(ENS) Highlighting community outreach across the Episcopal Church and the theme “Put Your Faith to Work,” new print and video advertisements are scheduled to debut starting May 22 for a summer run in public media.
The first of a series of print ads — headlined “Get Closer to God. Slice Carrots,” — is scheduled to appear in USA Today May 22-23. The accompanying video spot is targeted for the CNN Headline News/Airport Channel during peak holiday travel times, including the Memorial Day weekend.
The ads point readers and viewers to a dedicated website, www.putyourfaithtowork.org, which includes links for locating local congregations churchwide. The site also provides links to service-focused ministries within the Episcopal Church.
I have a problem when I read anything written or sanctioned by ECUSA’s current revisionist-progressive leadership.
The problem has its roots in the almost total lack of trust that I have in the motives and agenda of that leadership and that leadership’s faulty and sometimes outright heretical theology and theosophy.
Therefore when I visit a website such as this web site, I immediately question its veracity and the ‘spritiual traps’ contained in its words.
Moreover, it could have been an ad for a Girls’ or Boys’ Club or a Women’s Cooking Society. Shouldn’t a church let people know what it’s supposed to do: Make disciples of all nations?
Yep, this is TEC’s new strategy. Let’s focus on our Christian mission, because we sure as heck want to ignore the controversies over our Christian identity. We’ve already seen some of this down here in San Diego, CA. TEC’s +Mathes released a little advertising blurb entitled….wait for it…..”The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego – A Diocese on Fire”. Considering the wildfire problems we’ve had around here, he is yet again displaying his grasp of the pysche of the community.
I’d put the link to it up, but it appears to be unavailable from youtube right now. +Mathes even got around to mentioning minor stuff like faith and the LORD towards the end.
Unfortunately if the advertisement works and people follow the link to the Episcopal visitors website they will find out who Jesus is. And the Episcopal church’s answer from its website: “Jesus is a symbol.”
ECUSA: “Let’s focus on bringing the world to Christ and Christ to the world”
Maxwell Smart, SKEPTIC: “You don’t really mean it”
ECUSA: “OK, let’s focus on our Christian mission”
SKEPTIC: “You still don’t mean it”
ECUSA: “Let’s focus on our mission”
SKEPTIC: “I dunno . . .”
ECUSA: “Would you believe, Let’s focus on Us”
One doesn’t even know where to begin this is so flawed
Unless the Church emphasizes what it uniquely has to offer – the good news of God in Christ proclaimed and experienced through communal religious teaching and ritual – then all the well-intentioned outreach and service projects throughout the world make the Church look no different from the Masons, the Red Cross, charitable relief agencies, or other human service bureaucracies. The United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals – laudable as they are – cannot be the mission of the Church, if the Church is principally a place of and for religion.
The website had this…Q: What is Holy Matrimony?
A: Holy Matrimony is Christian marriage, in which the woman and man enter into a life-long union, make their vows before God and the Church, and receive the grace and blessing of God to help them fulfill their vows.
Our [i]Anglican[/i] church has been putting the faith of our parishioners to action – expressing the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ, through feeding and clothing the homeless in our community, through welcoming the unchurched to services, through our youth mission trips to cities far and nearby, and through the time, talent, and treasure of our missionaries in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Uganda.
We would not have put our lawyers to work, except that TEC has sued us, because we declare the faith of Christ, crucified and seek to uphold it.
Think of how many homeless TEC could feed and clothe, how many more schools TEC could support, how many more of the MDGs TEC could help to reach if it was not wasting money on litigation against the faithful.
The public is being hammered with two images of lawsuits and Gene Robinson who makes wonderful statements like wanting to be a June bride.
Now, we have this ad which can only be described as wimpy. It won’t counteract the public perception that the TEO is the gay church that sues Christians.
Isn’t it wonderful that Kendall Harmon has focused on putting his “faith in action” by founding this blog and disseminating Anglican news and events?
Thank you Kendall for “putting your faith to work”!
Robroy #10,
My impression is that even many Episcopal clergy don’t realize that ECUSA is engaging in lawsuits, so I doubt that (with the exception of certain highly publicized local cases) most people think of ECUSA as the suing church. The Gene Robinson issue is decidedly more visible. If we were able to reveal the Gospel with the clever assiduity with which we have concealed the lawsuits, we’d probably see a lot of pews filling up with the newly baptized.
“Even many Episcopal clergy don’t realize that ECUSA is engaging in lawsuits” —Laocoon [#12]
We’ve got to work on that one.
It would be great to have a brochure for Episcopal clergy and laity about ECUSA’s ministry of litigation.
“Think of how many homeless TEC could feed and clothe, how many more schools TEC could support, how many more of the MDGs TEC could help to reach if it was not wasting money on litigation against the faithful” —Sophy [#9]
ECUSA’s deeds reveal its true priorities.
What do I think of this ad. It should read “Not closer to God. Slice baloney.” LM
Notice how they’ve replaced the Great Commission with the MDGs:
Satan is always sly in the way he replaces the Gospel with a counterfeit, here replacing Christ and his commandments with the United Nations and its MDGs. This is how the Bible teaches we are to serve Christ:
Yep,
This Church is in the hands of the ashamed. Ashamed of Christ. Ashamed to say that He is unique. Ashamed to teach His word. Ashamed to hold Him as the hope of the world. Ashamed to tell others that they are dear but in error, and yet still worth ou love. Ashamed to reach across the fence unless it is with a white flag of surrender to this culture. The Episcopal Church is under the judgment of God – and moreso her leaders who stifle the fire of God that revives and leads the remnant in this Church to suffer for God.
[i]If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.[/i] Mark 8:38
“Jesus is a symbol.â€
If TEC is ashamed to be Christian, that statement makes me ashamed to be Episcopalian.
Irenaeus – how could we disseminate the litigation brochure? It could be named “The Episcopal Church Wants to Sue You.”
One of these days I will learn to check first and react later – Craig Stephans, where is the “Jesus is a symbol” line? The story of Christ, in a rather lame and unenthusiastic tone is there at the visitor center. It doesn’t say, “Episcopalians believe” – it comes nearer saying “the Bible believes…” but I didn’t immediately find anything that said “Jesus is a symbol.”
#13 Irenaeus,
Northern Plains Anglicans have posted something that I think will be very helpful in that regard:
http://northernplainsanglicans.blogspot.com/2008/05/national-church-more-white-word-games.html
NPA points out that at the same time that the expenses for lawsuits are increasing the funding for mission parishes — including on the reservations in SD, for instance — is decreasing.
Perhaps Craig Stephans should have included the quote from a parishioner in its entirety instead of trying to stretch it to make an invalid point:
Jesus is a symbol of what can happen when a person submits entirely to the will of God. He is a symbol to me of justice, especially as a model of someone who does not accept the status quo, who speaks for the downtrodden and the disenfranchised as well as those who wish to put their resources to a spiritual end and to grow in their relationship to God. – Denise, Louisiana
Wouldn’t a better title for the ad be “Put Your Faith in Works” of “Faith Through Works?”
Well….I like it better than TEC’s other recent advertising attempts….which doesn’t say much….whatsoever.
Under other circumstances I would give this the benefit of the doubt, but that is a benefit TEC has too often abused. Putting your faith into action is great, not just great but imperative. And I give them credit for saying that. But what “faith” are they talking about? The last time I checked Pelagianism was still a heresy.
No, no, you all don’t get it. It’s the new kinder and gentler liberation theology! 🙂
T
Speaking of liberation theology, is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to be the primary revivalist this weekend or next, at the oldest black Episcopal
Church, in Philadelphia?
T
20. the quote is on the Who is Jesus page. It is irrelevant in this case of the context as listed above in 22. I’m sure 22 would not appreciate me calling him a symbol of what is really wrong with TEC or a symbol of what is right. Both are in error because he is not a symbol…he is a person. Orthodox people recognize the language and the context as setting the foundation for TEC’s leaderships heretical belief that Jesus is not what the Bible says he is but is rather a symbol of what the culture deem relevant. To say Jesus is a symbol of anything is to avoid his personhood and Lordship and to avoid taking him seriously. The one line I quoted above and the context make the same point.
My statement above is correct and the message is shamefully couched in a parishoners quote. The rest of the webpage is no more Biblical than that one statement.
What sould a church ad say? People can be attracted to the church for many reasons. Faith formation is then often a long process.
From [url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/visitors_33028_ENG_HTM.htm]http://www.episcopalchurch.org/visitors_33028_ENG_HTM.htm[/url]:
“It’s not about having answers as much as it is about engaging a story. . .
“Is it possible to practice and grow your spirituality within an organized church? Yes! The Episcopal Church holds many possibilities open for those on the spiritual path looking for a diverse community of believers.
“The beauty of the Episcopal tradition is that it is open to questions and new possibilities, as well as ancient teachings. Imagine a spiritual practice that is both grounded in tradition and open to new possibilities.”
Read:
Welcome to the Episcopal Church. We don’t really believe anything. We make it up as we go. Who needs answers when we provide endless searching.
[blockquote] “It’s not about having answers as much as it is about engaging a story. . .” [/blockquote]
We had an adult Sunday School class discussing this very thing two weeks ago in my church. One of our pastors who teaches that class went through the whole development of postmodernist philosophy and demonstrated how it has infected and destroyed mainline churches. Basically, the bottom line of postmodernism is that there is no truth, only “stories.” And each person’s story is as valid as the next person’s.
This comes right out of the decayed secular academic beliefs of the 20th century. It has nothing to do with Christianity; in fact one of the things that marks Christianity is that it adamantly holds to The Truth.
“It’s not about having answers as much as it is about engaging a story”
I love to tell stories about my good friends Thor and Aphrodite.
I do agree with others that Christianity is not just a collection of “my story and your story”, all equally true.
What is interesting is that TEC has successfully substituted the ministry of works for the ministry of faith. Since Luther, we have heard salvation by faith alone so often that Paul’s admonitions have come to seem the only possible way. TEC is simply saying that good works, by themselves, have saving power. They haven’t said this is so many words, but t heir posture says it. It is possible for TEC because man’s sinful nature has been so minimized and because salvation is, it would seem, in this world, not some other. Fixing this world iis therefore the same thing as saving all in it. LM
Faith AND works.