"This is a fight we are engaged in and we will see it through to the end. We are determined to see that the Anglican Communion ends up on the right side of the debate" over homosexual practice.

So West Indies Archbishop Drexel Gomez declared outside Washington, D.C. Saturday, drawing a standing ovation from a sizeable gathering of orthodox believers during a day-long Festival of Faith at St. Luke's Church, Bladensburg, Maryland. The event also featured retired Quincy (IL) Episcopal Bishop Donald Parsons.

Gomez assailed opponents for characterizing fidelity to the consistent witness of scripture on homosexual practice as homophobia, bigotry, and fundamentalism. He said that he and co-religionist Anglican leaders would keep the Communion in line with the 2,000-year consensus of Christianity on same-sex relations, holding that the issue relates to "God's ordering of life." It is therefore - contrary the recent declaration by the Anglican Church of Canada - a matter of "core doctrine."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Primates • Global South Churches & Primates • Lambeth 2008

1. AnglicanFirst wrote: Regardless of the label applied to it, the body of the orthodox Anglican believers in the United States deserves another adjective than Episcopalian. Episcopalian has become a label for a church that has become much more of a temporal and secular institution than it is an actual ‘church’ of people who are actually following the “Faith once given.” Some of the things that have occurred under the label Episcopalian over the past forty years are not Christian and in their sum represent a DECONSTRUCTION of Christian belief that has been led by particular clergy and laity of ECUSA. August 1, 6:31 pm | [comment link]

2. Rob Eaton+ wrote: I’m with ya, AF. But then, the reasserter Canadians would like to find some way to redefine “Anglican.” Perhaps the deliberate use of “Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA” would do.  Do you remember Bp Wantland spearheading the legal attempt to do that? RGEaton August 2, 12:19 am | [comment link]

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