If TEC is so bad, why did you go back? Must be something there you needed…
If we are a bunch of unrepentant sinners, why do you waste the skin on your fingers typing about it? Your post comes across as narrow-minded and prejudiced, which won’t convince any of us to change - why waste your time? If you need someone to tell you EXACTLY what to think and feel and EXACTLY how your own personal relationships with God and your spouse should be conducted, I guess you are in the right place. Who needs to really think about these things when Big Brother (Sisters aren’t holy/smart enough to count, it sounds like) can give you orders like a parent with a child. I am happy for you - just don’t try to rain on my parade.
For my part, I tend to side with Shakespeare that you “…doth protest too much.” Don’t worry - we will welcome you back with open arms when you are ready.
Happy Advent!
Well a couple of things, Jane. You ask why I bother to waste the skin on my fingers. I guess I’d ask you the same thing? Why do you waste the skin on yours coming into a Catholic chat room and never agreeing with anyone in here? What’s the point? You’re not going to convince the orthodox Roman Catholics in here either. Touche. I’m not trying to “rain on your parade.” Raining on an Episcopal Church parade is tantamount to rainin ng on a gay pride parade. This is a Catholic chatroom. Don’t expect we Catholics to butter up a church that condones homosexuality, female clergy, has no real moral compass, and teaches a watered-down feel-good Catholic-lite lifestyle? By the way, I DO NEED SOMEONE TO TELL ME EXACTLY HOW TO BELIEVE! His name is Jesus! He left a visible Church that you turned your back on, Jane. At least your dad stuck around
You got a church now that gives you what you want–the Catholic frills with none of that pesky morality that might put you in an awkward position of having to stand for something. You won’t have to ever fight the evils of the world because the TEC doesn’t believe evil exists short of nuclear holocausts. You want have some pope telling you what’s right and wrong. One can be his or her own pope!
By the way, Jane, I NEVER WENT BACK TO THE TEC. You chose to “go there” with my personal journey, the least you could have done is get it right. I went to a conservative Anglican diocese. I’ve told you that many times. It broke off from the pathetic TEC. Thank God for that! I pray for them for sure. The TEC is the laughing stock of the Anglican communion and if you are following the news, a new conservative North American province is being created and it will thrive while the Episcopal Church will whither on the vine. TEC is an aging denomination with little new members, mostly older parishoners, and many folks are getting darn tired of Lady Katharine Schiori and her imperial reign.
Why put your son and daughter in Catholic schools if we’re a bunch of mindless drones that can’t think for ourselves? You seem to have enough confidence in the Catholic school system that we mindless zombies can educate your kids? You’ve even gone up and taken communion not respecting our faith’s values.
So don’t sit here and judge me. “Narrow-minded and prejudiced?” Hmmm. I heard those same allegations here in California about proposition 8 returning our state’s marriage definition to that of a man and a woman only. Liberals usually use this kind of lingo: “narrow-minded. medievel, backwards, pig-headed, intolerant. Yada yada yada…”
Would you have called Jesus “intolerant” when he made it clear that divorce is against the law of God and can only be given in cases of adultery? What would you have called the Lord? A lot of folks would call that intolerant! Jesus said, “I am THE WAY.” Your Church’s spokesmen, namely the “presiding bishop” (laugh laugh) said in a press conference, “Jesus is not THE way, but one of many ways to God.” Hmmm. Some call that tolerant and open-minded, the Fathers would call that heresy. So drop the labels, Jane. It’s corny.
You said, “why did you go back? Must be something you needed?”
You really want to go there, Jane? Fine, I went back there because I was struggling with some Catholic teachings that I couldn’t accept, namely birth control and a few other teachings. My wife and I went back to the Anglican church and realized we were being secular humanists, we were being moral relativists just wanting to make Jesus bow down to us and be OUR servant, and us the masters. We wanted a break from our moral compass. And yep, we got it, Jane! You won’t have to worry about my wife joining the Daughers of the King and me running for vestry. I will not go back to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer is not in my library now. I’ll be the first person to tell you that the ONLY reasons I went back to Anglicanism was because I felt the Church was too hard and I didn’t want to step up. I wanted to blame the Church for my own shortcomings and my own failures. My wife and I have struggled having our kids so close together in the last few years and our parish is so overwhelmed with a priest shortage that we wanted more pastoral care. It has all been about US not Jesus. I have never believed in Anglicanism, but I wanted a feel-good, easier catholic church. After about a month of Anglicanism, I realized our salvation was now on shaky ground, we felt a calling of the Holy Spirit and I know that we didn’t belong there.
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