Pittsburgh quits Episcopal Church
The Diocese of Pittsburg voted to leave The Episcopal Church (TEC) on Saturday and to realign with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone based in Argentina. Pittsburgh is the second diocese to leave the church and it is expected that one or two more may follow this year. Click here for story.
Labels: Anglicanism
posted by Rev. Daniel McLain Hixon at 10/07/2008
2 Comments:
It is so good to see churches with a backbone. So many of our Protestant brethren have become spineless. I was recently listening to a podcast with a priest of the Eastern Orthodox church. He was asked about ecumenical efforts with the Anglican church. I thought he gave a great answer because he very plainly said there can be no ecumenical dialog when one party (the Anglican church) commits theological suicide by throwing out the very moral foundations of the Church.
Hey Pseudo-Hugh,
The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches have made it very clear that "revisions" to traditional Judeo-Christian sexual norms - such as in liberal Protestant Churches who are in some instances attempting to conform their church teachings to prevailing cultural ideas - represent a fundamental stumbling block to ecumenical progress.
In one sense it may be that this is one way that outside churches can attempt to influence the internal political processes of another church; but in keeping with the principle that we are ALREADY one ecumenical/catholic church, and that we are trying to express that more clearly through ecumenical cooperation and unity, then it seems appropriate to me when a church (especially a large and deeply rooted one) alerts another that it seems to be moving outside of the ecumenical Christian mainstream on any particular doctrinal or moral/ethical issue.
Of course there are purely practical issues as well. We faced this in our "Communion Sharing/Minister swapping" talks with Episcopalians since The United Methodist Church bans active homosexual clergy and apparently the Episcopal Church does not, such a clergyman would (presumably) not be elidgable for joint-ministry work.
For Catholics and Orthodox this is even a larger problem, since such a person might introduce invalidity into an the apostolic continuity of the order (order of elder/deacon/bishop) thus jeapordizing the whole legtitimacy of the Church's ecclesiology (this is really a moot point, since the Roman Catholics do not officially recognize Anglican orders as legitimate anyhow, though some Orthodox churches do, I believe).
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