A collection of breakaway Episcopalians have formed a single denomination to rival the mainstream U.S. church, cementing a schism that was largely prompted by the election in 2003 of a gay bishop.
Their new “Anglican Church in North America” said it includes four dioceses that recently split from the Episcopal church, as well as several splinter groups, 1,000 clergy and an estimated 700 parishes, said the Rev. Peter Frank, spokesman for the Right Rev. Robert Duncan, bishop of Pittsburgh, who months ago lead his diocese away from the Episcopal church. A spokesman in the Episcopal church said he was dubious the numbers were that high.
The new church will seek recognition from the world-wide Anglican communion, including its leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams. It is unclear how the larger church will deal with a rival on American soil to an existing church body. The tension will no doubt spark fresh lawsuits over the ownership of church property, dozens of which have already been filed from California to Virginia in recent years.
The Anglican Curmudgeon has posted a brief explanation of the difference between orthodox Christianity and the antichristianity that has entered and rotted much of Christendom (protestant and catholic) from within and has sparked the global reform movement in Anglicanism that culminated in the inauguration of the North American Anglican Province in Wheaton last night.
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The ‘Gay’ infection would not have occurred if much the Western church had not fallen into the hands of a buncha effete unregenerate blind boobies.
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It’s unfortunate that this writer has bucked the trend of slowly increasing objectivity in the mainstream media’s coverage of the Anglican crisis — and reverted to liberal bias.
Take this sentence for example:
The language implies at least two things to the uninformed reader, both of them false:
* The filing of lawsuits can be “sparked” by “tension” and is in that sense more like an a response to natural forces, like electricity, rather carefully made choices made in sober cold blood for which human beings must take full accountability.
* The filing of lawsuits is equally occuring on both sides.
An objective reporter, by way of contrast, would have said something like this:
Lots of other subtle bias. That the dispute is theological — well, that’s just how the conservatives see it. (The writer invites the reader to conclude that perhaps it’s really just about how much the conservatives hate gay people.) And regardless, even if there are theological issues, they are all about homosexuality — couldn’t have anything to do with an apostate primate who disbelieves in the Atonement, in the afterlife, in salvation through Christ alone, and so on.
Gee, Jon, and here I was thinking, “Finally a reporter who didn’t buy the Schismatics’ Spin and is reporting what’s actually happening here: a bunch of former Episcopalians deciding to start a new church they can control instead of working within the historic bounds of Anglican comprehensiveness.”
It’s been done before and it’ll be done again and I say bless their hearts, more power to them and may they go in peace to love and serve the Lord. (Just leave the keys on the table and lock the door on the way out! Happy to swing it wide open and welcome anyone back who doesn’t find the greener pastures so green after all, but in the meantime we’ll be getting on with the business of inviting people into the church — not looking for reasons to keep them out!)
Hey, the WSJ guy gets more numbers correctly than anyone save the LA TIMES:
“The 700 renegade churches, mostly from the U.S., had already expressed their displeasure by placing themselves under the jurisdiction of Anglican leaders in vast, self-governing foreign provinces.”
Even gets the FOUR DIOCESES part.
Whew! I was beginning to thin no one on the East Coast journalism establishment could count that high.
SHAME though the ACNA chose ANGLICAN rather than New Thang Gozpell (c) a la the ECUSA/TEC/GCC/EO-PAC. Right, Susan? Instead of flouting the Anglican Communion, co-operating within it.
WOW!! – a whole new concept not yet included in the Province with broken or impaired communion with 22 of 38 Anglican Provinces. The new guys don’t have at that far to go to catch-up, do they?
You’re not “getting on with your business of inviting people into the church” very well, Susan – check the latest membership and ASA numbers from your own central office.
The journal’s reporters are in the main liberals – the editorial pages are conservative – it must be interesting the dual personality at the annual Christmas party.
I think the lawsuits main goal was to smother the child in the cradle – with 100,000 asa (about 1/7 of TEC) – the strategy may have failed. The next round(s) in the fight will be: 1) how many primates recognize the new province; 2) what recognition if any will the ABC give the new Province (my bet is that he will recognize it as a “genuine expression of Anglicanism” but not recognize it as a voting full province – hence the new Province will be able to call itself truly Anglican but the vote will remain TEC’s); 3) how far will the now largely unchecked leftwing of TEC go in creating the “New Thing” at GC2009 – with an established defacto rival for both the allegiance of us Anglicans and moderate Primates watching – TEC may have to tread carefully. Fortuneatley – the left’s ego is so enlarged that they may well march over the cliff.
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Well, that’s not surprising, Susan. You are an apostate and a professional spin-mistress in the service of the TEC’s gay lobby. So while it’s nice for you to share with us that you personally liked the biased WSJ piece, I can’t imagine any of us at T19 regarding that as surprising news. It’s a bit like James Dobson phoning in to tell CNN that he personally favored Prop 8 — wow, that’s a big news flash!
What would have been interesting is if you had explained how the examples I gave of bias weren’t bias at all, but objective truth. For example, if you had showed us how the two bulleted points I gave were actually true, rather than as I claimed false and misleading, that would have been interesting and helpful. Or if you had been able to explain how the piece is correct in subtly implying that it is just a matter of opinion to claim that theological issues are at stake in the conflict, that again would have been helpful.
It would be fascinating to hear you go on record as to what in your mind constitutes “Anglican comprehensiveness.” Do you believe that Jack Spong has acted within Anglican Comprehensiveness in vigorously promoting his 12 Theses? What about Marcus Borg in his denial of the physical resurrection? What about the thousands of TEC priests and lay leaders who encourage skepticism about one or more articles of the Nicene or Apostles creeds?
The “natural forces” alluded to in a previous post are simply these: frustration, pain, and a sense of hopelessness. These “forces” within the breakaways stem from over five years of attempts to get something definitive from the ABC, compliance with several Primates Meetings, and a pattern of lies and deceit at the highest levels of TEC.
Patience is not endless. This could have been avoided. You can’t “muddle through” anymore.
What will kill TEC is not the departing numbers, but the anemia that will grow ever greater as the healthy cells excuse themselves. It could have been avoided. Susan, my only words to you are that — It could have been avoided. But it takes truth over politics.
albany comes closest to the truth. Susan can say what she wishes about the growth of TEC, or at least her branch of it. But the broad numbers are of steady decline in cell count, both red and white. Spiritual anemia, which Albany is talking about, is pernicious and beyond correction, but it is so slow that the death of the cells is less unnoticed because the body politic devises means to compensate for the damage. Albany’s image is deeply sound: The marrow itself is diseased and can no longer produce what will keep the body growing. Is Susan’s branch growing? Even if it were, transfusions can only slow death’s onset. Isn’t the prognosis clear now, that TEC’s death is inevitable? Larry
This newly-organized province will be taken seriously if and when the vast majority of Anglican Provinces recognize it AND formally recognize that TEC has chosen to break communion with Anglican Christians around the world. Let’s hope this happens SOONER rather than LATER.
Each Province could choose to do so independently — why bother with Rowan & Co., who have so thoroughly compromised themselves on these issues?