tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043728.post6914863688289481176..comments2023-05-06T04:37:23.233-05:00Comments on The Prayer Book Society: News: ON SECEDING FROM THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH: BUT WHERE TO GO?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043728.post-69844313891630817882008-01-21T17:02:00.000-06:002008-01-21T17:02:00.000-06:00Dr. Toon,I think you are correct in your basic pre...Dr. Toon,<BR/><BR/>I think you are correct in your basic premise- that we should take time and study carefully to discern the path God wishes us to take. The reasons for some of us who are "cradle" Episcopalians is fairly obvious (beyond the secular reason of avoiding the inevitable lawsuits that fall upon the laity as well as clergy in this country). However, I think that the circumstances within the current Episcopal church often render proper time for discernment impossible.<BR/><BR/><BR/>If the correct path were easy to discern, we would have discerned it in the 60s or the 70s and not find ourselves in our current straits. If it were a simple thing to keep a church from splintering, there would be one Continuing Anglican Church in North America today (and with the current alphabet soup of Anglicanism, we are already splintered at the beginning). These are not decisions to be taken lightly.<BR/><BR/>In my experience, people outside the current TEC (Dr. Toon, I am under the impression that you are English, is this correct?) do not realize how often the change is forced upon us. Most of the people who I know personally who left TEC left because the bishop threatened the clergy with inhibition or the parish with dissolution. Or as was the case in Connecticut, changed the locks. <BR/><BR/>In this country, there are bishops who will not accept clergy who do not actively support gay ordination and gay marriage. If you openly oppose women's ordination (as a priest), there are few dioceses that will let you in the door. It is all well and good to hold home Bible study. But it is very difficult to stay in a church where you must pull your kids out of Sunday school, or take them out of the church during a sermon, or explain to family that the bishop, to whom you are supposed to submit, is wrong, or worse, lying and abusing his (or her) authority. That the bishop, by promoting communion to the un-baptized is committing sacrilege, and by denying the divinity of Christ, is committing heresy.<BR/><BR/>Because, then they ask the question, "Daddy, why do we go to a church when the bishop and the priest do not believe in God?" Or, they ask "How can you know more about what Jesus wants than the bishop? The bishops tells us to believe different things than what you are telling us." <BR/><BR/>And people wonder why there are so few young families coming into TEC.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com