Delegates of the Fort Worth Episcopal Diocese will decide this weekend whether to sever ties with the Episcopal Church ”” a move that both sides agree would be spiritually devastating and would create conflict over who controls church properties.
At last year’s annual meeting, about 80 percent of the delegates, under the leadership of Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker, gave initial approval to leaving the Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Church, with 2.1 million members in the United States and 16 other countries, is part of the worldwide, 77-million-member Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church is more liberal than the Anglican Communion on issues ranging from same-sex unions to interpretation of Scripture regarding salvation.
Three other U.S. dioceses have voted to leave The Episcopal Church. The most recent was in Quincy, Ill., last weekend.
An amazingly accurate and balanced article for the Star Telegram! We are soooo ready for this convention to get here and be done with so we can get on with His work! Please keep us in your prayers.
God be with you and your fellow Anglicans, Henry.
An added note: By my back-of-the-cocktail-napkin reckoning, this makes about 20,000 ASA that has departed TEC this year in diocesean losses only, about 2.8% of overall ASA. Pile on the usual 2.5% annual losses and 815 isn’t having a very good year. Then again, measuring 815’s triumphs by the defenestration of dissident orthodox it’s been a banner year.
The buisness of serving the community not serving the Lord. When did TEC become a charity only.
[i] When did TEC become a charity only? [/i]
And a “litigation charity” at that.
ECUSA/TEC/GCC is not become a charitable organization; it has become EO-PAC, Episcopal Organization-Political Action Committee. What else can you call an organiztion of persons which collects money and promises to give 0.7% to political lobbying to get the government to do more about the MDGs? The other 99.3% is of course designated for litigation…apparently…based on the number of lawyers cited, lawsuits filed, lawsutis threatened, and the support of less-than-miniscule collections of persons alleged to be dioceses into which millions of dollars are poured to sustain the viability of lawsuits.
But, hey, when the parish priest talks about your checkbook reveals your heart, there must be a caveat in their for the national political organization. Otherwise, it’s pretty clear that the EO-PAC is just that, in fancy Sunday clothes, but still EO-PAC.