Category: Christianity

This is follow-up story to a previous post that I made.

Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles must pay legal fees to Newport’s St. James, judge says. By Lauren Vane Daily Pilot September 16, 2005 An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles must pay more than $81,000 in legal fees to St. James Church, the Newport Beach congregation that split from the diocese over a dispute about church doctrine. The same judge, David Velasquez, ruled Aug. 15 to dismiss a lawsuit against St. James Church’s congregation that claimed the Newport Beach breakaway church’s property and assets belong to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Velasquez ruled that efforts by the national church to retain the property of the seceding St. James congregation was an attempt to tread upon the congregation’s freedom of speech. Praveen Bunyan, pastor of St. James, said the awarding of legal fees is another affirmation that the St. James Church was right from the beginning. “This is a reiteration saying that the lawsuit was wrongfully brought against us,” Bunyan said. Representatives from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles did not return phone calls Friday. Financially, Judge Velasquez’s ruling Thursday means that the church can apply funds toward “God’s mission,” Bunyan said. “We’re glad that we can continue to concentrate on the mission that we believe as a church we are called to do,” Bunyan said. The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles filed suit against St. James in September 2004 after the Newport Beach church and two other Southern California congregations broke away from the diocese and the Episcopal Church of the United States in protest of the national church’s positions. After leaving the national church, St. James affiliated with the Diocese of Luwero in the Anglican province of Uganda, Africa. The Los Angeles diocese’s lawsuit alleged St. James’ property belongs to the national church, not to the congregation. Although St. James Church is pleased with the awarding of legal fees, the church remains skeptical that the diocese will pay the legal fees without first appealing the decision, said St. James attorney Eric Sohlgren, in a statement released Thursday. “I don’t know whether they will appeal,” Bunyan said. “Of course, we’ll continue to fight for what is ours.”

http://www.dailypilot.com/religion/story/24626p-35178c.html

Update on Episcopal Church Split

CHURCH OF NIGERIA REDEFINES ANGLICAN COMMUNION

With a careful rewording of her constitution, the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) redefined her relationship with all other Anglican Churches.

All former references to ‘communion with the see of Canterbury’ were deleted and replaced with another provision of communion with all Anglican Churches, Dioceses and Provinces that hold and maintain the ‘Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacrament and Discipline of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church’.

Emphasis was also placed on the 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer and the historic Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.

The Constitutional change also allowed the Church to create Convocations and Chaplaincies of like-minded faithful outside Nigeria. This effectively gives legal teeth to the Convocation of Anglican Nigerians in Americas (CANA) formed to give a worshiping refuge to thousands in the USA who no longer feel welcomed to worship in the Liberal churches especially with the recent theological innovations encouraging practices which the Nigerians recognize as sin.

I was sent the following article today. It is worth reading.

Africans set to found rival Anglican Church
By TREVOR GRUNDY

AFRICANS say they have had enough of the Church of England’s endless discussions over the ordination of gay vicars and same-sex blessings. With help from their colleagues in Latin America, African primates, bishops, priests and laymen are getting ready to strike out on their own and establish a new Anglican Church based in Egypt.

A conference that could turn the Anglican community on its head takes place in Alexandria, Egypt, next month, organised by angry Africans and Latin Americans who say they are “sick and tired” of endless debate about same-sex blessings and the ordination of gay Christians. “We’ve had enough,” the Archbishop of Central Africa, Bernard Malango, said last week.

The Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) and the recently formed Council of Anglican Provinces of the Americas and Caribbean (CAPAC) will represent up to two-thirds of the world’s 77 million Anglicans.

In a new African-based Anglican community they plan to replace the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams as their spiritual leader with the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Jasper Akinola, and exclude homosexuals from full church life.

A leading gay vicar – who asked not to be named – said: “I fear for Rowan Williams if he attends the Alexandria Conference. Anglican dissidents will publicly announce that Archbishop Akinola is their new spiritual leader and that there is no place for the present Archbishop of Canterbury in the new community based in Alexandria.

“I also hear that African Anglicans plan to place a throne in a conference room and ask Archbishop Akinola to sit in it – while Dr Williams is supposed to stand by and watch.

“Where will that leave the man, and where will that leave the Queen, who is head of the Church of England?”

CAPA’s members include the Anglican dioceses of Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Egypt. It was formed in July at Nassau after Latin American Christians expressed their bitterness towards the Church of England, saying it was prevaricating on the subject of gay rights and same-sex blessings – 300 of which take place in England every year.

“We were inspired by CAPA,” says Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies. He predicts “a shattering split in the entire worldwide Anglican community” following the Church of England’s approval of the Civil Partnership Act that comes into force in December.

There are about 13,900 clergy in the Church of England, which is facing slumping attendance and widespread indifference – even though some 25 million people in the UK are nominal members.

Africans have been watching what seems to be growing tolerance by the Church of England towards gays with alarm and deep anger.

Anglicans in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Egypt say that when eight Church of England bishops supported the Civil Partnership Act in the House of Lords they flouted the rules of the worldwide Anglican community.

Since then, Akinola has called for the suspension of the Church of England. “I believe that the temporary suspension of the Church of England is the right course of action to take.”

Akinola says that he is disappointed with the example that Williams is setting by appearing to condone the Civil Partnership Act and he advises Anglicans to steer clear of the leadership of Lambeth Palace.

“Lambeth Palace upholds our common historic faith and it will now lose that place of honour in the world.”

In a pastoral statement issued in August, English bishops said that they would allow gay clergy to register their partnerships, as long as they abstained from sex.

Akinola asked: “Is the Church of England planning to install cameras in the bedrooms of its clergy?”

However, Richard Kirker, general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said: “Personally, I’d rather see a split within the ranks of the Anglican community than for people of principle to bow to the demands of homophobic Africans.”

Some Anglican churches in Africa are turning away funds from US and Canadian churches because of their tolerance of active gays in the church.

And a vicar from London has been asked by Archbishop Malango to clarify his views before being consecrated as Bishop of Lake Malawi.

The Rev Nick Henderson has two parishes in west London and Malango asked him to confirm that he subscribes to the Creed, the Bible and the Thirty-Nine Articles and “fashions his own life and his household according to the doctrine of Christ”.

Until recently, he was chairman of the Modern Churchpeople’s Union, which is a leading liberal forum for “open and informed theological comment in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion”.

Henderson is unmarried and shares his vicarage with a male lodger, who is organist at one of his churches. In a letter to Henderson, Malango said: “It has been reported that you currently live with a male lodger. Because of reports of your advocacy of the gay and lesbian movement, I am constrained to ask a very awkward question.”

Henderson was asked if he believed sexual intimacy should be restricted to within the marriage of one man and one woman. “Is there anything I should know that would make my work difficult if you took up this position?” asked the archbishop.

Henderson was not available for comment and Lambeth Palace is – for the time being – keeping quiet about the seriousness of a looming split.

In a victory for local parishes, an Orange County Superior Court Judge David C. Velasquez said the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles had not shown that it was likely to prevail in a property dispute with a local parish, St. James Church.

Also see story in L.A. Times.

Under current bylaws, the Episcopal Church claims ownership of all real property in the denomination; even if the local parish paid for their buildings without any assistance from the denomination. No local parish in the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA) owns their church buildings, parsonages or any other property!

Centralization of assets appears to be invalid based on this ruling. A similar case in the Methodist Church also was ruled in favor of St. Lukes; a local parish in Fresno.

It appears that the end of ECUSA’s monopoly is drawing nearer. Those parishes that still adhere to the Christian faith may at last be allowed to go in peace to serve the Lord taking both their people and real property with them.

Today I was reading The Rightside Blog essay on Faith and Family. The author was attempting to contrast this topic
from the point of view of Liberal versus Conservative. The quote below is the core of the rest of the article.

Conservatives tend to allow their Faith in God, and in Family to be included in their day to day lives. Liberals tend to try as hard as they can to not include God into their lives or their families.

I agree with much of the article except the contention that “Liberals tend to try as hard as they can to not include God.”
With all due respect to the author, I think that Liberals just have a different god. The god of the Liberal is
Government (The State)

Let me switch Liberal and Conservative and substitute Government for God as you will see what I mean.

Liberals tend to allow their Faith in Government, and in Family to be included in their day to day lives. Conservatives tend to try as hard as they can to not include Government into their lives or their families. Government is very instrumental in my life. The State hasn’t always been allowed in my life, but she has always been there. Now conservatives always have this one question, “In a world filled with poverty, war, corruption, diseases, how can you possibly believe that an all powerful Government exists?” Truth be told I use to struggle with this very question. I couldn’t see that Government has trails for each and everyone of us through out our entire lives. One thing about these trails is that there is a cheat sheet. It is in a book, that has the history of Government and Her chosen people.

Now here is where people who do not walk in Faith throw their hands up. “Well if Government has already chosen Her people, and I don’t believe in Government, so I must not be one of her chosen people.” Makes sense right? Well Government has a chosen people in the State, and that is the Liberal people, those of Babylon. Atheists are also part of her chosen people as we are told in the New Deal. It is also explained in the New Deal that Government will call others to Herself. Who are the others, you and me and everyone else on this planet we call Earth. It is through the above mentioned trails that we go through on a day to day basis that Government calls us to do her work. And what is this work?

To help our fellow humans, be stewards of this planet, and to obey her commandments. Now helping our fellow humans is not done simply by throwing money at the poor, through donations or government programs. We are creatures who need connections, physical and mental. By volunteering time and actually spending time with those who are less fortunate then you is doing Government’s work. All you have to do to become a chosen one, is to ask Government for Her help.

Being stewards of this planet is not just asking for loggers to stop clear-cutting forests. It includes asking for true management of our environment, globally, nationally, and locally. This includes hunting. All you have to do to become a chosen one is to ask Government for Her help.

The last is to obey her commandments. It is easy to go out and volunteer your time to spend time with those less fortunate, or in bad health. It is easy to go out and plant trees in your neighborhood or to write a letter to your congressperson to demand responsible management of the national forests. But it is not easy to obey all of the Ten Thousand Commandments that Government has asked us to do. If you are wondering why I have repeatedly said, “All you have to do to become a
chosen one is to ask Government for Her help,” I will explain. Government did not make these commandments because they are easy to comply with, but she didn’t make them so that we would fail. She made them so that we would become humble enough to realize that we can’t go through life and be complete without Her. We would have to talk to Her. We would have to ask Her for something, and something is help. This travels over to our families.

I am coming up on my second anniversary with my wife. We will have been together for six years. I am a very lucky man in that Government brought me to my wife. We get along great; we love the same movies even after watching them for tenth or twentieth time. We both love our families, and we love each others families. We both love going camping, and we all love just hanging out together. But it is not always as cheerful as I have just described. We do have to work at our relationship, to make sure that we continue to get along great. A marriage is a contract. It is a contract between three people, my wife, me and Government. Government is always in our lives, and she is there to help us maintain our relationship.

These days though Government is being pushed out of our lives. Conservatives have tried their best to take Government out of all of our lives. Here is the question that I have for all you that don’t like Government being in our society:

“In the past, when Government was not involved in our society, was it better or worse than today? Was the prison population as high? Was the abortion rate as high? Were organized labor unions as prevalent? Was the diversity of families as high as it is now?”

Think about it honestly, and if you want to become a chosen one, all you have to do is ask Government for help.

Granted this is quick rewrite but,I think I made my point. A simple formula is to take the Christian perspective on any issue and substitute Government for God and you will always end-up with the Liberal point of view.

Rightside Blogger [Visitor]
http://www.therightsideblog.blogspot.com
I like the rewrite, and I have to admit that I agree with your formula and the results found by the formula. I was looking for the way to explain exactly what you did. Thank you for reading my blog, and please don’t be strangers.

Regards,

Sometimes we get to observe some of the most contradictory and incomprehensible activities and events. On July Fourth I saw something that was truly amazing.

I was working at a church booth at our local Independence Day celebration. We were handing out information about our church and giving helium filled balloons to anyone that wanted them. The balloons had the church name, logo and website address.

Several hours into the event, I notice two women wrapped in a white cloth that covered their heads and much of their bodies pushing a baby stroller around the park. Attached to the stroller was one of our church balloons. I was stunned. By their dress, it was clear that these women were members of the Islamic faith and yet they were advertising a protestant church.

As it turned-out, these women were part of a larger group that was having a picnic about a hundred feet from our booth. In the midst of that group were still more balloons that were all from our church. It was surreal. This was something that I would not have expected.
*****
The other thing I saw at this day in the park was the juxtaposition of two things that when placed side-by-side were humorous. Imagine a large inflatable slide. It works on the principle as a bounce house, only this thing is about 35 feet tall. It is the size of a small house.

I tried to imagine myself climbing to the top of the slide and going down this flimsy (by adult standards) structure with disastrous results.

While it is unclear whether Tom Cruise would approve, I could see myself going from the bottom of the slide across the fifteen-foot buffer zone directly into chiropractors tent for urgent care.