Presto-chango:

It's the reappearance of the tip toeing ++Venables.

I wondered what his Coneship, the non-African, non-Latino Americano, was "up to" since he objected so strongly to ++Akinolas protest/testy letter against +++Rowan after their Southern Global Cairo meet/hook-up.

Silence.

What's that I smell?

He's been off in the "creation" lab whipping up a new receipe for cutout puritan monster cookies to offer as yet another "Traditional Anglican" brand to kick up his formerly shrinking Southern Western Hemisphere market share and demand.

Okay, then, yet another realignment innovation as it materializes into being in front of our very eyes - the shifted new use of the canonical, Godly Judgment, conjured up out of nothing, defined into being - like God speaking Fiat Lux?

We can change our minds at the drop of a new conservative hat about church canons, polity, power. Oh yes. But we cannot change our minds about sex.

Do these guys ever stop reaching as they lay claims to ever larger purviews of self-aggrandizing, religious power? In their own ways they can be surprisingly flexible when they are patting themselves on the back for remaking and cleaning up the filthy, disgusting world.

Lord have mercy.

The Living Church states, "The largest congregation in The Episcopal Church, Christ Church, Plano, Texas..." This is erroneous. I can think of many larger parishes, including St. Martin's, Houston, which I believe is the largest congregation in the Episcopal Church.

Caelius, according to ECUSA's own statistics, Christ Church Plano is the largest in ASA. Yes, I believe St. Martin's total membership is larger.

I'll look for the link and be back...

Here's the link for ECUSA's stats from 2004
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/documents/FAST_FACTS_2004.pdf

I wonder if this failure to win the total membership competition could be due to the requirements imposed for membership, which the parish website describes as follows:

There are three requirements for membership at Christ Church: baptism, attendance at the three-part Gateway class, and signing of the membership covenant. Gateway consists of a series of three 90-minute classes.

I was not able to discover the content of the covenant document that you apparently have to sign to become a member.

I never previously heard of an Anglican church with such a requirement.

Simon commented (re Plano)
I never previously heard of an Anglican church with such a requirement.

Not in the same league, but there is a church just into the northern province on the other side of the Bridge joining Yorkshire and England which expects those who wish to join its fellowship groups to have undergone baptism by Alpha.

Must be one of the sacraments necessary for salvation they never taught me about at Cuddesdon.

I didn't know ASA was meant, but Karen B. appears to be right by that measure.

Here's the link:

http://12.0.101.88/charts.aspx

Ah, Episcopal Church membership requirements. Well, here goes. The Episcopal Church does not require the signing of any covenant agreement whatsoever. Full stop.

To be a member: If your baptism takes place at St. Swithen's, you are a member there.

If you were baptized someplace else, but your family transferred membership to St. Agnes', you are a member there.

If you were baptized someplace else but confirmed at St. Agnes, you are a member at St. Agnes.

If you were baptized and confirmed a R.C. or into one of the Eastern Orthodox expressions of Christianity, and are received into the Episcopal Church during a service at St. Swithens' you are a member of St. Swithen's.

If you were baptized and/or confirmed in any other Christian denomination other than Episcopalian, RC or E. Orthodox, you have to be confirmed into the Episcopal Church to be a member - in whatever congregation the confirmation service takes place, there you are a member.

(Still with me?)

If you last attended St. Swithen's, in which parish's register you are listed as a communicant (member), and you start attending St. Agnes but do not transfer your membership from St. Swithen's, you are not a member at St. Agnes'. However, in the annual parochial report, from which all ASA and membership statistics come, there is a line allowing for you to be counted by St. Agnes. However, without your transfer from St. Swithens, only a very zealous clergyperson will strike you from the record books at St. Swithens as a communicant. Although every once in awhile some of us just take a look at the "last year's membership" number on the parochial report we have inherited from another incumbancy, count the actual members, and then precipitately reduce or increase the number in one felled swoop to reflect reality.

Thus, ASA, average Sunday attendance, has become the preferred marker for the Episcopal Church of how many Episcopalians there are. The only fly in that ointment is, unless the taking of the Sacraments to the homebound is done on Sunday, the priest may miss, or forget, to add in those numbers. So, quite frankly, the whole "how many Episcopalians are there" thing is a crap shoot.

Ain't it fun? Please no snide replies. I beg you.
Cheers.
Lois Keen

Well, at least Roseberry+ had the grace (after being pressured by a letter to the bishop from Via Media Dallas, no doubt) to resign his membership on the diocesan standing committee. And the parish (finally) offered to pay the diocese for their highly debt-laden property.

All in all, it could have turned out alot worse...

(Note: another parish in the diocese, St. Nicholas, Flower Mound, TX has gone the same way as Christ Church. Their rector is still, AFAIK, seated on the diocesan standing committee and I've heard *nothing* about them offering to pay for the Episcopal Church property they occupy.)