These churches are firm in their commitment to remain part of the world wide Anglican Communion, but due to conscience, find it spiritually necessary to separate themselves from the ECUSA now. The First Wave Churches are All Souls, Church of the Redeemer, both of Jacksonville , Grace Church, Orange Park , St. Michael's, Gainesville , St. Luke's Community of Life, Tallahassee , and Calvary , Jacksonville which realigned with an alternate Anglican jurisdiction on November 6th 2005 .
Read moreThese provisions have been greeted in the secular media with the derision they deserve, though it is a safe bet that most readers of this journal would want the matter to be resolved in a very different way from the one favoured by the average journalist.
Read moreHowever, on the deepest of personal levels, I have to confess that I really do not understand this decline. I do not know why a majority of our congregations cannot grow. Personally, I am baffled by the number of churches that I see failing to attract new people. The reason that I am so baffled is based on my experience as a leader over all these years.
Read more1) On the first Saturday after the Epiphany 1989 the Right Reverend Frederick H. Borsch, Bishop of Los Angeles, conferred Holy Orders upon me and ordained me a Priest in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church (emphasis added)
2) By faxed letter November 13, 2005, my request for transfer of canonical residence (and hence, Holy Orders) was received and approved by the Right Reverend Benezeri Kisembo, Bishop of Ruwenzori, Anglican Church of Uganda.
Read moreThis is the time for us to ask ourselves such question as why do we have Bishops at all? Why do we have church? My answer tot these two questions would not be far away or complicated. The church is here and therefore the Bishops to proclaim the message of hope, salvation, harmony and peace.
Read moreMaynard reminds us that we are very much a Bible-centered Church, but that we are not literalists or fundamentalists. We never have been, for if we were women would still be wearing hats, and be unable to speak in church, serve on vestries, and certainly they could not be ordained. Remarriage after divorce would be considered adultery, and Christians could not charge other Christians interest on loans. And, so on.
Read moreThe purpose of that birth is to come as the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ to save us. And the principal way we celebrate it is equally clear: Mass. Amidst all the finery, music, spending, giving and socializing, the central focus is to take, break, bless bread and wine. We mark Jesus' birth by celebrating His death and resurrection. (After all, if He hadn't risen from the dead, who would care about his birth!)
Read more"Catholic" means universal. The Christian Church is meant to be universal. One way to fulfill that is by being a church that exists across the entire world. In that sense the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part, can be said to be universal.
Read moreFirst there was a Reformation. It took hundreds of years of problems to make the Reformation happen. The fact is that it did happen, and some of the differences in the two faiths still exist.
The 39 Articles are Reformation documents. They are partially period pieces, partially political and partially religious. From the religious point of view they are protestant. A review of the Articles show that there are huge differences be between Catholics and Anglicans.
Read moreThe sanctity of life is, of course, a religious or transcendental concept, and has no meaning otherwise; if there is no God, life cannot have sanctity. By the same token, the quality of life is an earthly or worldly concept, and can only be expressed legalistically, and in materialist terms; the soul does not come into it.
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