From the Baton Rouge Advocate:
The congregation of All Saints Anglican Church has come a long way in a few short years.
A small gathering of believers who met initially in a public building without a priest has grown to several dozen meeting in a leased building with a full-time pastor.
About a dozen local Episcopalians, disaffected and dismayed by what they see as the liberal direction of the Episcopal Church USA under the leadership of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, found each other in April 2007, and began worshiping at the Burden Conference Center at the Rural Life Museum.
Meeting under the auspices of the Anglican Mission in the Americas, a missionary outreach of the fundamental Episcopal Church of Rwanda, the small group slowly gained members.
....
“We’ve been faithful and walking in obedience to God and he is blessing us,” Turner said after a recent “Rally Sunday” service attended by around 40 congregants. “He has provided everything we have.”
....
Denham Springs residents and lifelong Episcopalians Gerry and Anna Coryell have been attending All Saints for several months. They left their former church, which they said they “dearly love,” when the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana consecrated the Very Rev. Morris K. Thompson as its new bishop in May.
“My issues with the Episcopal Church go beyond gay priests,” Gerry Coryell said. (Bishop Thompson is not gay but does approve ordaining gay clergy.) Coryell said he served on the committee that interviewed Thompson and the other bishop candidates. When Thompson told the committee he agreed with the liberal direction Schori was taking the church, “that was the final straw. I didn’t see a future there.”
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All Saints Anglican Church is the only AMiA church in Louisiana and is affiliated with the Little Rock Network of AMiA, a group of 12 parishes from California to Tennessee, four smaller fellowships and two mission works.
The members of All Saints Anglican Church left the Episcopal Church honorably. I'm sorry that they chose to leave, but I wish them well.
What I find somewhat odd is the prominent coverage that the Advocate gives to the church. The article covers approximately two-thirds of the front page of today's religion section and one third of the second page.
Maybe they found it interesting to see all those nice ex-Episcopalians with their hands raised. Or maybe someone from the church is on the staff. Oh Cynical me
ReplyDeleteOr maybe someone from the church is on the staff.
ReplyDeleteOr has a relative or friend on the staff? I wondered about that, too. Does that make me cynical?
It's nice to know they have found a place to worship that is there, not someone else's. Blessings on their future.
ReplyDeleteJames, I hope the people at All Saints become examples of the new normal.
ReplyDeleteMimi'
ReplyDeletewhat, pray tell, is normal?
Fred, the new normal is when you decide that you are no longer a part of a particular, church, you leave with no thought that you can take the church property with you.
ReplyDeleteMimi,
ReplyDeleteNormal is only lamron spelled backwards. Thought you might want to know that.
Fred
Fred, thanks for enlightening me.
ReplyDeleteWhen Thompson told the committee he agreed with the liberal direction Schori was taking the church, “that was the final straw. I didn’t see a future there.”
ReplyDeleteUm, anyone care to inform Gerry Coryell that leaving because you disagree w/ the "direction" isn't the Anglican way? :-/
JCF, Gerry didn't see a future with the Episcopal Church, and he moved on. How can I fault him? I did the same when I left the Roman Catholic Church.
ReplyDelete