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TRADITIONAL ANGLICANS MOURN EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WILL HOLD REQUIEM MASS
By Auburn Traycik
Actions taken by the recently-concluded General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA have prompted the Traditional Anglican Communion's Bishop of the Northeast to declare a period of mourning "in observance of the death of the Episcopal Church," concluding with a Requiem Mass to be held at St Paul's Cathedral in Portland next Wednesday.
Bishop George D. Langberg of the Anglican Church in America cited Resolution D058, which proposed that the Episcopal Church declare "its unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved," and that it "renew our dedication to be faithful witnesses to all persons of the saving love of God perfectly and uniquely revealed in Jesus and upheld by the full testimony of Holy Scripture." The resolution was rejected by the Convention.
"Now combine that," continued Bishop Langberg, "with the new Bishopess-elect's statement (in her homily at the Convention's concluding Eucharist) that 'Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation'. I don't know what religion she represents, but I know it isn't Christianity. The Episcopal Church many of us knew and loved is obviously dead, although we can probably expect the corpse to be around until the money runs out."
At Mass this week, the Very Rev. Lester E. York, Dean of the Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul said, "What was once a great part of Christ's Church here on Earth has become now nothing but a wealthy cult. No one can sit on the fence after these actions. Either you worship man, or you worship Christ. The Episcopal Church can no longer be considered Christian."
Many members of the Anglican Church in America, the American component of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion, are former Episcopalians who left the church, some of them a generation ago, over doctrinal and worship-related issues. The Communion has member churches in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia/New Zealand and is seeking intercommunion with the Vatican. It stands with the historic Church of England in its obedience to Scripture and its adherence to the three orthodox creeds of Christendom, and its worship follows the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 (England) and 1928 (America).
"The time has come when the faithful who clung to the hope that their church would see the light and submit its will to Christ must now realize that the Episcopal Church they once knew no longer exists. Our doors are open to them and to all who have been made spiritually homeless by the death of their church," Bishop Langberg concluded. Dean York will lead the Requiem Mass for the Episcopal Church at the Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul on Wednesday June 28th at 5:30 PM. "The church body that was so dear to many of us is dead," finished Father York. "It deserves at least a decent burial."
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ANGLICAN CHURCH IN AMERICA Diocese of the Northeast
CATHEDRAL OF ST. PAUL 279 Congress Street, Portland, Maine 04101, (207)828-2012
The Rt. Rev. George D. Langberg, Bishop
http://www.challengeonline.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=118
--Auburn Traycik is the editor of The Christian Challenge. She is based in Washington, DC.
