Another English referee who is finding it difficult to deliver the red card is the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Episcopal Church of the United States of America has been warned repeatedly, but has remained impenitent. The final warning from the world body came last year but at the recent 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church there was a clear and unmistakable refusal to accede to the warning.
Read more1. God is the author of same-sex attraction by an act of special providence that includes biological and social-psychological secondary causes. Because we know through reports of the spiritual experience of same-sex attracted people that God is the primary author of these experiences, inquiry into the relative contributions of nature and nurture to same-sex attraction is of no significance for the church's moral teaching or pastoral care.
Read moreA positive hallmark of the convention was the reaffirmation of our commitment to the poor and the marginalized by heartily embracing the Millennium Development Goals. The 2006-2009 budgets reflect this commitment to Jesus' vision of a faithful church in Matthew 25. Expanded ministry by the youth of this Church was also a high priority. These positive commitments, however, were overshadowed by the inefficient and incomplete attention to major substantive issues having global consequences.
Read moreThat was clear from the statement issued by Rev. David H. Roseberry, rector at Christ Church in Plano: "The mission of Christ Church is to make disciples and teach them to obey the commands of Christ. The direction of the leadership of the Episcopal Church is different and we regret their departure from biblical truth and the historic faith of the Anglican Communion."
Read moreFor my entire Episcopacy and for most of my ordained ministry, we have faced controversy - in many instances it is just a new challenge at the same locale. My friends, we cannot become paralyzed.
Read moreAnother English referee who is finding it difficult to deliver the red card is the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Episcopal Church of the United States of America has been warned repeatedly, but has remained impenitent. The final warning from the world body came last year but at the recent 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church there was a clear and unmistakable refusal to accede to the warning.
Read moreThat is, the ultimate authority determining what the church believes is not a pope, or a primate, or an archbishop, or a council of bishops, or even a conference or synod of clergy and laity.
Rather, each congregation will decide all questions, moral and theological, for itself.
And this, of course, if you can believe the talk of local clergy and laity, is already well under way.
Read moreI have had no such conversation with either church. In fact, I received a call today from the Rev. John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, to apologize for the assertion in the story and to assure me that there is no such plan on the part of The Falls Church. I also received today an e-mail from the Rev. Martyn Minns assuring me that no such decision had been made at Truro.
Read moreI would be disgusted if my relatives became Episcopalians because they felt pressured by me or anyone else; or because they loved the grandeur of the liturgy and the hymns, or the majestic gothic architecture, or the sublime phrases of the historic prayers; or because they needed to belong to the church historically associated with the Founding Fathers, or corporate America, or campus radicalism, or some other famed association.
Read moreAll sides agree it's about much more than homosexuality, the immediate battleground: it goes to the core of how churches should relate to their culture and each other. But the dissension is intensified because sexuality is such an emotive issue - for the progressives, it's a matter of justice and human rights; for the orthodox, it's about truth and fidelity.
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