Friday, September 19, 2008

Church members to decide: Anglican or Episcopal?

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080919/NEWS/809190329

[Jacksonville Mail Tribune] 19 Sep 2008--Members of St. Andrews Anglican Church will vote Sunday on whether to follow their bishop, Richard Boyce, into the Reformed Episcopal Church, which is open to women priests and gay marriage.

The majority of St. Andrews likely will vote to remain in the Anglican Provinces of America, which supports the traditional Articles of Religion and 207-year-old Prayer Book, said church Rector Creighton Barnes. APA mandates male-only priests and traditional marriage.

Boyce, the bishop of APA's Western Diocese based in Seattle, tried to take his member churches into the more liberal Episcopal Church, but was opposed by Anglican Presiding Bishop Walter Grundorf.

Boyce then called for a decision this month from each Anglican church on which organization it wants to belong to.

John Darling did not check the veracity of Barnes' statements. The APA certainly does not support the Thirty-Nine Articles nor does it use a 207-year-old Prayer Book. It uses the 1928 Book of Common Prayer that departs significantly in its theology not only from the classical Anglican Prayer Book of 1662 but also from the first American Prayer Book. The REC does not favor women's ordination or gay marriage. Boyce and Grundorf did not found the Common Cause Partnership. Before writing this article, Darling would have done well to check his facts! Even the headline is misleading!! Obviously Barnes is no friend of Boyce and is engaging with Darling's help in a smear campaign intended to discredit Boyce.

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