Hemmorrhaging Begins In Episcopal Church,etc.

Hi Everyone!

I 'm posting several links and articles to update you on where things stand with ECUSA and the coming split(and I DO MEAN coming)!!

The following link says it all about "Bishop" Robinson: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031109-115506-4702r.htm

Here's the Agape Press article that I referenced in the subject line: http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/102003c.asp

I have a tape of Bishop Barnum's stirring sermon and he applauds Fr.Randall and those who left St.Timothy to begin Emmaus. If you go to:
http://www.emmausanglicanchurch.org/ you can hear Bishop Barnum's Nov.9th. sermon.

Here's a local story from the Baltimore Sun on the split at St. Timothy's by the reporter referenced by Bishop Barnum in his sermon:

A spiritual house divided
Split: Members of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church upset by the
installation of an openly gay bishop form a new congregation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
By Frank Langfitt
Sun Staff
Originally published November 10, 2003


After nearly 27 years as a parishioner, Bill Meisheid left St.
Timothy's Episcopal Church yesterday.
Before Communion, he stood up in the Catonsville church and asked
Maryland's Suffragan Bishop John L. Rabb, who was visiting, if he
rejected the recent consecration of a gay man to serve as a bishop in
the Episcopal Church.

Rabb said he did not and soon afterward, Meisheid walked out. Then he
drove a couple of miles to worship at a gymnasium with dozens of
former St. Timothy's members who had left the parish and the
Episcopal Church in protest earlier this fall.

"There is no chance for dialogue on this issue," said Meisheid, 56, a
technical writer from Oella, during coffee hour after the service in
the gym. "It's black and white; it's right and wrong."

Meisheid's journey yesterday provides a glimpse of what a divided
parish can look like in the Episcopal Church, which faces one of its
toughest challenges in years. This month, the church consecrated
Bishop V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, to lead the diocese of
New Hampshire.

The move has infuriated tradition-minded Episcopalians, who say that
Scripture clearly opposes homosexual behavior. Some Episcopalians
have vowed to leave the church, setting the stage for what could be a
costly legal battle over church property.

St. Timothy's is one of the most conservative churches in the
Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and is the only one to split over the
issue of Robinson's ordination. Members such as Meisheid have left to
form a new parish -- Emmaus Anglican Church -- with their former
rector, the Rev. Steven R. Randall. They have made no claims to St.
Timothy's property and meet each Sunday in the gymnasium of nearby
Bishop Cummins Memorial Reformed Episcopal Church.

More than 160 people attended the 10 a.m. service yesterday at
Emmaus, some of them Episcopalians from other parishes angered by
Robinson's consecration. Sitting on folding chairs beneath a pair of
Plexiglas backboards, parishioners read from Bibles they had brought
from home and sang hymns projected on a screen in front.

"Everything we have is borrowed," said Randall, who resigned from St.
Timothy's a couple of months ago after giving a sermon in which he
compared the Episcopal bishops who supported Robinson to the
hijackers of 9/11. "We left with nothing, just a few old hymnals."

Perhaps 70 people attended St. Timothy's 9 a.m. service yesterday, a
considerable drop from average attendance earlier this year.

A vestryman politely requested that a reporter not interview
parishioners and leave the property. He said the congregation had
suffered through a difficult split, and members didn't want to talk.

Rabb said his visit was unrelated to the dispute over Robinson and
had been scheduled long ago. He said the parish is trying to rebound.

"There is a lot of commitment and energy in that congregation," said
Rabb in a phone interview afterward. "They've been through pain, but
they are not dissuaded and they aren't giving in."

The Rev. Arthur E. Wooley Jr. is leading St. Timothy's as interim
rector. Rabb said the parish would issue a mission statement soon
charting its future.

In some ways, Emmaus is already moving ahead. Yesterday, Randall
announced that the fledgling parish would join the Anglican Mission
in America, a missionary organization that was established in 2000
and has 50 churches.

The Episcopal Church represents the U.S. branch of the 75 million-
member Anglican Communion. The Anglican Mission works to create new
U.S. churches separate from the Episcopal Church, but loyal to
Anglican archbishops in the developing world.

The Anglican Mission is an outgrowth of a theological division
between the Global North -- the United States, Canada and Western
Europe -- and the Global South -- parts of Africa, Asia and Latin
America -- which tend to be more traditional and conservative on
issues of scriptural interpretation and homosexuality.


Yesterday, one of the Anglican Mission's U.S.-based bishops, the Rt.
Rev. Thaddeus Barnum, spoke to Emmaus parishioners about the
importance of sticking to their principles when other dissident
parishes have declined to break with the Episcopal Church for fear of
losing their property.


"Our children are watching and wondering: 'Does anyone stand for the
truth today?'" Barnum preached. "My children need to see leaders who
will lead to the path of righteousness."

Several former St. Timothy's parishioners said they were sorry to
leave their church behind, but said that their faith was more
important than real estate.

"We are the church," said Nancy Brown, 65, a Woodlawn resident who
had been a member of St. Timothy's since 1978. "You can worship the
Lord anywhere."

Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun

My wife,Mary Clare,and I were members of St.Timothy's(we left in November of 2002,joining Bishop Cummins Reformed Episcopal Church)and share Bishop Barnum's excitment over the courage of the members of Emmaus.

Also,our pastor mentioned meeting 5 families from St.Timothy who are checking Bishop Cummins out and Mary Clare said that she's met them as well.

She goes and sits with them to make them feel comfortable and help them with the liturgy and to make introductions after church.(I also
"catch up" with them after church and they say that seeing me playing in the music ministry also helps them feel comfortable).

Then finally,they mention that they really feel the Lord's presence at Bishop Cummins and will be coming back!

In Christ,

Dale McNamee

 

Dear Carson,

I read your post and it raises another interesting question. Is he committing bigamy in addition to adultery,fornication,and homosexuality?

But,what's that to someone who sees his behavior as "sacramental" and caused by God? Thus making God the author of sin.

From First Things magazine:

'God has once again brought an Easter out of Good Friday,' declared an exultant V. Gene Robinson after his election as bishop of New Hampshire was approved by his episcopal colleagues. ...
"Robinson, who left his wife and children in order to satisfy his sexual needs, addressed the bishops in solemn assembly thusly: 'I believe that God gave us the gift of sexuality so that we might express with our bodies the love that's in our hearts. I just need to tell you that I experience that with my partner. In the time that we have, I can't go into all the theology around it, but ... in my relationship with my partner, I am able to express the deep love that's in my heart. ... So it's sacramental for me.'
"I just need to tell you that it's probably just as well that he didn't go into all the theology around it."

In Christ,

Dale