Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Canon Bill Atwood: Why I Am Leaving the Episcopal Church

http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/946/

[Stand Firm] 2 Aug 2006--I am deeply - even utterly convinced that God has the power to bring about miraculous transformations. With astonishing grace and breathtaking power He is the God Who opens the Red Sea and Sarah’s womb. He rains manna on wilderness children, brings grace in the midst of human tragedy, and humiliates death. Why then am I leaving the Episcopal Church? Why is it no longer the season to hope that ECUSA might return to former or even greater glory? Why if Nineveh can turn and Saul bow is it no longer reasonable--or even unreasonable--to hope? It is because The Episcopal Church has displaced the Gospel of Jesus Christ with another lesser faith. While the trappings may appear as they have been for generations, the content of ECUSA's faith is now formally and fundamentally antithetical to the Christian faith of Scripture and history. The message is no longer redemption, forgiveness, salvation, and transfiguration. Now it is naive acceptance and uncritical celebration. Hope is no longer appropriate because they have left the One Who is the source of hope. The leadership has departed from the One Who delivers and transforms. Further, they have constrained those who follow to have to live with what could be redeemed and healed. The institutional heart has turned to stone. It cannot turn back to flesh as long as the choice is maintained to live apart from the presence of Jesus.

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