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Mat

What The Episcopal Church (TEC) Believes (Link)

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1994 **1/25/24 7:05 am**

With all this focus on the professor taking communion and his wife's involvement with The Episcopal Church (TEC), which is part of the global Anglican Communion and the American expression of the Church of England, I thought it would be good to post a link.

From that offical page this statement is key: "The Episcopal Church embraces a legacy of inclusion, aspiring to tell and exemplify God’s love for every human being; people of all genders and sexual orientations serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in our church. Laypeople and clergy work together in leadership and governance."

While Episcopalians (and Anglicans in general) claim a genesis in the Protestation Reformation, in fact their beginning has more to do with King Henry the VIII and his multiple marriages. The Pope would not grant all the divorces Henry wanted so he broke with Rome and placed himself over the "Church of England." To this day, the "Crown," currently King Charles the III, is over the church, with is the keystone of the global Anglican communion.

To we who were raised in "low" churches, the high church service of TEC seems to mirror the RCC mass.

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/what-we-believe/#:~:text=The%20Episcopal%20Church%20embraces%20a,together%20in%20leadership%20and%20governance.

Mat

FLRon

Acts-celerater Posts: 787 **1/25/24 7:58 am**

“It goes by several names: Holy Communion, the Eucharist (which literally means “thanksgiving”), mass. But whatever it’s called, this is the family meal for Christians and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. As such, all persons who have been baptized, and are therefore part of the extended family that is the Church, are welcome to receive the bread and wine, and be in communion with God and each other”.

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/publicaffairs/episcopal-church-core-beliefs-and-doctrines/

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t care for Communion being referred to as “the family meal”. Neither do I prefer it when the local CoG pastor calls it “family style” where you come and sit at a table with only your family members.
_________________
“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Voddie Baucham

Link

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **1/25/24 10:51 am**

This is what Bing copilot AI says based on searches:

The Episcopal Church’s official stance on the ordination of individuals in same-sex marriages is outlined in several documents and resolutions. Here are some key points:

Resolution D025: In 2009, the Episcopal Church passed Resolution D025, which declared the denomination’s ordination process open to all individuals, including those in same-sex marriages1.

Resolution A054 and A036: In 2015, the Episcopal Church passed two resolutions. The first (A054) formally approved gender-neutral and same-sex marriage ceremonies, while the second (A036) changed the current marriage “canons” to allow clergy to officiate same-sex marriages2.

Non-Discrimination Canon: The Episcopal Church has prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation since 1994. This includes access to the selection process for ordination3.

Ordination of Married Gay Priests: There have been instances where married gay priests have been ordained in the Episcopal Church4.

1 https://www.episcopalchurch.org/organizations-affiliations/lgbtq/
2 https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-episcopal-church
3 https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2023/02/24/gay-lesbian-priests-describe-expectation-of-celibacy-to-serve-in-diocese-of-florida-under-howard/
4 https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2021/12/16/ordination-of-married-gay-man-at-alabama-cathedral-renews-conflict-with-diocese/

I'm skimming here. It seems like some of them may expect celibacy from gays. One of those articles seems vague. Is a gay married priest a man married to a woman who says he's really gay, or a man who has a so-called 'marriage' with another man. (Or woman with a woman.)

Nasty stuff.

Lust does not justify sin. We need to teach Christians to reckon themselves dead to sin, not turn their lusts into their identity.

I get the impression that some of the more conservative diosese expect 'gay married' (so-called gay so called married) to remain celibate if they aren't truly married, as in to someone of the opposite sex.

If you are going to define 'gay' as someone who could be attracted to the same sex, as opposed to doing 'gay stuff', which seems to be the definition they are operating off of, then I suppose it is possible someone could meet the Biblical qualifications of bishop-- except not being attracted to his own wife. So I guess if we use their definition of 'bi', if he doesn't entertain homosexuality, he could be qualified.

For me, personally, I don't understand a man being attracted to a man, any more than I understand a man being attracted to a small child or an animal for that matter. But a bishop could be __attracted__ to another woman.

The idiocy is in accepting this philosophy and worldview about being 'gay' and labeling themselves with terms like 'gay' or 'bi' even if it is because they have a hypothetical propensity to experience this attraction. A lot of us men could be _attracted_ to women we consider to be pretty, but it doesn't make sense for pastors to join protests and label themselves as 'could be fornicator or adulterer' pastors, or 'attracted to every pretty woman I see' pastors. That's not a pastor's identity.

Also, I don't get why these bishops that tell the falsely so-called gay, falsely so-called married candidates to stay celibate, but remain in a denomination that allows 'laity' to 'marry' the same sex. But it's kind of like Pentecostals making 'husband of one wife' a requirement for a pastor not to be divorced and remarried, but then think nothing at all of regular folks in the church being divorced and remarried under similar circumstances. Except this isn't homosexuality, which is more obviously perverse and revolting to those who haven't drunk the ideological LGBT Koolaid.

FLRon

Acts-celerater Posts: 787 **1/25/24 3:24 pm**

No one could have imagined that the church of Jesus Christ would ever find itself in such sin. Surely the Lord Himself would not recognize it as his own!
_________________
“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Voddie Baucham