Dallas Episcopal Bishop Says No Gay Weddings Here On His Watch By Jim Schutze Thursday, July 9, 2015 Bishop Paul E. Lambert Major focus this week in the wake of the Supreme Court gay marriage decision on Texas county clerks who will or will not obey the law and on private institutions as well. Baylor University, for example, changed its mind and said married students could have gay sex (sort of). Now someone will have to tell them how. One important local institution flying below the gaydar has been the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. On July 1 the General (national) Convention of the Episcopal Church followed the Supreme Court ruling by voting to allow but not compel its bishops to authorize gay weddings in their dioceses. The very next day Dallas Suffragan (interim) Bishop Paul E. Lambert joined 19 Episcopal and Anglican bishops around the globe in opting out of the new rules on gay marriage in the church. The 19 declared together in a published dissent that, “As bishops of the Church, we must dissent from these actions.” So if you and your intended are gay Episcopalians and you go to church in Dallas, Honduras, North Dakota or the Dominican Republic, you can forget about a church wedding any time soon. Click here for the rest of the article: http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/...ays-no-gay-weddings-here-on-his-watch-7381987
I hope they dont. There are very few orthodox Anglicans left in my church as it is. We need to keep all that we can manage.
But friend do you have a choice if your church goes with the prevailing wind rather than staying true to the Gospel?
Obviously, I do. Read the old testament. Over and over again, thd Hebrews strayed from the revelation of the Lord God and became seduced by the gods of surrounding nations. God never co.pletely abandoned them or left them lost forever. He rebuked them and they returned to orthodoxy. I see nothing that prevents Him from doing so now. The thing about the prevailing winds is that they change course. God showed me the Episcopal Church when I prayed for a religious home. I have asked Him (many many times) to lead me elsewhere if it is right for me to go. He has not done so yet. Only when he does will i feel at leave to depart the TE . I think my role is to be a reminder of what an anglican is, since the TEC seems to have forgotten. I trust and pray that Our Lord will help her remember again before the end. After all, He is greater than our ability to muck things up.
It took me a while to find it, but here is a quote that I think sums up the hope a traditional Episcopalian has for reformation in our church in spite of its cuurrent occupaton and errors...it's from St. Athanasius, someone who knows a thing or 2 about enduring hardships as an orthodox in a church where the leaders have succumbed to heresy.... "What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ... "You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day. "Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ." (Letter of St. Athanasius to his Flock)