Another Fail in the Episcopal Church

[Guadalupe]

They have openly homosexual clergy and now they're messing with the Bible and changing its language. They're also promoting membership for transgenders. Their attendance numbers are still declining.
Revelation 22:18-19 King James Version (KJV)
18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Episcopal Church votes no masculine pronouns for God Sunday, February 4, 2018 | Michael F. Haverluck (OneNewsNow.com)

Queen James Bible
Continuing its freefall to the theological left, the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Washington, D.C., voted last week to pass a resolution that puts an end to the use of masculine pronouns for God as it prepares to update its Book of Common Prayer.

Episcopalian delegates to the Diocese’s 123rd Convention swiftly passed the resolution in the nation’s capital so that “gendered language for God” will no longer be used.

“If revision of the Book of Common Prayer is authorized, to utilize expansive language for God from the rich sources of feminine, masculine and non-binary imagery for God found in Scripture and tradition and, when possible, to avoid the use of gendered pronouns for God,” the diocese's resolution reads. “Over the centuries, our language and our understanding of God has continued to change and adapt.”

Another gospel

Episcopalian leadership no longer recognizes the inerrancy of Scripture, indicating that Bible manuscripts preserved for thousands of years are no longer aligned with the social gospel it preaches to its congregations.

“[Referring to God using masculine pronouns is to] limit our understanding of God," the drafters of the resolution argued. "By expanding our language for God, we will expand our image of God and the nature of God."

St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church Clergy Delegate Rev. Linda R. Calkins urged the delegates to press for more liberal changes.

Calkins, who serves in Laytonsville, Maryland, attempted to emasculate God using Genesis 17:1, where God tells Abraham, ‘I am El Shaddai.”

“If Episcopalians] are going to be true to what El Shaddai means, it means God with breasts,” Calkins told delegates, according to The Institute on Religion & Democracy. “Having studied much feminist theology in my masters’ degrees, I wrote a thesis on liberation and freedom and non-equality in feminist theology and existential counseling.”

The liberal Episcopalian appears to use The Inclusive Bible as a reference – a loose interpretation of the Bible that many leftists use in order to turn Scripture upside-down and give it meaning that was never intended by God and the authors who He chose to write down His direct revelations.

“The Inclusive Bible was published in 2004 and written by a group called Priests for Equality, which … is a project of the Quixote Center in Brentwood, Maryland, and is a ‘grass-roots organization committed to creating a culture where sexism and exclusion are left behind and equality and full participation are the order of the day.’" The Christian Post (CP) reported. “In Genesis 17, the passage of Scripture where God makes the Covenant of Circumcision with Abram, the Hebrew ‘El Shaddai’ is traditionally translated as ‘God Almighty;’ the Inclusive Bible renders it ‘the breasted one.’"

Calkins is looking to give Episcopalians the last push they need to join the feminist movement and use LGBT lingo when addressing God.

“And I am still waiting for the Episcopal Church to come to the place where all people feel that they can speak God’s name,” the leftist church leader continued. “Many, many women that I have spoken with over my past almost 20 years in ordained ministry have felt that they could not be a part of any church because of the male image of God that is systemic and that is sustained throughout our liturgies. Many of us are waiting and need to hear God in our language, in our words and in our pronouns.”

No room for interpretation

Flying in the face of Calkins’ teaching, seminaries have taught that terms used referring to God the Father and God the Son are indisputably and intentionally masculine.

“Christians – following the teachings of Jesus Christ – have prayed to God as ‘Our Father’ from the very beginning,” LifeSiteNews’ Mark Hodges pointed out. “Theologians explain that the masculine word ‘Father’ indicates a relationship.”

Dr. Paul Tarazi of St. Vladimir Orthodox Theological Seminary contends that there is no room for creative interpretation when it comes to the gender reference of God.

“Jesus did not call God ‘Imma’ (Mother), but always and exclusively ‘Abba’ (Father),” Tarazi impressed, according to the Orthodox Research Institute. “’Father’ is the only way Jesus ever referred to God, and the only way He taught His followers to do so.”

For centuries, theologians, have made it clear that deviating from the biblical titles reserved for God is inaccurate, misleading … and ultimately heretical.

“St. Gregory the Theologian explained the name ‘Father’ is proper to God, not a figurative concession to humanity,” Hodges informed. “St. Athanasius the Great stated that only the specific names ‘Father,’ ‘Son,’ and ‘Holy Spirit’ belong ‘to God’s own essence and being.’ St. Gregory of Nyssa taught that deviation from the names ‘Father,’ ‘Son,’ and ‘Holy Spirit’ causes deviations from the one true faith. Any other names, St. Gregory wrote, ‘serve as a starting point for the deflection of sound doctrine.’”

The Bible, according to the LGBT

In addition to the Episcopal Church’s lean toward a feminist agenda, it is also embracing LGBT propaganda, as outlined in another resolution that was passed – without discussion or debate – by delegates to the Episcopalian convention, who declared that “transgender people” will be woven into all aspects of “congregational life” in the church.

“[The diocese will] encourage all parishes to remove all obstacles to full participation in congregational life by making all gender-specific facilities and activities fully accessible – regardless of gender identity and expression,” the resolution states. "Fixed boundaries of gender identity are being challenged, and churches need to respond. This resolution is a clear response to the systematic oppression and violence that transgender people experience on a daily basis."
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[Brother Randy]

Pretty sad state of affairs. So many people are being deceived by the evil one by the help of leadership that they are putting their trust in.

[Guadalupe]

Not so many are trusting the Episcopalian church leadership anymore. They have lost a lot of members! Here's some excerpts from an older article. The 6 bishops of large dioceses mentioned in the article have since already pulled out and joined the conservative Anglican branches. The 32 percent loss is even larger now. The author calls it Liberal Christianity but there's nothing Christian about the teachings of this apostate bunch of "leaders" supporting abominations.

Somehow slipping out of the headlines is a harsh reality that the denomination has been deserted in droves by an angry or ambivalent membership. Six prominent bishops are ready to take their large dioceses out of the American church and align with conservative Anglican groups in Africa and South America
...
Among the old mainstream denominations reporting to the National Council of Churches, the Episcopal Church suffered the worst loss of membership from 1992-2002 — plunging from 3.4 million members to 2.3 million for a 32 percent loss. In the NCC’s 2012 yearbook, the Episcopal Church admitted another 2.71 percent annual membership loss.

Convention attendees were told that they had spent $18 million this year suing their own local congregations — those which have protested the denomination’s policies by trying to secede. The New York hierarchy has consistently won in court – asserting that the local members signed over their buildings decades ago. As a result, some of the largest Episcopal congregations in the United States have been forced to vacate their buildings and meet elsewhere.

So now, convention delegates were told, the denomination is the proud owner of scores of empty buildings nationwide – and liable for their upkeep in a depressed real estate market where empty church buildings are less than prime property. It’s the classic “dog in a manger.” The denomination has managed to keep the buildings – for which it has little use. However, they made their point – refusing to allow the congregations which built the facilities to have any benefit after generations of sacrifice, donations and volunteerism.

“One former Episcopal priest wrote me, ‘The irony is that after all their property suits to get control of empty buildings, they now are losing their main property.’

“But this cost cutting measure may not be enough to salvage the long term solvency of the Episcopal Church. The church is hemorrhaging money like crazy and no one seems to know how to turn off the spigot.”

“The accelerating fragmentation of the strife-torn Episcopal Church USA,” writes Christian author Charlotte Allen. “ in which large parishes and entire dioceses are opting out of the church, isn’t simply about gay bishops, the blessing of same-sex unions or the election of a woman as presiding bishop. It is about the meltdown of liberal Christianity.

“Liberal Christianity has been hailed by its boosters for 40 years as the future of the Christian church. Instead, as all but a few die-hards now admit, the mainline churches that have blurred doctrine and softened moral precepts are declining and, in the case of the Episcopal Church, disintegrating.”
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