A California diocese overwhelmingly voted on Saturday to sever ties with The Episcopal Church, becoming the first diocese in the church's history to do so.
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First Diocese Approves Split with Episcopal Church
By
Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Sun, Dec. 09 2007 10:12 AM EST
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Far more Catholics have quietly abandoned the church of their youth and found their way into the Episcopal Church, or sadly, left the Church completely, then vice versa. Is the Church meant to be a hotel for saints or a hospital for sinners?
In what's becoming an increasing embarrassment for the Episcopal Church, Bishop Steenson was one of four bishops to go Catholic in 2007 alone. Former Fort Worth Bishop Clarence Pope, Albany, N.Y., Bishop David Herzog and Southwest, Fla., Bishop John Lipscomb were the other three. But those men had left their positions before swimming the Tiber; Bishop Steenson was still a sitting bishop.
A Statement from the Right Reverend George Langberg - Anglican Church in America.
TAC union with Holy See
From Bishop George Langberg
"...In 1966, Archbishop Fisher's successor Michael Ramsey had an official visit with Pope Paul VI. At the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls, after both had signed a Joint Declaration intended to begin a dialogue leading to full communion between the Anglican Communion and the See of Rome, Pope Paul removed his ring and placed it on Canterbury's finger as a symbol of the unity they both sought, the Pope using the phrases "our dear sister church" and "united but not absorbed..."
Did you notice the phrase “united but not absorbed." Absorb is in interesting word, it means to swallow up, incorporate, to engross the attention or faculties, to suck or drink in, and to take up by chemical or molecular action.
The body of Christ is to be one, but not absorbed into a one-man corporation, especially a one-man corporation that “is obliged to render an account of his administration to no human being [Externals of the Catholic Church].” Such would be an empire with an emperor.
Remember when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, and how Peter also wanted his hands and head washed? He received a washing just like everyone else.
But the smart ones stay away from such cultish teachings...
Well, TAJ...nobody's perfect...
It is rare for entire Anglican communities to seek corporate communion with the Catholic Church whereby every member of the parish becomes Catholic and the parish effectively becomes part of the Catholic Church. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
A brave but correct decision. There are many great articles about their decision and others around the world:
A whole group of Anglicans are set to swim the Tiber. Apparently the rift in the Anglican Communion and the continued drift of the more liberal elements of that group have provided an opportunity to reconsider a mistake make 500 years ago.
The splits in the Worldwide Anglican Communion over the church's secularising trends and growing enthusiasm for homosexuality has led some to seek reunion with the Catholic Church after nearly 500 years apart.
The bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC)are reported to have met in Plenary Session in Portsmouth, England, in the first week of October 2007 and "unanimously agreed" to send a letter to the Pope seeking full, corporate, sacramental union" with the Catholic Church. The group has agreed not to give interviews until the Vatican has responded to their request.
The TAC boasts of some 400,000 members worldwide with at least 100 parishes in the US. It has been estimated that the TAC could have as many as 500 parishes supporting its goals in the UK.
TAC has been seeking for some years to establish some agreement with Rome that would see the entire body into the Catholic Church. In 2005, shortly after the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the head of the TAC, Archbishop John Hepworth of Adelaide, Australia, said, "We are looking at a church which would retain an Anglican liturgy, Anglican spirituality and a married clergy." The TAC has retained a positive relationship with Pope Benedict since, as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, he was head of the Vatican's doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
"The church will inevitably leave the Bible behind at point after point,” said Schofield to the diocesan convention on Friday, “but since on this view the Bible is the word of fallible men rather than of the infallible God, leaving it behind is no great loss,". . . .
"We are not pining away here in the Diocese of San Joaquin; we are rejoicing in the truth of God’s word!"
AMEN!!!!!!! These believers should be commmended for their faithfulness to the Word of God -
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth - Revelation 3:10.