We live in the dregs of time.

2, of course the ACI is correct.  However TEC doesn’t care.  They are going to do what they are going to do.

What did General Convention really do?  Well, how about destroying their relations with 99% of Christianity for starters?

“XX. Of the Authority of the Church.
The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies of Faith: and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation.”

This is what happens when people no long care to abide by any authority other than their own. Eventually they will destroy themselves by their own lawlessness. Have fun!

It is purely a case of the blind leading the blind.

The only impact is that TEC is now in a deeper state of excommunication from the real Church than it was before it passed this nonsense.  I am reminded of one of the early “Common Cause” press conferences when some reporter put a question to Bishop Ackerman (if my memory is correct) about why he was opposed to gay marriage.  As I recall, his response was to the effect that it did not matter one iota what his opinion was, marriage was a sacrament of the Church, ordained by God, and neither he nor TEC nor the whole Church had the power to change it.
The parallel is the movement to endorse Communion without Baptism.  If you go forward with it, you do not commune the unbaptized, you just take the Holy out of Holy Communion, and in reality, you just pass around stale bread and grape juice.

7, Agreed. So when is the wider AC going to discipline TEC?  Ok, sorry. Silly question.

I’m wondering how long it will be until the Constitution and Canons are officially interpreted in such a way as to make adhering to them a chargeable offense.

Father S- I believe that 9 bishops, and one of the ACI colleagues of the authors of this article, are indeed charged with exactly that.

#8, the wider AC tried that at Dar-Es-Salaam, and failed. Many of the conservative primates shook the dust off their feet and moved on, knowing that the emasculated Druid of Canterbury would only indabaficate, doing nothing. At the same time they’ve maintained communion with the faithful TEC dioceses. (After all, TEC is not hierarchical at the national or General Convention level.)

The line has been drawn in the sand for some time. Bp. Sisk has chosen sides, and Bp. Lawrence has chosen sides. The rest of the TEC dioceses need to choose sides, and the AC provinces need to do likewise. There’s no middle ground. There’s no dialogue. There’s no “task force” (DioUSC), and there’s no “Frankly [my dear], I do not know” (DioGA).

The time-honored treatment of heretical teaching has been a call to repentance, and then excision from the body.

Because the liberal bishops are behaving as unrepentant sinners, blinded by sin and choosing to move deeper into sin, led by an evil shepherd, it’s unlikely that they will now listen to the voice of the conservative primates, see their error, and repent. It will take a stronger voice than that to call them to repentance. Sometimes, though, God lets things like this continue on. Remember the call of Isaiah, Is 6:1-13. Take another look at the woes: Is 5:18-24, along with Jeremiah 23.

Their bloodguilt is upon them, for they also have become evil shepherds. Let them be anathema.

But, leave the light on for them. There’s hope up to the very end.

“Many of the conservative primates shook the dust off their feet and moved on, knowing that the emasculated Druid of Canterbury would only indabaficate, doing nothing. At the same time they’ve maintained communion with the faithful TEC dioceses. (After all, TEC is not hierarchical at the national or General Convention level.)”

Quite right.  At least 20 provinces have already done so.

Most of TEC was already out of communion with much of the Anglican Communion before GC started.  So these latest antics won’t get TEC any more excommunicate than it was already.  As Ralph rightly points out, the light is left on for them if they want to come back.  But it has been made very clear to them what the cost of that coming back will be - FULL repentance.

The real issue for now is what positive steps are the orthodox taking to build up a true and holy Anglican movement in North America?  What steps are being taken to plant new faithful churches, and what steps are being taken to quarantine old faithful churches from liberal influence?

Let me draw an analogy here.  Let’s suppose that General Convention is a submarine skipper who has just fired a torpedo at an enemy target, which in this case would be the majority of the Communion…..and indeed the rest of Christianity…..and let’s further suppose that the torpedo is defective, and it turns back and heads for the submarine which fired it…..and destroys that vessel.

That’s exactly what General Convention did last week.  They fired such a torpedo at the very organization to which they ostensibly belong, yet against which they are turning up their noses and giving the @#%* to, and they’ve ensured their own demise.

“…..and let’s further suppose that the torpedo is defective, and it turns back and heads for the submarine which fired it…..and destroys that vessel.”

That’s called a “circular run” and is a hazard of an old-fashioned steam torpedo that is fired with with a jammed rudder.

This means that the “brains” of the torpedo, its gyroscope is no longer able to keep the torpedo on its intended course.  Instead, the torpedo completes a circle in its travels and can eventually arrive back at its point of origin, the submarine, if the submarine remains unaware of this hazard and/or doesn’t take evasive action. 

So, figuratively, GC 2012 has fired a torpedo with a ‘stuck’ rudder and that torpedo can/will complete a circle and come back and and strike the “secular-revisionist” leadership of ECUSA right in their posteriors.

“... and they’ve ensured their own demise.”

With a degree of cynicism unbecoming to a Sunday morn, I don’t think they care. The alphabet minorities can believe that their perversions are now socially accepted. Perhaps they can delude themselves into believing that God does bless their sacrilegious marriages. A group of aging, self important, hierarchs can continue to feed off the endowments to maintain their lavish life styles. The Episcopalians, institutionally, are in their last days.

It seems that the evil one has won this battle. Sad.

I will not live long enough to see how history judges the Anglican part of the protestant reformation.

I believe that we can safely assume that the TEC hierarchs care not one iota about what their actions have done to the Communion and ther rest of Christianity…...they are absolutely intent on doing their own thing regardless of what anyone else says or does.  They could be ostracised and tossed out of the Communion, and it wouldn’t faze them one bit.  The say that they want to remain in the Communion, but they are dancing to a different tune than we are, and the only thing that they have in common with the rest of the Communion besides miters and vestments is the description of “Anglican.”  They certainly don’t share the Faith with us…..although they claim to.  Their faith is superficial and hollow.

“Their faith is superficial and hollow.”

If you talk about the “vanguard” that is carrying through heretical changes in ECUSA via the de facto authority of the presiding bishop and her cohorts and the General Convention, you are correct.

However, there are traditional and orthodox Anglicans remaining in ECUSA who ‘standing up’ against the temporal and heretical tide.  Please ‘cut them some slack’ and appreciate what they are trying to do and have Faith in the Lord.

Remember when God caused Gideon to whittle down his forces to 300 men before He would let them attack the Midianites?  It was God that brought victory to Gideon and his 300 men.

17.  That is exactly what I mean, and it’s the “vanguard” that I’m talking about here.

“However, there are traditional and orthodox Anglicans remaining in ECUSA who ‘standing up’ against the temporal and heretical tide.  Please ‘cut them some slack’ and appreciate what they are trying to do and have Faith in the Lord.”

Yes, and their work is deeply appreciated and we support them in prayer.  I don’t know how this is all going to work out, but every point of witness in USA is important. 

That said, I am very thankful that new churches are being planted in USA, mainly it seems by ACNA, but I note Dio Dallas in TEC has also been doing good work in this area, and probably others as well.  The day will come when the liberals are viewed as a laughing-stock by all of America, but that will still leave large parts of North America lacking any Anglican presence.  The more work that can be done to start fixing this now, the better.

Well, for examples of church planting, look at what the ACNA has been doing…..and we’re not alone.  We have started several new missions here in our own diocese since Bishop Menees took office.