Well our Priest at the Episcopal Church of St. John made absolutely no comment on the action suspending the Episcopal Church-absolutely 0 nor has our Bishop (although he is ill)
I then spoke to our Senior warden ( the head lay guy) about this-He retorted “that there is no going back-like it or not” -well a Dogmatic answer finally from an Episipalean-we are having our annual Parish Meeting Sunday -lets see if any comment is made-
as an member of the episcopal Church and by extension an Anglican I felt I was a member of a world wide Church with a common belief and then as for thousands of years issues of sexuality screwed things up
Quite the opposite at the local Episcopal parish near me last Sun. The rector talked about it during his sermon which I listened to via a podcast and he played a message by Bishop Curry. There are a number of threads on CAF about what transpired in the AC. So I have posted this summary of what the rector at my local Episcopal church had to say elsewhere but if anyone on this thread missed it, I will share it again here as to what was said…
He began by relating a true story from his younger days as a Roman Catholic priest. A young man in his parish, a good student and athlete but who unfortunately came from a dysfunctional family, had tragically taken his life. And following the funeral, on the same day Fr also had a wedding to preside over. Needless to say it had already been a difficult few days for Fr and then at the wedding reception, just as he was sitting down to dinner, a tap on his shoulder. Fr, you must come, the bride and groom are in a fist fight! Well everything worked out in the end. The couple realized they got along. It was their families that didn’t. And the couple, many yrs later, are still happily married with 5 children. But at that moment during the reception, there had been an interruption.
Fr then jumped to the Gospel reading of the day. The wedding at Cana. No wine. Another interruption.
As he went on, he explained the Christian life is all about interruption. Mary? You are pregnant. An interruption in the life Mary and Joseph knew. The Magi had their lives interrupted. Going back to even Moses, for every person whom God has called, there is an interruption.
Fr also gave the example of Martin Luther King, whose birthday observance we were upon. MLK could have stayed where he was but he was called to do so much more.
This all brought Fr around to the decision of the Anglican primates and what transpired last wk. As Fr said Episcopalians have long been on the front lines fighting for civil rights, female ordination, and most recently for our gay brothers and sisters and he said this makes him proud to be an Episcopalian. That TEC long prayed over and studied as their church gave consideration to the meaning of the Baptismal commitment to respect every human being. And concluded our gay brothers and sisters equally deserve our respect and justice and to be served.
But because of this decision, he said the primates have placed TEC in the corner for 3 yrs. And TEC can play like sandlot baseball he said and take their bat and ball and go home. Or instead treat this interruption as an opportunity for what can become.
