In the past few months I have read several agonized reports on the supposed death throes of the Episcopal Church. I have not studied the statistics or interviewed masses of people. However, I have traveled in the opposite direction from those who have left the Episcopal church, and am glad that I have.
I’ve been an Episcopalian for a little over a year. I found a church home with strong preaching, a loving community, and attention to scripture, reason and tradition. The liturgy moves me, the clergy challenges me, and I am both inspired and heard. After 10 years as a Baptist, it has been a welcoming new home.
Yes, I do understand that membership numbers are down. Much of that, of course, is because a number of congregations and many individuals left the Episcopal Church when it accepted gay and lesbian clergy several years ago. Being among the first major denominations to resolve this issue, though, is both a blessing and a curse — yes, some people left in anger, but I also know where the church will stand from this point forward, and I agree with that position. The wrenching dislocation of that question is resolved. There is a blessed settledness to that.
All is well.
Where to start? Too much material with which to work! I’ll settle on one point: this fellow’s been an Episcopalian for 365 days, and he presumes a) to speak for TEC (“…ready for me…”) and b) conclude the motivations of the “angry” leavers. Sigh. We need a Bugs Bunny “what a maroon” app on T19, . . .
Lucky for him: he has found a church that manifests a god for his particular tastes. What’s not to be happy about?
“…first major denominations to resolve this issue…”
Actually, other major denominations have resolved this issue. They chose differently.
RE: “Being among the first major denominations to resolve this issue, though, is both a blessing and a curse — yes, some people left in anger, but I also know where the church will stand from this point forward, and I agree with that position. The wrenching dislocation of that question is resolved. There is a blessed settledness to that.”
Oh my — “naive much?” ; > )
What’s really stunning is that I’m guessing there are as many who disagree with the changes *still in* the church as who have left. And many of those are not going to allow TEC to feel “settled” at all nor are they leaving. And many of the rest will still be leaving over the coming decade.
I don’t think TEC revisionists have *yet* gotten it. They’re still at the point they were in early 2004 — shocked and befuddled and confused and angry and still waiting on the throngs to stream in and wondering when the “tiny minority who disagree with this” will be quiet and leave.
And it’s 10 years later. And they’ve added another one of the clueless to their ranks, it seems.
I look for a minimum of another decade of “wrenching dislocation” — parishes closing, dioceses begging for money, staffs being cut, camps and conference centers being closed, lawsuits, detachment and distancing from the laity staying, clergy losing their jobs, budget battles at General Convention as they pick over the bleached bones of the carcase. I don’t think there will be any “settledness” at all, until the church is declared defunct by the watching culture.
[blockquote]”However, if we have erred, we have erred on the side of love”[/blockquote]
I have heard that one before. Our bishop would call it erring on the side of grace. Capitulation by the Church to the forces of Sin is not a loving or graceful thing to do. What ever happened to tough love?
#6, he obviously has a deficient view of Godly love. As C.S. Lewis said in “The Weight of Glory” (page 46 in my edition)
[blockquote]And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.[/blockquote]
Awesome CS Lewis quote Ross, thank you!
Let the dead bury the dead.
May I humbly suggest that Mr Osler take a step back and read his own words again? Either he fell for TEC’s version of how things should be, and swallowed the bait hook, line, and sinker, or he wasn’t paying attention during Inquirer’s Class……assuming, of course, that his parish even had one.