Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Why Does the Episcopal Church Get So Much Press

Get Religion talks about why Episcopalians get so much press. See WWROD: Why do Episcopalians get so much ink?

I agree with those observations. However let me add one. They get attention because they deserve it. Despite their low numbers compared to the total Anglican communion they have a enormous influence in Anglican affairs worldwide. Part of this is due to wealth but a much bigger part is because they are American. For better or worse we American Christians because of accident of birth are sometimes the tail that wags the dog in our faith communities. This I think actually happens in the Catholic Church to a certain extent.

It might not be that fair to places like Africa , but it seems to be the way things work..

5 comments:

Undergroundpewster said...

Answer: Rubbernecking. Everybody turns to read stories about an untimely demise.

SJ Reidhead said...

I get so tired of this. We have a few problems, including a clueless "leader". She has though, managed to hold things together,and managed to expose the break-away Anglican congregations for the absolute intolerant jerks that they are. Yea, there are a tremendous amount of hard feelings, that we "evil" Episcopalians are not allowed to vent because a few very real jerks decided to destroy our denomination. I honestly don't see how anyone can follow the Anglican diocese out of Nigeria, Angola, etc. In fact, if you check the Anglican Communion, a number of these bishops who promoted the schism in the Episcopal church have seen their diocese kicked out of the Anglican Communion over heresy. You don't build a new version of a denomination out of hate, which is what has been done. It sickens so many of us. We've seen people we know be pulled into churches that exist simply because they hate gays and lesbians. The hate festers and these congregations are starting to fail. Now, the parishioners who walked off - because they hate gays and lesbians - are starting to rethink their bolting to the Anglican Communion - which is not really part of the real "Anglican Communion". You will notice that the ECUSA is still part of the world-wide Anglican Communion, but many of these break-away groups are not.

Yea, the church gets a lot of attention, thanks to, the most part, I think, attention whores among the Anglicans break-aways who are truly destroying life-long friendships. They are breaking up families, ruining congregations. The press is the only place we seem to get a break.

I'm sick of being told I'm not a real Christian because I believe that women should have access to contraceptives, that there are times when abortion is necessary, and I think gays and lesbians are not the font of all evil. Christ turned his back on the church people and associated with sinners. That is what a church is for. The beautiful part of the ECUSA is that we are for sinners.

SJR
The Pink Flamingo

James H said...

SJ

I think there is perhaps some blame to go along in all the camps . I am not sure really thought its fair to say that even those that disagree with homosexuality are hateful. That has not been my experince at least.

Needless to say this has been going way before matters rleating to gay issues had come up.

Regardless returning to the the link itself I think its fair to say that the Episcopal Church is in the forefront of pushing a lot of issues and has influence and media that some don't have. Now that can be good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

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