During the past week or so, lots of articles about ECUSA have appeared in American media. Here is a selection of them.
Steve Levin in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Mainline denominations losing impact on nation
Michael Luo New York Times Leaning Left, but Not When It Comes to Gay Bishops
Christian Century Division looms for Episcopal Church
Via Media Dallas An Open Letter to Bishop James M. Stanton
William E. Swing Bishop of California Communists, Counterfeiters, and Catholics
And a number of articles from the Living Church:
Day of ‘Cathartic Encouragement’ Falls Through. See also the LEAC press release EPISCOPAL ‘MELTDOWN’ ENDS LAY GROUP’S INDICTMENT PRESSURE ON ‘RADICALIZED BISHOPS’.
Gary Kriss No Longer Catholic
Jack Iker Bishop of Ft Worth Our Future in Question
George Conger Arkansas Bishop to Allow Non-Sacramental Same-Sex Blessings and the actual text of the bishop’s letter is here.
A word of warning about the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: it is owned by Richard Mellon Scaife, a wealthy reactionary ideologue who is one of the main financial backers of the so-called “renewal movement” in mainline churches in the U.S. He also put up most of the money for the endless investigations into Clinton’s personal life in the 90s. In fact, there’s not a reactionary cause in the U.S. in these past thirty years that Scaife has not played sugardaddy for. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is Scaife’s mouthpiece, not a legitimate newspaper. They print what he tells them to, which is usually whatever… Read more »
“The bishop’s encouragement of theological speculation on the distinction between a sacramental rite of blessing of same-sex unions and a pastoral provision for blessing same-sex unions is likely to draw the ire of the wider Anglican Communion. For 2000 years, faithful Christians have engaged in “theological speculation” regarding Absolutely Everything! If the above were true—no “theological speculation on the distinction between a sacramental rite of blessing of same-sex unions and a pastoral provision for blessing same-sex unions” (*)—it would only show how mentally (and morally) BANKRUPT the AC has become. >:-/ (*) Not that I personally see the need of… Read more »
Nothing folks don’t know already. The declining mainline churches, with ever lessening impact on the World, struggle valiantly to make themselves even more irrelevant and ignorable.
I have no idea, from what Jack Icker imagines he needs protection.
First, an important correction. Scaife does not own the Post-Gazette, but the Tribune-Review. The reporter of the article in question, Steve Levin, covers The Episcopal Church. He does it well and fairly. Even the Tribune-Review has tried to be fair, at least in covering The Episcopal Church. It occasionally gets it wrong, but not for want of trying. I have often been quoted in the Trib and have never had a complaint about how my words were used. I have a letter to the editor in today’s Post-Gazette responding to Levin’s article. (See http://post-gazette.com/pg/06205/708113-110.stm .) In it, I point out… Read more »
“As Bishop of Fort Worth, I have long experienced an impaired relationship with the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church, unable to share fully in eucharistic fellowship with all its members.” This makes it sound like the HoB has shunned him; in fact, he has refused table fellowship. It is typical of many like him to proclaim their own victimhood when in fact they are the ones excluding themselves. Nor do they seem to recognize that their actions and proclamations effectivly exclude women and glbt people from the full life of the church. I LOVE it when bullies act… Read more »
Lionel, thank you for the correction.
If the Tribune-Review is now trying to be fair, that is something new and welcome. I vividly remember them giving a forum to crackpots like Christopher “Bill Clinton Murdered Vince Foster” Ruddy in the 90s. Even by the standards of the right wing press, they were out of line.
And thank you for pointing out the role of secular politics in all this controversy. It is amazing–and unfortunate–how few understand that.
Declining Mainline Churches .. ? There’s an interesting article on Standfirminfaith regarding the overall loss in ASA of *liberal* ECUSA in the last 12 years – versus growth in ASA of the conservative dioceses: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/884/
For those who didn’t follow the link on ‘Declining mainstream churches’ note that the compiler of the information is unhappy with the way it has been presented on the website in question: as she says…. “I fear the headline you’ve given it could be misleading, however. I’d compiled and sent out the table since it shows an interesting pattern. I like looking at data and trying to spot “trends” (I do alot of it for my job.) But as I look at the data more closely in the light of day, the problem is, you cannot say each and every… Read more »
David:
Aaargh! I really wanted to look at those statistics. Are they posted elsewhere?
Steven
Steven:
They’re actually on the original http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/884/ link under the feedback bit — As a non-statistician I couln’t make head or tail of the significance or otherwise of the figures, but it was interesting that the compiler urged extreme caution in their interpretation.
Whatever any group of particular stats mean, the difference in making inferences from them seems fairly clear, according to our polarized differences. If a liberal diocese/parish/associational group is statistically growing, well it just shows how quickly things are going to the dogs without clear, firm conservative or traditional or orthodox leadership and conformity. Too bad. If, on the other hand, a conservative diocese/parish/associational group is statistically growing, then it shows that progressive views are faddish, superficial, and a dying trend that will soon fade into the sands of history as more and more people see the simple truth of that… Read more »