Andrew does love to run those comments singing his praises, doesn’t he …

The one that struck me the most was the last – the gal who said that the Church had tossed her out by refusing to allow a Church wedding to herself and per previously-divorced boyfriend. She’s now a “Buddhist practitioner;” good for her. But she has some nerve proclaiming that her still-Catholic relatives are all spiritually empty. How the heck would *she* know?

“We’ve got Anglican African bishops and Pope Benedict himself trying to poach Episcopal parishes.”

It’s poaching when you trespass on someone else’s property and set traps for animals. But is it poaching if the animal comes bounding into your lap shouting, “Aaahhh! The first openly ‘furry’ Episcopal bishop is after me! Please help!” ?

I don’t think so.

“but at least they are moving on the tough questions and struggling with them every day.”

Struggle? They came to the ‘questions’ with their minds already made up. Their arguments came across as lazy, disingenuous sophistry. Remember ‘To Set Our Hope On Christ’?

Yea, that last one’s a pip: she “left”, but they “tossed her out”.

Good riddance to him, the way he currently is!!! One truly wishes that all those who feel like him would do the same and prove their hypocrisy and worship of themselves and their Zeitgeist by joining a Synagogue of Satan which pretends to hold on to the Creeds and the Bible via lip service – and nothing else!!!

[Not to mention how they prove themselves Satanic by trying to sue off even the clothes upon the backs of those who leave EOUSA without abandoning valuable properties they or their forefathers had given when it was a real Christian church!!!!]

One ought to wish and pray that Mr. Andrew Sullivan and his fellow-renegades may one day realise what Christianity is all about, but it’s exceedingly hard…

Oh, him. Stopped reading Sullivan long ago. He’s never met a fact he couldn’t distort.

Idiot….
Intercessor

“We in the US are paying a high price for our commitment to equality”

Would you like a holy wafer with your whine?

Poor, poor tiny little beleaguered ECUSA. Doesn’t it make you want to cry?

My commitment to equality is “all have sinned”. TEO’s is “only those dirty bigots who hate gays have sinned, the rest of us are at least as good as Jesus-self”.

If Randy Andy left the Catholic Church for the Episcopal Organization, he’d be just another gay guy in the pews. By staying, he gets to bitch and moan and be cool and hip.

Duane gets it in one. For Andy and his like hell is discovering that everyone else in the bar is wearing the same hat. Feathers and all.

We’re tiny, we’re beleaguered, and we are standing up to the entire world and the entire Christian community to do the right thing.

How fortunate it is for TEO that they alone possess all the brains allotted by God to the human race. Otherwise it might be considered possible that the entire world and the entire Christian community have got it right, and that TEO has gone bananas. That couldn’t possibly be the case, now, could it?

I haven’t got a lot of use for Oliver Cromwell, but I rather wish we could have him back so he could deliver his one patent zinger again: ‘Is it therefore infallibly agreeable to the Word of God, all that you say? I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ: think it possible that you may be mistaken.’

How can the Episcopos, vis-a-vis the Catholics, have a “similar theology” but also a “radically different morality?” Don’t the two kinda, sorta go together? The only “similarity” I can see in the theology of the two is that they both spell God as G-o-d. As to a “radically different morality” – ya got that right, Andy!

I’ve never been much for urging the faithless faithful to find the door. I mean, if you’re already sinning plenty of mortal sins, why add “apostate”? (Though if you really don’t believe the Catholic Church has the truth at all, you really are obliged to follow the truth elsewhere.)

If Randy Andy left the Catholic Church for the Episcopal Organization, he’d be just another gay guy in the pews. By staying, he gets to bitch and moan and be cool and hip.

That’s it in a nutshell. The reason dissenters don’t leave – or seem really hung up on complaining even after they’ve left – is because they have this compulsive need to be the rebels. Leave Catholicism, and you’re just another like minded person who can’t garner the sympathy of your fellow liberals anymore.

Stick around and play the martyr. Much more lucrative, and ego-petting.

By the by, I wholeheartedly agree with Michael Coren when he says
“thank you” to all who bash Catholicism.

I think that another reason why many of those who protest against the doctrines/practices of “their” church don’t want to leave is that they know, in their hearts, that they are wrong in their rejection of the teachings of the church. Sooooooo, rather than walking away and having a lurking feeling of guilt, they choose to try and alter the rules to match their personal beliefs/practices, so that they can then proudly stand up and say “see how my church affirms ****ME**** just as I am!!!!”

By the way, did I mention how much the ****ME**** factor enters into all this? How it’s critical for leftists/revisionists/liberals/reappraisers to have the self take precedence over all else, placing God into a role combining such elements as cheerleader/Santa Claus/therapist?

The English have a word that very neatly characterize those who posted comments on Sully’s blog. It begins with a “w” and had six letters (in the plural form).

Don’t know if you’ve already seen this:

http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/gazette/STOCK-Rector-s-Catholicism-switch-stuns-parish/article-1481423-detail/article.html

Real profiles in courage, those Piskies. They conform to their world, their neighbors, their drinking buddies, and their favorite TV shows.

Even if they do not match the tone of the comments thus far, allow me to re-post my thoughts shared earlier at T19:

There has been a realignment going on since at least the mid 70’s, maybe since the late 60’s among all Christian churches and denominations. There have been some very big chapters in this realignment including Seminex in ‘74 among the Lutherans, the Southern Baptist Convention takeover in ‘79, and the formation of the ACNA in ‘08. It is a common phenomenon that those who populate either the evangelical or liberal wings of their denominations have more in common with those of the same wing in other denominations than with many within their own denomination. This was a powerful insight when I first came across it in grad school nearly 20 years ago. Now it is plain for all to see.

I have no doubt that liberal Catholics get lots of invitations from their TEC or ELCA friends. All the more reason to not be dismayed at the pope’s offer. Switch a few words and the same comment could be written by a Catholic to a conservative in TEC or the UMC, etc.

Perhaps at this juncture we could all benefit from standing back and seeing the broad landscape and trying discern what the Holy Spirit is straining to achieve in our interesting times and trying to work with that Spirit and not against Him. I believe the Spirit is kneading a leaven into this old fragmented dough and striving to work separated pieces into a fresh whole. We have to be willing to be bent, twisted, mashed together, our lumps worked out and smoothed before we will be allowed again to rise.

One passage that comes to mind inscrutably now and again is from

[blockquote] Romans 8:

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.[/blockquote]

Perhaps one thing we have been straining from for too long and which the Spirit in us uncannily hopes for is the unity and common witness for which Christ prayed in his final hours.

BTW – Anglican Mainstream posted an interesting update on the so-called ‘health’ care bill that includes some strange things like veteranarian loan debt pardons and tax on gasoline: ABORTION IS INCLUDED. Did you ever think it would not be? Abortion like homosex is the religion of this nation.

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=17508

This sick nation and world and our sick souls can only be cured by complete whole-hearted repentance and return to the true Holy God (of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the true Holy Spirit).

What is repentance? See Leviticus 26:14-46 and II Chronicles 7:14.

correction – it’s not just homosex, but sexual freedom and rights, and carnal gratification in general, ie, food, power, comfort, etc.

We’ve lost our humanity and our values have been skewed so that bass boats, large screen HD TVs, Iphones, vacation homes, new clothes, etc. are more important than God and each other. When we are hurt, we have turned to addictive substances and behaviors rather than God for comfort and help.

The majority of our Western culture have chosen and substituted lust for love, lies for truth, death for life.

I am talking to myself as much as to anyone else.

Floridian, thou hast touched it with a needle.

That’s why I wonder whether Tea Partyers and Townhall protesters are really getting at the root of the problem. Until we address our spiritual sickness, it won’t do us too much good to just harp on our freedoms, our Constitution, etc. (Not that the latter are not important, but they pale beside the spiritual stuff.)

Don’t know if this is on topic or what, but it looks like the text of the Apostolic Constitution and the Norms have been released:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_ben-xvi_apc_20091104_anglicanorum-coetibus_en.html

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20091104_norme-anglicanorum-coetibus_en.html

On first glance, looks very interesting; I’m wondering how the ‘power-sharing’ element of it (between the local diocesan bishop and the bishop of the Ordinariate in that area) will shake out.

But it also looks like if any former Anglican married bishops do go over, they could be acting-bishops:

“Former Anglican Bishops

Article 11

§1. A married former Anglican Bishop is eligible to be appointed Ordinary. In such a case he is to be ordained a priest in the Catholic Church and then exercises pastoral and sacramental ministry within the Ordinariate with full jurisdictional authority.

§2. A former Anglican Bishop who belongs to the Ordinariate may be called upon to assist the Ordinary in the administration of the Ordinariate.

§3. A former Anglican Bishop who belongs to the Ordinariate may be invited to participate in the meetings of the Bishops’ Conference of the respective territory, with the equivalent status of a retired bishop.

§4. A former Anglican Bishop who belongs to the Ordinariate and who has not been ordained as a bishop in the Catholic Church, may request permission from the Holy See to use the insignia of the episcopal office.”

Hmmm – will be interesting to see what happens next, won’t it?

What is repentance?

The only alternative to a large rock falling on us from outer space.

He can’t imagine what it must feel like to have people consider you as less than equal? Try being a mainstream Christian in the Episcopal Church.

I particularly liked the line about “…I had to love it enough to walk away.” That just makes my heart go pitty pat in sympathy with this mock martyr of the Roman Catholic Church. What a good TECie he will be!

I love the way these guys ‘n gals have figured out what is really wrong with the Roman Catholic Church!