At least one Episcopal Church bishop in the state of New York has said that clergy in his diocese may solemnize same-gender marriages as soon as the state’s recently passed Marriage Equality Act goes into effect.
(ENS) Majority of New York Episcopal Bishops praise state passage of same-gender marriage
Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Christian Life / Church Life, * Culture-Watch, * Economics, Politics, --Civil Unions & Partnerships, Episcopal Church (TEC), Law & Legal Issues, Marriage & Family, Parish Ministry, Politics in General, Religion & Culture, Same-sex blessings, Sexuality, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion), State Government, TEC Bishops
Anathema to these disgusting false shepherds.
Why haven’t the Camp Allen and Communion Partners forged a rebuke in response to this unbiblical legislation and to these so-called bishops???
Just in case anyone has forgotten how a true bishop actually sounds and acts, here’s a model: http://anglicansablaze.blogspot.com/2011/06/homosexuality-okoh-urges-fg-to-quit-un.html
Praying for Bishop Love this morning that the Lord would empower him and give him wisdom and boldness in taking a stand for Biblical truth.
I have to be honest that it’s disheartening that he did not respond to the ENS query for comments. Skip Adams of Central NY did not respond to ENS either, but his stand in favor of the move and allowing priests in his diocese freedom to bless SSMs is already on record: [see here: http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/37305 ]
So that just leaves Bishop Love as the only Episcopal bishop in NY who has not spoken out. He needs our prayers today!
Here’s a compilation of Scriptural prayers I pulled together a few years ago and posted on Lent & Beyond.
http://anglicanprayer.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/praying-the-scriptures-for-our-anglican-leaders/
I’m particularly praying for Bp. Love for boldness, using the words of Eph. 6:
[i]Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, … Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.[/i]
May this be Bp. Bill’s prayer and our prayer for him at this time.
May God give Bishop Love the strength to stand up for what is right and to denounce his fellow New York bishops for their support of same sex ‘marriage.’ It may cost him, but in the end, he will be the victor. Pray for him.
+Love certainly needs the prayers of his friends. He will certainly receive little if any support from his five fellow TEC bishops in NY. I can understand his silence. He has the difficult job of maintaining morale in his diocese given their odd-man-out status in the TEC in NY. In 2009, only 14 of 116 churches in his diocese had Plate & Pledge of at least $150K which means that each “rich” church had about seven “poor” churches to heelp support. There were 20 churches with ASA of 20 or less. +Love may have to close many small churches in the years ahead. He faces a dificult future in hostile New York. Kyrie eleison. Statmann
I will be praying for Bishop Love.
I worship in the Diocese of Albany, at a small church, and intended to remain silent about this matter and not comment regarding it on T19 because Bishop Love and the traditional/orthodox within the diocese do not need to have a spotlight placed upon them at this time.
However, the time for silence has passed since blog comments are highlighting Bishop Love and the diocese.
The truth of the matter is that the diocese consists of two more or less distinct groups of parishes.
Those that pay their diocesan assessments in support of Bishop Love and the diocese and those that wilfully and with revisionist intent do not pay their assessments. There are some parishes that fit neither of these two categories.
The assessment payers generally are those parishes located outside of the larger cities in the diocese while the non-payers generally are located in the several cities in the diocese and in the college towns. Albany is largest of those cities. By the way, I’ve heard Albany called “New York City without the accent.”
In any case, the demographics seem to indicate that the non-paying parishes consider themselves to be intellectually and in sophistication ‘a cut above’ those parishes that pay their assessments. I suppose that’s because they have attended university and/or have ‘important’ jobs and professions and have ‘have had their eyes opened’ by their professors as freshmen and sophomores while attending college. Most of their intellectual and spiritual attitudes seem to be perpetually frozen in time toward avante garde and gnostic (etc.) sophmoric approaches to theology.
The truth is, however, that the diocese’s smaller parishes have ‘people pf sophistication,’ college non-graduate and graduate, who who clearly comprehend Scripture, who see Jesus Christ as the only path to Salvation, who know what sin ‘is’ and what sin ‘is not,’ and who believe in and follow “…the Faith once given.”
I will not offer any predictions regarding the outcome of a revisionist assault on the diocese, but I will say that the diocese and its people have a unique heritage.
The people of this region bore much of the brunt of the dangers and battles of the French and Indian Wars, the Revolutionary War and were very active in the Underground Railroad prior to the Civil War. The Battles of Oriskany and Saratoga against the British were fought and won primarily by farmers who lived in the area contained within the diocese.
And in the smaller parishes, many of the congregants are descendants of those farmers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them ‘stand shoulder to shoulder’ again to defend what is theirs.
#7
God bless you all, and God bless and strengthen +Love.
Any idea where Bethesda Episcopal Church in Saratoga Springs fits into your characterization of the diocese?
In reading the bishop’s statements I noticed how often they call marriage some sort of civil right that is being denied Gays. But looking back in time one can see how much this argument is nothing but recently fabricated propaganda to play on America’s love of that phrase. The pro-Gay media then quickly joined the drumbeat in the culture brainwashing department.
It is sad to see bishops of any religion become mindless parrots for, then enthusiastic mouthpieces promoting something that only a decade ago or two ago would have been considered bizarre to the point of insanity.
Reply to #8.
If my memory serves me well, I belieive that Bethesda, Saratoga is one of the laggards in paying its episcopally appropriate assessment.
Speaking of laggards. In 2009, Bethesda had about 1,800 Members and an ASA of 250. Statmann
ACNA seems to be making hay in areas that TEC abandons, often rural or small town. But sooner or later ACNA or other independent Anglicans are going to turn their attention to places like New York. It sounds like they will have fertile ground to work on.
Bp. Love has now issued a letter which is posted at Virtue’s website.
Another aspect of the diocese’s organizational history that you may not be aware of, #7, is that because some parishes now in Albany diocese were established well before the Revolutionary War when the entire area was in the Diocese of New York, they retain certain ties and allegiances with places such as Trinity Parish Wall Street which established them. Not a helpful situation for the later-established Diocese of Albany where there is currently a strong group of faithfully orthodox Episcopalians (in the bad old days of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller it was difficult to find many of those).