The (Episcopal) Snowball Effect
Third diocese votes to leave. Fourth one schedules confirming vote this weekend.
Timothy C. Morgan
November 10, 2008
As expected, the Great Exodus out of the Episcopal Church continues. (See below for a press statement from the Diocese of Quincy, Illinois.) They join the dioceses of San Joaquin and Pittsburgh.
The Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, will have its annual convention this coming weekend. Considering that on the diocesan website there is an article, "10 Reasons Why Now is the Time to Realign," you can catch the drift here.
Fort Worth Episcopalians are quite likely to vote to leave TEC (The Episcopal Church) for the second time, finalizing a vote from last year.
Here's what Bishop Iker had to say in Reason #7:
7. At this time there is nothing in the Constitution or Canons of TEC that prevents a Diocese from leaving. Oh, I know that General Convention officials claim that dioceses cannot leave TEC, but you will not find that anywhere in the Constitution and Canons as they presently stand. So we have this window of opportunity to do what we need to do, for you can be sure that the next General Convention will close off this option by adopting amendments that will make it even more difficult to separate in the future. the rest
posted by Pat Dague @ 1:53 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
After GC09 forces each diocese to hand over the deed, in effect, I wonder what the many traditional but timid members of vestries and standing committees will think? These will likely be the last diocese to leave, except as a huge gaggle of individuals leaving empty buildings. Sadly missed opportunities for leadership.
My comment on the news site:
This is absolutely correct. In biology, a system (ecosystem, global temperature, mouse population, etc.) is held in homeostasis by "negative feedback" forces that will oppose dramatic changes, e.g., mouse population goes up then the grain supply goes down and holds the population in check.
In the Episcopal denomination, there is no longer any "equal and opposite" force to move the denomination back to the middle. The march towards becoming the "gay church" is unopposed. In fact, quite the opposite situation is at hand, the more the orthodox flee, the more the liberals will prevail and the more orthodox will flee. This is an example of "positive feedback", which leads to "catastrophe."
The problem is that there is already a gay church, the Metropolitan Church, which has about 50,000 members and there is a very limited supply of homosexuals that actually want to join a church at all.
The denomination was already the fastest declining using 2006 data. The analysis with 2007 data then 2008 data will be worse and worse still.
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