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MICHIGAN: "My God is Mother" Billboard Incenses Orthodox Episcopal Clergy
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
DETROIT, MI (3/20/2006)--A billboard erected by the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan which read; "My God is Mother" and "I am an Episcopalian" with a picture of a woman reading a bible, and the diocesan website address, so incensed a group of orthodox clergy that the diocese was forced to bring it down.
The billboard had been erected less than a mile from St. John's, an orthodox parish in Detroit on I-75 north, as a part of a slick ad campaign derived from the graphically interesting but theologically awful flashplay intro on the diocesan website www.edomi.org.
The billboard, by its appearance and content so outraged Fr. Steven J. Kelly, SSC, rector of St. John's that he contacted diocesan headquarters and complained bitterly to the bishop. "God is NOT mother!" he told Bishop Wendell N. Gibbs Jr.
A number of other priests also objected to the billboard, and so the bishop and his staff decided, on reflection to tear it down. Wrote Fr. Kelly, "The billboard is coming down ASAP as per Bishop Gibbs request to his communications director," he wrote VirtueOnline.
"Obviously, this was theologically offensive to biblical Christians." Fr. Kelley said he had been contacted by neighboring ECUSA priests who were similarly outraged. "The three nearest parishes to the billboard are the only three of the 16 Detroit parishes that are growing, and account for 75 of the total Sunday attendance within the Detroit City limits at those 16 parishes combined. At least two and all three rectors were opposed to this billboard."
"I was deeply ashamed and embarrassed that tens of thousands of people driving by my building with "St. Johns Episcopal Church" on it, and 45 seconds later pass a billboard proclaiming "My God is Mother, I am an Episcopalian". It is misleading those outside the faith, and a cause of derision for the rest of the Christian world who basically knows ECUSA as the church with the gay bishop in New Hampshire. ALL of this (the billboard itself AND the angst/anxiety/infighting from it inside and outside ECUSA) seeks to interfere with our ability to bring others to Jesus Christ as he has revealed himself in Scripture! The devil is having a field day!"
Fr. Kelly said St. John's has sought to be supportive of the diocese and has taken a leadership roll in its conversion, and praises the Bishop who has been very supportive of St. John's despite their theological differences.
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