The leader of the Episcopal Church arrives Friday in Riverside amid a debate on homosexuality that continues to tear the denomination apart.
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the 2.4 million-member denomination, will attend the annual meeting of the Diocese of Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday at the Riverside Convention Center. On the convention agenda is a resolution on whether priests in same-sex relationships should be consecrated bishops.
The Los Angeles Diocese includes San Bernardino County and west-central Riverside County.
I am sure we will be all ears.
[blockquote]On the convention agenda is a resolution on whether priests in same-sex relationships should be consecrated bishops.[/blockquote]
Now that’s a rather ridiculous item to have on the agenda to ask….the answer has already been done & stated time and again in TEC and in many of it’s dioceses that follow in step to 815. The answer is [b][i]”Of course they can, Gene Robinson has set the standard and pace”[/i][/b]! Otherwise how do they explain Gene Robinson? Geesh!!!!
This one is way too close to home for me. I live in Riverside. The parish I attended was St. George’s where Paul Price (mentioned in the article) is quoted. This man told me personally he doesn’t accept the authority of Scripture. He gave sermons about homosexuality regularly and was clearly twisting Scripture. Things like that were what drove me from TEC. There is another fellow referenced in the article named Gerald Motto. What he is quoted as saying in the article about everyone being welcomed in the church is false. I met him one day in a parking lot after I had left the church. He asked me where I had gone. I told him clearly I could not remain with a church that teaches things contrary to Scripture. He turned on me like an animal at that point. His face and voice became harsh. He was sitting in his car, so I just left quickly and headed back to my car. My son was with me. I had to try to explain all of that to him. He already knew why we left the church. This man’s behavior was unacceptable and clearly demonstrates the two sides of these people. They are truly scary and definitely agents of satan.
I already had an encounter with Paul Price (the rector) in a local store and we had quite a discussion about the authority of Scripture. He was clearly a man deceived by the wolves in sheep’s clothing who lead TEC. You can be sure I’ll be steering clear of the Riverside Convention Center this Friday. I don’t want to encounter any of these sorry souls, not even on the street.
Keep David Maurer (and his wife Karen, also an ordained priest) in your prayers. They are the only TESM graduates ever to be officially sponsored by Bishop Bruno and the Diocese of Los Angeles (thus proving that miracles sometimes do occur). It’s going to be a hard row to hoe, nevertheless.
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
It seems odd to me for a diocesan convention to vote on the general issue of who “should be consecrated bishops”. The action of the diocesan convention is binding only on the diocese itself, and when it is time to consecrate a new bishop in the diocese the convention itself elects that bishop.
So the collective beliefs of the diocesan convention about who should or should not become a bishop will by definition be seen in the results of the election process. What is gained, either way, by having a separate resolution?
All the headlines of the the TEO will be of gay activism and lawsuits for the next several years. It will crush the denomination.
Actually, at our Diocesan Convention we’re looking at an agenda that includes Socially Responsible investing, our companion Diocese of El Salvador and issues of economic justice — to name a few — and has VERY little to do with what all y’all keep obsessing about.
Yes, we’ll be voting to join with dioceses all over TEC moving Beyond B033 in order to end the era of having the mission and ministry of this church held hostage to those insisting that differences over issues of human sexuality are necessarily divisions that will split the church.
And Dave and Karen Maurer are GREAT exemplars of faithful, colleague clergy who don’t let holding a minority theological position in the Diocese of Los Angeles keep them being in fellowship and ministry with the rest of us. We’ve been friends since before ANY of us went to seminary and were working Cursillo together and their ministry is a blessing to the church in general and to the Diocese of Los Angeles in particular.
Yeah, we are the ones obsessing. I think that the diocese of Missouri had about seven resolutions and five of them were gay rights activism.
The Rev. Paul Price, of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Riverside, said Episcopalians should focus on what unites them and what makes the church unique: A combination of a Catholic liturgical tradition and a Protestant belief in allowing lay people to interpret the Bible on their own.
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Well, there you have it in the last sentence. If the laity can interpret the Bible on their own…. then they can have the parts they want and throw out the parts they don’t. That’s exactly what has caused the rift. Everyone has THEIR OWN TRUTH….better known as post-modern relativism. I’d like to recommend a book by Fr. Thomas Hopko titled Christian Faith and Same-Sex Attraction. It will open your eyes.
[i] Personal comment directed toward another commenter deleted by elf. [/i]
RE: ” . . . in order to end the era of having the mission and ministry of this church held hostage to those insisting that differences over issues of human sexuality are necessarily divisions that will split the church.”
A pity that Susan Russell and other Episcopal progressive activists are so prejudiced against those who may have polyamorous sexual orientations or other sexual orientations which have received societal disapproval. They are willing to prevent the legal definition of marriage to be expanded to include a [i]particular[/i] minority sexual orientation which they personally favor, but not for certain other minority sexual orientations of which they or other members of society may personally disapprove.
Such distinctions among minority sexual orientations which they have chosen to support and those which they have not — all the while mouthing words of “inclusion” and “affirmation” and “civil rights”, and decrying “prejudice” — are hypocritical and transparently self-serving.
They have allowed “differences over issues of human sexuality” to prevent offering the right of marriage to all sundry minority sexual orientations rather than their particular and favored minority sexual orientation.
Actually Sarah, the homophile organizations have been organizing for some time – but not much advertising – the proposition that homosexual marriage is not the goal, but the opening gun in redefining marriage. I saw a year ago a petition signed by some seven hundred people – important ones at that – starting with Gloria Steinem, all of whom were in favor of the complete range of possible unions , every imaginable combination. ( I’ll see if I can find the petition on line. It is astonishing reading and gives one some measure of just how radical the agenda is.)
“Yes, we’ll be voting to join with dioceses all over TEC moving Beyond B033 in order to end the era of having the mission and ministry of this church held hostage to those insisting that differences over issues of human sexuality are necessarily divisions that will split the church.”
So says Susan Russell. An interesting observation. What does she think, do you suppose, about the issue (in prop 8) splittiing California, the one place that should have been wildly in favor of ssm? The majority clearly dismissed ssm, and yet, the minority, with mobs and cries for litigation refuses to accept that ssm has been denied twice in the country’s bastion of liberalism? Who is being held hostage, and by whom? Larry
I visited and worshiped at Trinity Episcopal Church in Redlands, CA in July 2008. Its website described it as “a biblical church”. The church was packed with children – the liveliest, most refreshing Episcopal Church I’d visited in a long time. I felt like I’d traveled back in time.
I pray that the Lord will continue to bless that parish.
Mark Brown
San Angelo, Texas
December 1, 2008
[i] This thread is sliding off topic. Please comment on the post rather than to a specific commenter. [/i]
My wife and I belonged and supported a parish in Corona, (LA Diocise) for many years. A wonderful experience and church family there. We moved to a church in Fort Bragg CA, Diocese of Northern California, and discovered (while a delegate to Diocesean Convention 2003) that ECUSA and the diocese were involved in false teaching. As a result I fired Bishops Shori and Lamb as my spiritual advisers and we have walked apart from ECUSA.
Since doing that, actions of ECUSA have only confirmed my observations from that convention.
In a small town, were we live, there is only one Epispicopal Church (which is really struggling now). The nearest Orthodox Anglican Church is 3.5 hours away. For us there is no way we can continue to attend a church we do not support. We certainly hope for a new (not heretical) Episcopal Province in North America and eventually something we can support and attend in our town.
Comment deleted, please heed our warning above – Elf
The Episcopal Church: “Come as you are, stay as you are, believe what you want and do what you want!” That will really pack them in.