This year I witnessed a sacred foot-washing service at Indian Oaks Primitive Baptist Church. I met interesting people, such as Ed Mahan of Burleson, a born-again biker who is national chaplain of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club and a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

But, as usual, controversy caught the most attention as I looked at local religious news of the past 12 months. Here are some of the top local stories of 2007:

Episcopal conflict: Conservatives in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth who have long claimed the national church is straying from biblical authority by, among other things, electing a gay bishop, voted in November to secede from the U.S. Episcopal Church. The proposal urges that the 24-county diocese be aligned with a more conservative province of the 79-million-member Anglican Communion. It was a first step. Delegates must again approve it at next year's convention. Fort Worth Episcopalians who voted against the change say there is no way their diocese can legally walk away from the national church. The matter likely will end up in court.

Read the whole article.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Media • Religion & Culture

1. Words Matter wrote: The next notable event Jim Jones mentioned is the “Picturing the Bible” exhibit at the Kimball Art Museum. If you are in the area, it’s said to be well-worth the visit. Actually, a visit to the Kimball is always a good bet. December 30, 4:09 pm | [comment link]

2. monika wrote: We saw it yesterday. It took us three hours to work our way through it. This exhibit has treasures that have never traveled before and includes a lot of artifacts from the pre-Constantinian Church, including personal items. I got a whole new picture of the early Church and how they viewed themselves. The gallery was packed with people right from the time the museum opened for the day. Anyone planning a trip to DFW before March should plan to see it. Monika December 30, 7:50 pm | [comment link]

3. Harvey wrote: “..the matter will most likely end up in court..”  Maybe; but if the PB continues down this road is she prepared to lose a lot of money??  The court scores of for and against her don’t seem to favor her at all!!  She could find that a diocese bite could be bigger than she could chew up and a terrific drain on TEC dollars.. December 31, 3:55 pm | [comment link]

4. Cennydd wrote: “There’s no way their diocese can legally walk away from the national church?”  Those folks in Fort Worth who said this need to do a serious reality check.  Who’s going to stop the diocese from leaving? December 31, 6:22 pm | [comment link]

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