Episcopal Church Throws Race Card and Plays the Martyr After Suspension

[roo_ster]

Anglican Communion suspends the Episcopal Church after years of gay rights debates
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/01/14/anglican-communion-suspends-the-episcopal-church-for-3-years-from-committees/

For the first time, the global organizing body of Anglicans has punished the Episcopal Church, following years of heated debate with the American church over homosexuality, same-sex marriage and the role of women.

The Anglican Communion’s announcement Thursday that it would suspend its U.S. branch for three years from key voting positions was seen as a blow to the Episcopal Church, which allows its clergy to perform same-sex marriages and this summer voted to include the rite in its church laws...

“The traditional doctrine of the church in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds marriage as between a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union,” the leaders of the Anglican Communion, which represents 44 national churches, said in a statement during a meeting in Canterbury. “The majority of those gathered reaffirm this teaching.”...

The decision in England will have little impact on Episcopalians in the pews, who have grown increasingly liberal after the 2003 consecration of the openly gay priest Gene Robinson as the bishop of New Hampshire. That action prompted dozens of U.S. churches to break off and declare their allegiance to conservative rival groups...

Michael Curry, the Episcopal Church’s newly-elected presiding bishop told the other primates –top bishops from each of the national churches — that the Anglican’s sanction would be received painfully by many in the U.S. denomination.

In remarks he has made available to Episcopal News Service, Curry said the Episcopal Church has a “commitment to be an inclusive church.”

“I stand before you as a descendant of African slaves, stolen from their native land, enslaved in a bitter bondage, and then even after emancipation, segregated and excluded in church and society,” Curry, the church’s first African American presiding bishop, told the primates. “And this conjures that up again, and brings pain.”...

Like other mainline denominations, the Episcopal Church, home to U.S. presidents and the nation’s elite, has struggled to fill its pews in recent years. It has lost more than 20 percent of its members since it consecrated Robinson, and new statistics suggest that membership continues to fall, dropping 2.7 percent from 2013 to about 1.8 million U.S. members in 2014.

Episcopalians have been aware that the U.S. body could be penalized, said Jim Naughton, a communications consultant working largely in the Episcopal Church. “The sanctions against the Episcopal Church are trifling compared to what LGBT Christians suffer, and we shouldn’t be whining about the nature of the sanctions,” he said.

Looks like the third-world Anglicans are trying to save the American Episcopal Church from itself.  Maybe turn it back into a Christian organization rather than a left-liberal social club and mutual self-pleasure admiration society.  

Given that the votes to make this happen largely came from black, brown, and generally swarthy Anglicans from dirt-poor countries; Curry's race card playing is hi-freaking-larious.  As if the sanctions came from the same sephardic, anglo, and dutch slave traders that bought his ancestors from other africans.  And the smarmy comments about “commitment to be an inclusive church,” and “The sanctions against the Episcopal Church are trifling compared to what LGBT Christians suffer," are the rancid whipped topping on top of the Episcopalian turd.

Read the whole article to get an idea about how the majority of the Anglican communion really feel about the American Episcopal church.

[lee n. field]

The ECUSA went from being the "republican party at prayer" generations ago, to deep, derp left.

Interesting to watch the process, but a bit removed from the ecclesiastical world I inhabit.

[Hawkmoon]

Looks like the third-world Anglicans are trying to save the American Episcopal Church from itself.  Maybe turn it back into a Christian organization rather than a left-liberal social club and mutual self-pleasure admiration society.  

IMHO the Episcopal Church is beyond saving. They are not just hemorrhaging members, they are hemorrhaging actual churches. A year or so ago a VERY old Episcopal church up-state closed its doors. On my way to work every day, I drive by a former Episcopal church that's been boarded up for at least five years. There are no "For sale" signs, but I've been told that the diocese is trying to sell the property. And I know of another very old Episcopal church that's likely to close within the next year because they can't afford to maintain their building.

My college roommate went on to seminary and became an Episcopal priest (as they now call themselves -- when I was a kid they were "ministers," like other Protestants). Back then, he described himself as "Anglican," which I took to mean that he considered himself to be a conservative, "high" Episcopalian. We reconnected by e-mail a couple of years ago and I discovered that he had recently been serving in a church in my state, within about 30 miles of me -- never bothered to contact me. I asked him some questions about the festering divide within the Worldwide Anglican Communion between the American Episcopalians and the rest of the Anglicans in the world, and it was immediately clear that he has drunk the Kool-Aid.

A lot of Episcopal parishes in my state have abandoned their former buildings (since the Diocese apparently owns all the buildings, even if they were built with parishioners' contributions) and affiliated themselves with one of two Anglican umbrella groups in order to remain true to Anglican scriptural teachings. This has been a long time in coming. It won't surprise me if the eventual outcome is that the Episcopal Church USA is eventually kicked out of the Anglican Community, and the Anglican church sets up a new, formal Anglican hierarchy in the U.S.

[Perd Hapley]

Anglican Communion suspends the Episcopal Church after years of gay rights debates
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/01/14/anglican-communion-suspends-the-episcopal-church-for-3-years-from-committees/

Looks like the third-world Anglicans are trying to save the American Episcopal Church from itself.  Maybe turn it back into a Christian organization rather than a left-liberal social club and mutual self-pleasure admiration society.  

Given that the votes to make this happen largely came from black, brown, and generally swarthy Anglicans from dirt-poor countries; Curry's race card playing is hi-freaking-larious.  As if the sanctions came from the same sephardic, anglo, and dutch slave traders that bought his ancestors from other africans.  

What, did someone call him a primate? (yuk-yuk)

Quite a set of brass ones on that guy. I guess he gets away with that kind of thing, as most people and most journalists are unaware that his comments are 180 degrees out of phase with the way the color line goes in this situation. Elsewhere in the article:

It was also seen as a victory for conservative Anglicans, especially those in Africa,, who for years have been pressing the Anglican Communion to discipline the U.S. body.

The active membership of the U.S., Canadian and British Anglican churches combined is less than the number the Nigerian church, which has roughly 20 million members, has added in the past 15 years, according to Philip Jenkins, historian at Baylor University.

[Hawkmoon]

Quite a set of brass ones on that guy. I guess he gets away with that kind of thing, as most people and most journalists are unaware that his comments are 180 degrees out of phase with the way the color line goes in this situation. Elsewhere in the article:

Those others don't count. They're not "African-Americans," they're just Africans. Their great-great-great grandparents weren't slaves (unless they were, but even then they weren't slaves in evil America), so he doesn't have to relate to them.

[lupinus]

Good. Not that it'll work but someone needs to stand up and slap them. This is the sort of thing that happens when you replace scripture with fuzzy feel goods.

[lee n. field]

Local to me.  The bottom third is an IL compliant "CCW?  we don't server your kind!" sign.  The rest is extra special.

[Perd Hapley]

Ichabod.

[makattak]

Local to me.  The bottom third is an IL compliant "CCW?  we don't server your kind!" sign.  The rest is extra special.

I have to ask: I recognize the other religious symbols,  but what is the big-headed alien symbol?

[dogmush]

It's a Khanda, a symbol for Sikhism.

[lupinus]

Where's the pasta strainer and noodles?


Sent from my iPhone. Freaking autocorrect.

[Perd Hapley]

What about the flower-lookin' symbol?

[dogmush]

What about the flower-lookin' symbol?

Looks like a stylized Lotus flower, which would make it Buddhist.  But I admit I don't recognize that exact depiction, it could be something more obscure.  Almost certainly Asian in origin, however.

[Perd Hapley]

Looks like a stylized Lotus flower, which would make it Buddhist.  But I admit I don't recognize that exact depiction, it could be something more obscure.  Almost certainly Asian in origin, however.

Like all the other religions.

[dogmush]

Like all the other religions.

No, actually.

But to clarify further, almost certainly from the group of religions that grew up in what is now India, China, SE Aisa, and Japan.

[Perd Hapley]

I mean the other religions represented by that sign: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism.

[dogmush]

Nevermind

[lee n. field]

And why is there not a hammer, for the devotees of Ukko and Ilmarinen?  They are insufficiently pluralistic.  </sarc>

[dogmush]

And why is there not a hammer, for the devotees of Ukko and Ilmarinen?  They are insufficiently pluralistic.  </sarc>

Because such followers are not simpering children who feel the need to cry until they are included in every little thing?
Or possibly because a church devoted to those gods that posted a sign barring weapons would likely be struck by lightning right quick. 

[seeker_two]

Local to me.  The bottom third is an IL compliant "CCW?  we don't server your kind!" sign.  The rest is extra special.

And that is why they fail.....

[Hawkmoon]

And that is why they fail.....

Yup.

If I were looking for a new church, considering how often churches have been attacked in recent years I certainly wouldn't choose one that wouldn't allow me to carry during services.

[Mannlicher]

not my church, not my problem.  Most of today's Christian Church, these fellows included,  seem hell bent on destroying any belief in God, and have veered toward secular humanism.

[zxcvbob]

Because such followers are not simpering children who feel the need to cry until they are included in every little thing?
Or possibly because a church devoted to those gods that posted a sign barring weapons would likely be struck by lightning right quick. 

Like the Sikhs?  That "big eyed alien" symbol is made out of 3 or 4 stylized swords, and Sikhs carry a ceremonial dagger.

[lee n. field]

Yup.

If I were looking for a new church, considering how often churches have been attacked in recent years I certainly wouldn't choose one that wouldn't allow me to carry during services.

Ill-i-noise, having the experience of every other state to draw on, did not make churches Gun "Free" Zones.  They have to post the required sign, like everyone else.  I've only noticed 3 churches posted, all old liberal mainline churches.  This pic is from one of them.

[MechAg94]

not my church, not my problem.  Most of today's Christian Church, these fellows included,  seem hell bent on destroying any belief in God, and have veered toward secular humanism.

Yep.  Thought that sign seems to imply they also believe that all religions point to the same God which I think it another step out there.