Saturday, April 19, 2008

Leaving the New Episcopal Church

http://victorhanson.com/articles/bernthal041708.html

[Private Papers] 19 Apr 2008--Most Christians in America probably don’t know much about what is happening in the Episcopal Church (TEC). It is very small in comparison with the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, or the new, “non-denominational” neighborhood churches, whose campuses dwarf small towns; and TEC is in decline, losing 32% of its membership between 1960 and 2002. After making a small recovery, its numbers are heading down again, due mainly to losses of whole churches and dioceses, which are pulling out because of deep concerns about the theological direction of the church, and in response to the consecration of gay bishop Eugene Robinson in New Hampshire. This membership decline does not bother the new presiding bishop and leader of the church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, who in a New York Times Magazine interview in 2006 responded to two questions about the size of her church:

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