Third diocese votes to leave. Fourth one schedules confirming vote this weekend.
As expected, the Great Exodus out of the Episcopal Church continues. (See below for a press statement from the Diocese of Quincy, Illinois.) They join the dioceses of San Joaquin and Pittsburgh.
The Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, will have its annual convention this coming weekend. Considering that on the diocesan website there is an article, "10 Reasons Why Now is the Time to Realign," you can catch the drift here.
Fort Worth Episcopalians are quite likely to vote to leave TEC (The Episcopal Church) for the second time, finalizing a vote from last year.
Here's what Bishop Iker had to say in Reason #7:
7. At this time there is nothing in the Constitution or Canons of TEC that prevents a Diocese from leaving. Oh, I know that General Convention officials claim that dioceses cannot leave TEC, but you will not find that anywhere in the Constitution and Canons as they presently stand. So we have this window of opportunity to do what we need to do, for you can be sure that the next General Convention will close off this option by adopting amendments that will make it even more difficult to separate in the future.
TEC will meet in General Convention next summer (July 2009 in Anheim, California) and indeed there is a developing effort to close and lock tight the ability of any other diocese to depart via majority vote of their convention.
Then, there is another effort to repeal Resolution B-033, which officially expects TEC leaders to refrain from same-sex rites and consecration of non-celibate bishops who are gay. Here's a word or two from WAKE UP:
"WAKE UP is a coalition of concerned Episcopalians who seek a Full Inclusion Church. We came into being during the summer of 2006, following the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. While pleased at the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop, we experienced the passage of Resolution B-033 as a betrayal of the Church's professed acceptance of lesbian and gay Christians as full members of the Body of Christ. We also view with alarm the attempts of some, both within and outside the Episcopal Church, to move us in a direction of exclusion, intolerance, and dogmatic 'purity codes' that have never been part of the Anglican heritage. Our primary purpose is to TAKE ACTION to STOP THE APPEASEMENT of theological bullies, and protect the Anglican heritage of inclusion and openness that has been passed down to us. We value the unity of the Anglican Communion, but not at the price of appeasement and injustice."
So contrary to the view among some leaders that "the worst is over," you can expect the political struggle, the property fight, and the theological battle to persist throughout much of 2009.
Sure feels like a war of attrition to me.
Continue for the full press statement from Quincy:
PRESS STATEMENT
Diocese of Quincy Realigns With South American Province
The Annual Synod of the Diocese of Quincy's meeting November 7-8 in Quincy, Illinois, has voted by strong margins to realign itself with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, breaking its ties with The Episcopal Church in the US. On two key votes more than ? of the clergy and lay deputies voted in favor of the realignment.
The move came after several years of prayer and discernment about the diocese's relationship with The Episcopal Church. Many in the Quincy Diocese, both clergy and lay people, have been at odds with the national leadership and other dioceses over the authority of the Bible, church order and discipline, and the church's moral standards and teaching on Christian marriage.
On the vote to disaffiliate from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, 75% of the clergy and 82% of the lay deputies voted in favor. On the subsequent vote to realign the diocese with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone the vote in favor was 92% in the clergy order and 87% in the lay order.
"This decision was not made lightly," said Fr. John Spencer, press officer for the diocese. "We have talked and prayed about this for a very long time. But we take our relationship to the Anglican Communion very seriously. Since 2003, over half the Provinces of the Anglican Communion have been in a state of broken Communion with The Episcopal Church. By realigning with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, we are now back in full communion with the majority of over 75 million Anglicans around the world."
Canon Ed den Blaauwen, incoming President of the Standing Committee, said the focus of the diocese will remain on mission. "Our churches and our diocese will continue in mission and ministry locally and around the world. We feel much at home under the oversight of Archbishop Gregory Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone, who has warmly welcomed us into affiliation with that Province," den Blaauwen said. "We are once again back in full fellowship with our brother and sister Anglicans."
Shortly after the votes were taken, Canon den Blaauwen, who acted as chairman for the Synod, read a letter from Archbishop Venables welcoming Quincy as a member of the Province of the Southern Cone.
Bishop Keith Ackerman who retired from leadership of the diocese on November 1, spoke to the gathering Friday afternoon just before the synod convened. Quoting the Epistle of Jude, he encouraged them to remain faithful to the Gospel of Christ and the historic faith of the Christian Church as they considered the momentous decisions before them.
"While the votes show there was very strong support for this decision," Fr. Spencer said, "we realize this was not a unanimous decision." By a separate action, the synod made provision for a nine months grace period during which a congregation or member of the clergy might consider withdrawing from the diocese in order to stay in the Episcopal Church. "It is a matter of allowing everyone to follow their consciences in these very difficult times, without recrimination," Spencer said.
Posted by Tim Morgan on November 10, 2008 3:03PM
Comments
"Many in the Quincy Diocese, both clergy and lay people, have been at odds with the national leadership and other dioceses over the authority of the Bible, church order and discipline, and the church’s moral standards and teaching on Christian marriage."
I wonder how concerned the lay people and clergy of Quincy and the other breakaway dioceses were and are with this from the 1988 Lambeth Conference which allowed dioceses in the Global South to permit practicing polygamist to be baptized into the Body of Christ and still keep all their extra wives especially in Africa so they could compete with the Muslims and traditional African culture.?
Resolutions from 1988
Resolution 26
Church and Polygamy
This Conference upholds monogamy as God's plan, and as the ideal relationship of love between husband and wife; nevertheless recommends that a polygamist who responds to the Gospel and wishes to join the Anglican Church may be baptized and confirmed with his believing wives and children on the following conditions:
(1) that the polygamist shall promise not to marry again as long as any of his wives at the time of his conversion are alive;
(2) that the receiving of such a polygamist has the consent of the local Anglican community;
(3) that such a polygamist shall not be compelled to put away any of his wives, on account of the social deprivation they would suffer;
(4) and recommends that provinces where the Churches face problems of polygamy are encouraged to share information of their pastoral approach to Christians who become polygamists so that the most appropriate way of disciplining and pastoring them can be found, and that the ACC be requested to facilitate the sharing of that information.
| Contacts | Comments | Help | Search |
Published in association with the Lambeth Conference © 2008 Anglican Communion Office
The Lambeth Conference is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England, number 5985741. The Lambeth Conference is a registered charity number 1121679
http://www.lambethconference.org/resolutions/1988/1988-26.cfm
Or does polygamy not have anything to do with "the church’s moral standards and teaching on Christian marriage."
Posted by: Anglican at November 10, 2008
All it shows it that The Episcopal Church of The United States is ridding its self of the cockroaches.
Time they all leave.
This is nothing more than happened when women were made priests and a woman bishop was created.
Oh! My!
Posted by: votres at November 10, 2008
I tried this the day the article came out.
They talk about leaving because of homosexuality and the sacredness of marriage.
Where were they when the Communion as a whole bowed to pressure from the African bishops at the 1988 Lambeth Conference and said they could baptize practicing polygamists into the Body of Christ and keep all their extra wives?
The Africans felt this was necessary to compete with Islam and traditonal African culture.
The Muslims know polygamy is not compatible with Christ's teachings.
What kind of witness is that to Muslims and to other faiths around the world.
Polygamy is not marriage.
If you need proof go to the Lambeth Conference site and look up Resolution 26 of 1988.
Posted by: Anglican at November 12, 2008
In all our dealings with one another - no matter which side of the human sexuality debate we align ourselves with - we must watch our own hearts that we do not become guilty of the same posture we accuse others of taking. If it is generosity and acceptance that the pro-homosexual contingent desire from those opposed, then it is generosity and acceptance they should give to those that differ. If it is adherence to 'traditional' modes of belief and behaviour within an Anglican framework that the anti-homosexual contingent desire, then let them do what seems best to them without marring the image of God in those they disagree with. There are processes and guidelines for interacting with one another in love (for the best interests of the other) without attacking and 'demon-ising' human beings made in the image of God. Both sides of the debate have been guilty thus far. I do believe in truth which supersedes our subjective stances and postures and thus calls us all to account in our beliefs and behaviours. There is a narrow path to be followed which has generous berms as we seek to walk in the way of Jesus and come to terms with our own incongruity in Him. We can disagree all we want, but let's submit 'HOW' we disagree to the Spirit's course.
DOMINUS CUSTODIATE ENTROITUM TUUM ET EXITUM TUUM
Psalm 121:7-8
Posted by: Shane at November 13, 2008
I don't see at all how the polygamy resolution contradicts the same-sex issue. In African countries, where polygamy has been practiced before conversion, it would be a terrible sin for a new Christian to get rid of all wives but one. He is responsible for them and their children--where else could they go? These men are to provide for all of their wives and children, but they are only allowed to sleep with their first wife. It doesn't have anything to do with competing with the dominant culture; it's just that the dominant culture requires that it be dealt with in cases of conversion.
Now, if same sex couples were not allowed to have sex with each other, that would hurt...nobody. In fact, there would be less disease and health problems, especially among men. If the sanctitiy of marriage in its revealed sense were upheld, the result would be stronger families, stronger marriages, and a stronger society. I think we need to have some compassion, both on our polygamous and our gay brothers and sisters, but the chief way we do that is to offer them a better way.
By the way, this also goes, and probably more so, for hetero couples who are having sex outside of marriage. The religious and cultural implications of that are huge, and I'd like to see Western Churches talking more about that. But as it is now; in my diocese, a priest and his fiancee were living together for months before the wedding. And nobody batted an eye.
PB
Posted by: PhillipsBrooks at November 16, 2008
PB, Why didn't you bat an eye?
Was there something in it?
And just who is in the bedroom with that one lone only too human man with all those extra "wives".
There is such a thing as temptation.
Unless you actually have someone policing those mens bedrooms you don't know what's happening with the extra "wives".
As far as being obligated to take care of those extra "wives" the Anglican Communion itself through the local diocese and church should have taken care of those exta "wives" until they could have bettered their situation.
And if they could not in their culture better themselves then indeed the Anglican Communion as a whole is obligated to take care of them because we are the ones who put them in that situation.
Matthew 19
9And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
Posted by: Anglican at November 18, 2008
Post a comment