the law was passed, “We had a coffee hour in front of the church, and there was this huge cheer from people. The church, the parish, they’re all very excited,” Eppink said.
“Both men are religious — Eppink is Episcopalian, Panelli is Roman Catholic — so a church wedding was necessary for them.”
I’ll resist temptation to comment on this sentence, but it certainly caught my eye.
Bishop Love is clearly under demonic attack. May God strengthen him, and enable him to resist evil.
In other words, “We are Christian, but we reserve the right to do what we want when we want to do it. Obedience to Scripture is optional.”
The Diocese of Albany is largely orthodox, but because of its proximity to NYC, there are some parishes (often old and endowed), especially in towns along the Hudson, that are as revisionist as one would find in Newark or San Francisco. Prayer and persistence will allow the orthodox parishes to outlive the revisionist ones on the whole, but there may be some “exciting” times along the way.
Just a reminder; the Albany canon law was not established by fiat , but by a decisive and overwhelming vote of Convention.
Towns along the Hudson, and the Mohawk, Hakkatan…..
Sure hope the conservatives of Albany are planning and strategizing regarding the next bishop election — because the revisionists sure are.
My parish is “along the Hudson” and we are NOT revisionist. In the Albany Diocese, there is only one Hudson Valley parish, Christ Church, Hudson (on the east side of the River) that is committed to the Gay agenda. Another partly including pro-gay people is nearer to the Massachusetts border with one other up in the Catskills — both very small. (And BTW, none of these parishes would be at all upset about being “outed,” as it were)
Over 3/4 of our diocese is enthusiastically orthodox in every way. St. Andrew’s, Albany and St. Stephen’s, Niskayuna are notable dissenters. We have our “Via Media” (misnomer) priests and people, but we also have strong diocesan canons.
We would say of ourselves that it is not Bp Bill who “bars” gay weddings, it is our Lord and the Holy Scriptures. The canons easily and enthusiastically passed by our convention uphold the Holy Scriptures, and our good Bishop upholds both.
And yeah, please pray for him and for us all because Albany is only a short train ride up the Hudson from 815 Second Ave.
Albany canons protecting Biblical Holy Matrimony were established and passed by TWO diocesan conventions as required by the Constitution of the Diocese of Albany.
I will NEVER forget Bishop Love’s statement on Anglican TV outside the General Convention of 2009, that it was ‘very dark in there’ requiring spiritual warfare and protection. (http://www.anglican.tv/content/gc-2009-conversation-bishop-william-love)
Another person who reports on Conventions wrote that she was spat upon by the revisionists when they discovered her position. The various militant agendites (pansexual, abortion, muslim) are aggressive when you disagree with them. They will physically and verbally attack people, vandalize/destroy churches and businesses, cause people to lose their jobs, call them vile names, etc.
This article above is just the beginning stage of their campaign to influence and/or infiltrate and conquer the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, the whining, poor persecuted me stage. The pansexual agendites will not rest until they succeed in forcing Love and all who object to the defilement of Christian marriage to back down or leave. Neither he nor any other God-fearing born-again Christian ever will back down on this issue or any other concerning Scripture or basic Christian doctrine. The Diocese will split first.
OK, I’m sorry, but I’ve just seen the second misuse of the term “born again” in comments on T-1-9 today. Conservative or ‘orthodox’ Christians are not the only ones to have been born again. Whoever has been baptized has been born again. John 3- rebirth in water and the Holy Spirit refers to the sacrament of baptism. Go ahead and look it up- it’s the ancient, biblical teaching of the Church. As I said in ranting about the other such comment, by baptism we’re all sons of God and inheritors of his kingdom. But as C.S. Lewis explains, there are bad sons and good sons, sons who value their inheritance and sons who waste it. Sorry, but we all need to know our basic confirmation-class theology.
TACit, I forgot my NY geography and the path of the Mohawk; you are right. Not that I meant that ALL the parishes along the major rivers were revisionists – but those that are were likely to be on the Hudson or Mohawk. Proximity to New England, as Lumen Christi notes, is also an indicator. And Bp Love’s former parish, St Marys in Lake Luzerne, is along the upper Hudson.
As an orthodox priest in New England from 1991-2009, I certainly experienced some of the disdain that St Nikao notes. It did not come from everyone, nor was it as open as it was at GC 09, but it was not uncommon to overhear dismissive statements, or to find that resolutions for diocesan convention did not stand a chance of making it to the floor.
I hope that Albany can hold its own, but the next GC may bring changes that will make that even harder – and the new disciplinary canons will not be a help to the orthodox.
I note that Eppink teaches music at the College of St Rose – a Roman Catholic college (at least in theory). I am surprised that the RC bishop has not said something, as this pair has not hidden their relationship.
Congratulations, Ralph and Joseph! Your love is a blessing to the Church. For another report of the wedding plans, visit Openly Episcopal in Albany, http://drbones.typepad.com/openly_episcopal_in_alban/. Feel free to comment, but post your real name. Openly Episcopal insists on transparency and honest comment, rather than pseudonymous postings.
John White
Diocese of Albany
Albany Via Media
Ian+, # 9,
In using the term, ‘born-again’, I meant: to be Biblically minded, regenerated, people whose faith, values and beliefs have been converted/conformed, who have the desire to follow God’s Word. You may believe that baptism does the trick, but many have not (in your terms) lived into their baptismal covenant.
Jesus said, ‘You are my disciples IF you…
– take up your cross and follow me (repentance).
– continue in My Word (live a Scripture/Commandment congruent life)
– love one another (that doesn’t mean anything sexual as Spong and Robinson would have you believe)
– bear much fruit (according to HIS purposes, lead people to Jesus, not an ungodly idealogy – Romans 8:29)
A mere ritual does not, cannot regenerate anyone. It takes an act of God. In Scripture, the willingness to repent, to follow God’s Way and the Holy Spirit came before baptism.
12, a fine celebration of sin. Call it what you want and dress it up, it is still contrary to God’s plan and is flagrantly disobedient.
RE: “Your love is a blessing to the Church.”
Of course, the “love” is no more “love” than any other disordered affection. The pyromaniac “loves” fire, in a sense. But it’s not agape.
But this is typical. So broad and deep is the chasm between the two parties in TEC, that even standard words in the English language have antithetical meanings.
And — rather obviously — it is no “blessing” to The Episcopal Church as that same entity continues to be hollowed out and shrivel down further.
I’m reminded of the words “King — yes king . . . of nothing.”
In the end, that is what TEC will be, as it is slowly whittled away.
On the other hand, sometimes baptism packs an unexpected wallop – a good one:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024086/Harry-Potter-actress-13-comes-dead-priest-puts-holy-water-head.html#ixzz1Ud2p3a1T
Sarah,
A disordered love is still love just as a corrupted good is still a good. Corruption is parasitic on goods. Friendship, sex, domestic life, these are all goods–it’s just that over 1900 years of Church teaching holds they have a natural, God given order that is not subject to our will.
‘Antithetical’ meaning mutually incompatible is too strong a term. A habit may be a sin, even a mortal sin that obstructs our obedient love for God and damns our soul, even if it has many things in common with a virtuous habit. Consider a baptized man who leaves his baptized wife and children for a younger woman. He may have a friendship with that second woman that is more tranquil and productive than he had with his wife, and he may even have beautiful children with the second woman. Nonetheless, he is still an adulterer.
Hi newcollegegrad — I disagree.
If somebody claims to “love” their child while abusing him or her — that is not love at all.
You do not love someone while abusing that person — and sex acts between males or females is abuse both of oneself and the other. It is intrinsically unloving.
Thus “love” = “disdain/contempt” in the eyes of the two competing sides.
As I said — the two sides don’t even share the same language.