It’s been one year since Church of the Holy Trinity in Ridgeland made the decision to disassociate from the national Episcopal Church and remain in the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.
It’s been one year since some lifelong members of the church parted ways, joining other houses of worship and breaking ties with family and friends.
Though the Diocese of South Carolina has commonly been referred to as a “breakaway church,” Holy Trinity’s Rev. James Gibson said, this portrayal is simply inaccurate.
“Our contention is that we have kept the faith, we have stayed within the historic faith of the church and that our diocese, in the decision it has made to disaffiliate with the national church, is not ”˜leaving’ the church,” Gibson said. “We have not broken away, we have branched out and sought a greater unity with the worldwide church.”
Kudos to Father Jai for accurately describe the situation between the Diocese of SC and TEC. I am glad the small town newspaper had a reporter with enough ability to actually write an article instead of merely reprinting someone else’s story about the Diocese of SC which always make the Diocese to be ‘the Breakaway group’.
One glaring mistake is that it has been two years if the parish meeting was in Jan 2013 which is probably correct as that was the time frame given to parishes in the diocese to make their decision.
The last sentence is the most important. “Welcome Home” indeed to those who want to return to the Faith of the Apostles.
This article is a great witness, because the journalist Gennelle Williams is prepared to let the priest state the position of his orthodox congregation:
[blockquote] ““In recent years, and when I say recent we’re talking the past generation particularly, the national church has begun to allow some, what we would call, novel teachings to come into the fold that really depart from orthodoxy, that depart from scripture, that depart from Christian tradition,†Gibson said. “The ones that get all the big spotlight are issues of sexuality and sanctity of life and things like that.â€
But Gibson said really the issue comes down to salvation and whether Jesus Christ is the only way revealed by God for salvation or if there are other ways.” [/blockquote]
Agreed, Micahel A. It does not happen very often that journalists write stories instead of just passively reprinting a story from the AP. Glad that some newspapers still have journalists willing to interview and then write an article using those interviews.