Monday, January 21, 2008

Sympathy/support for conservative Episcopals

http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-episcopal0121.art0jan21,0,4307231.story?coll=hc_tab01_layout

Church Faces A Hard Road After Split

snip

Bishop Seabury, an Episcopal Church for 132 years, has severed ties with its historic roots by joining the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), and putting itself under the spiritual and ecclesiastic direction of a more conservative bishop.

Members of Bishop Seabury say they are not the ones initiating the split — "The Episcopal Church finally kicked us to the curb" said Stan Price, junior warden — and lay the blame on a too-liberal theology that doesn't reflect their beliefs."The Episcopal Church doesn't believe in the Bible anymore," Price said. "We read the Bible. We don't interpret the Bible."

At Bishop Seabury, where the church mantra seems to be "It's all about you, Jesus," and where the congregation embraces a joyful mix of traditional and evangelical rituals, such as a formal communion accompanied by hands-on healing, people seemed saddened, but steeled for the changes about to come.

snip

"This is just a building. It is not the church," said Arthur Hayward, the newly elected senior warden of the church. "We are the church."

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It's painful but it must be done. Bless those of you who are following in the Apostles steps, who built their churches in the space they could find also, keeping true the word of the Lord.