These folks are new to me. I wonder if they have any connection with the Buddhist Episcopal Church of Canada.
Seriously though, folks, isn't a bit tautological to refer to an Episcopal Church as Christian? Silly me. I suppose these days it is not only not tautological, it is absolutely essential in order to differentiate oneself from the TEC.
Using official documents and quoting Anglican theologians, Anglican Bishop, Robert Redmile, sets forth the argument that traditional Anglicans share the same Sacraments and ministerial Orders as the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthdox Churches, and sets out in detail various lines of Apostolic Succession within the Anglican Communion and other smaller Anglican jurisdictions.
Read it all here
10 comments:
I don't want to offend anybody inadvertently, but the Christian Episcopal Church was founded about a decade ago by A. Donald Davies, ECUSA bishop first of Dallas, then of Fort Worth, from 1970 to 1983. In 1991 he left ECUSA after a falling-out within the leadership of the Evangelical Catholic Mission/Episcopal Synod of America, and founded the Episcopal Missionary Church. Some years later he retired and was succeeded in the EMC as bishop by William Millsaps, formerly a bishop in the ACA (and earlier ECUSA Chaplain of the University of the South at Sewanee). Subsequently he reemerged from retirement to found the CEC. A few weeks ago I visited the CEC website: it appears to consist of five bishops (three retired), 5 congregations in the USA, 3 in Canada and 2 in the Cayman Islands.
I think that Albion is forgetting that there are others who claim to run episcopal churches who are not Christians, especially so-called Gnostic Bishops, of which we have a few in Britain. Some call themselves Gnostic Christians which is indeed tautological as Christians come to salvation by faith, and Gnostics seek it through the 'secret knowledge'. they can't have it both ways
It seems like Dr. Tighe is quickly becoming the authority on the seperated Anglican bodies. I appreciate the background he provides on these things.
The name Christian Episcopal Church originated in Canada. William Tighe has the story mostly right except the acronym, which is XnEC. Where the X is Chi. Chi n is for Christian.
Scott+ of XnEC
Scott+
So why not become part of an existing jurisdiction instead of creating a new one?
Ken,
You might read their marriage canons with regards to clergy. They do not accept divorced and remarried clergy.
It one thinks about it, ECUSA began to unravel when they changed the Marriage canons in the 1920's. After 1924 I believe.
OK, I remember somebody commenting that some "jurisdictions" consist almost entirely of divorced and remarried clergy.
It would be nice to know that list.
Well, I am pretty much in agreement with that stand, in spite of having served Mass for a twice-married priest this morning. I do believe that divorce and remarriage is simply wrong, and that the church needs to come back to that position, but still I'll repeat Ken's question:
"So why not become part of an existing jurisdiction instead of creating a new one?"
Since no amalgam of human beings, even a church, is going to be perfect, where does one draw the line between errors to be 'tolerated' while making every effort to change them and errors that become communion breakers?
In the light of Christ's High Priestly Prayer for unity, it would seem to me that those producing yet another division have a very heavy burden to prove not only that they are correct, but also that the error is sufficient to justify yet another division.
I feel pretty strongly that this is a case of cutting things too fine. We can easily come to the basically Protestant position of saying, "Well there's nobody right but me and thee, and I'm not too sure about thee."
ed
Ed,
I guess it all appears somewhat unseemly because in the Catholic mode the bishop and his flock always had a sense of "territory" associated with it.
As a Continuing Church layman,I find it interesting that it is about preserving a territory and not "the Faith once delivered to
the saints." That includes what Holy Scripture and the Tradition of the Church have taught us.
ie: 1 Timothy 3 and the Church canons for some 1900 years.
On the other hand, if we allow divorced and remarried clergy, what makes us different from the TEC? The Church long ago decided Her stand on divorced and remarried clergy. It has now been deluded to say, "We now mean polygamy." So, do we begin our decent on the slippery slope?
Poetreader had it right. We must begin to challenge our bishops and clergy to uphold the standard on divorced and remarried clergy while finding a way to bring our jurisdictions together.
So, it begs the question,"How does one accomplish this when there are so many clergy in the Continuum with divorces and remarriages, to include Bishops?"
God bless,
Isabelle
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