In August, I moved into the apartment building owned by Christ Episcopal Church in Springfield. The building was located on S. 7th street, adjacent to the church. The night before I moved in, I was up late painting and a man who lived in an apartment two floors above me. The person I met was Dan Bartlett. I was 19, he was 49. I grew up just a few miles from where Dan did, in Pike County, IL.
Read moreThe move was the latest flexing of muscles by traditionalists who have mobilised recently against any relaxation of the church's opposition to homosexuals. It came against a backdrop of threats to split the worldwide communion which Dr Williams heads.
Read moreSome lifelong Episcopalians have left their churches, saying the vote to affirm a gay bishop was the last straw in what they saw as the church's long slide away from orthodoxy.
Read moreThey are men who spend 12 to 14 hours a day sending out posts to message boards, fielding replies or overseeing "blogs," or journals on the Internet, about the conflict tearing the 2.3-million-member denomination apart: the Nov. 2 consecration of the first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop.
Read moreThe most contentious of the issues, of course, was the nomination of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest who had been living with another man for 14 years, to be the bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. For the 107 bishops in attendance, their vote on his confirmation would be the most scrutinized of their careers. And, based on Peter Lee's record, there seemed little doubt about where he would come down.
Read moreI still remember the excitement that filled the Cathedral last May when
you were elected the Eleventh Bishop of New Jersey, and I believe that
it was indeed your sincere desire to be the Bishop of all Episcopalians
in this Diocese. However, your actions since General Convention, I
believe, make this vital objective impossible.
This was the largest gathering of a group called the Seacoast Mission
Fellowship (SMF), which is holding Bible studies in private homes and
providing community for Episcopalians who believe Scripture condemns
Robinson's active relationship with his male partner of 14 years.
Winterrowd, who is retiring Dec. 31, said he went into August's General
Convention of the Episcopal Church USA intending to vote against the
election of Gene Robinson as New Hampshire bishop.
His rationale: Robinson's election would fly in the face of the
church's desire to delay setting policy on blessing same-sex unions.
But Winterrowd said he became convinced that each diocese had the right
to elect its own bishop.
Citing the findings from a just-completed national survey of 2033
adults that showed only 4% of adults have a biblical worldview as the
basis of t heir decision-making, researcher George Barna described the
outcome. "If Jesus Christ came to this planet as a model of how we
ought to live, then our goal should be to act like Jesus. Sadly, few
people consistently demonstrate the love, obedience and priorities of
Between March 2002, when the news of the scandals broke, and February
2003, weekly church attendance among Catholics fell nine percentage
points to 35%, the lowest measurement since Gallup began asking the
question in 1955. By November 2003*, however, the figure had climbed 10
percentage points to 45%. Protestants' levels of church attendance,
meanwhile, remained fairly stable during this same period.