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Juicy Ecumenism – The Institute on Religion & Democracy's Blog

Juicy Ecumenism – The Institute on Religion & Democracy's Blog

Tag Archives: The Episcopal Church

National Cathedral Dean Slams “Filthy Enactment” of Voting Rights Ruling

02 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by jeffreywalton in News

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Dean Gary R. Hall, Episcopal, Episcopal Church, Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Episcopalians, Gary Hall, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Jeff Walton, same sex marriage, Supreme Court, The Episcopal Church, Voting, Washington National Cathedral

Gary Hall, center, dean of Washington National Cathedral, recently led a delegation from the cathedral at the annual Capital Pride Parade in Washington. (Photo credit: Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post)

Gary Hall, center, dean of Washington National Cathedral, recently led a delegation from the cathedral at the annual Capital Pride Parade in Washington. (Photo credit: Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post)

By Jeff Walton (@JeffreyHWalton)

A recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court “essentially gutted” the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and recalls the infamous Fugitive Slave Act of the 1850s, according to the dean of the Washington National Cathedral.

In a Sunday sermon celebrating recent Supreme Court decisions on same-sex marriage and lamenting a ruling on the Voting Rights Act, Dean Gary Hall sought to link the church’s public engagement with Jesus Christ’s turn towards Jerusalem in Luke Chapter 9.

Already thrusting the Cathedral into debates over firearms control and same-sex marriage, voting rights is just the latest in a string of politically charged issues championed by the activist Episcopal Church official.

Hall celebrated court marriage decisions overturning the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8 as “victories for all of us who support marriage equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people.”

“Those who had suffered so much discrimination savored a cultural and legal turning point in our shared march towards justice,” the Episcopal priest reported of a special Wednesday service for LGBT persons at the cathedral. Hall also noted “as we exalt in the joys of our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters, we must also weep with the pains and the losses of our brothers and sisters of color.”

“On Tuesday I found myself as dejected as I would find myself elated on Wednesday,” Hall told of the VRA and DOMA rulings. Recalling his own participation in the civil rights movement as a high school junior, Hall said it brought him into contact with Christian people and the life and ministry of the church.

Designating the VRA ruling “a filthy enactment,” Hall quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson’s declaration that he would not obey the Fugitive Slave Act, which required residents of Free states to return escaped slaves to the south.

Acknowledging his own record of political sermons, Hall insisted Sunday’s message from the pulpit wasn’t just “another instance of the Dean going all political on you” but was instrumental to following Jesus Christ.

“Jesus sets his face to go towards Jerusalem both literally and figuratively,” Hall pronounced of Luke chapter 9:51-62, in which Christ begins his journey towards the Jewish capital, the center of public life.

In going to the capital city, Jesus “is taking his critique to the heart of Roman and Jewish life,” Hall assessed. The cathedral dean termed the week’s events as “triumph and tragedy in our own capital.”

“We are a public church and public churches cannot be neutral where issues of justice are concerned,” Hall charged. Adding that Jesus went to Jerusalem “not out of anger but out of compassion,” Hall portrayed Jesus’ journey as one of solidarity “with and for those who are up against it.”

Declaring that God “loves and blesses and accepts everyone as they are,” Hall pronounced that “Jesus does not go to Jerusalem alone” and calls Christians to go with him.

“Therefore, following Jesus as he sets his face to go towards Jerusalem is part of what it means to be a Christian,” Hall interpreted. “If we are really following Jesus – and not just being personally pious in a private way – we try to care as much about the sufferings of people we don’t know as our own children, parents, spouses and friends. The only way you can care for people you don’t know is by establishing justice.”

In a call to the U.S. Congress “to rebuild what the court has taken away,” Hall insisted that Christianity has never been about only private suffering or personal joy, but rather about public social struggles. The cathedral dean asserted that Christians experience persecution “because they dare to make their private compassion a public virtue.”

“Today we both rejoice and lament,” Hall concluded. “Tomorrow we take up again the work again of standing with Jesus and God for those Jerusalem and Washington would oppress.”

Update: Full text of Hall’s sermon has been made available by the Washington National Cathedral. Access it by clicking here.

News Flash: Gene Robinson Opposes Church Discipline

26 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by Bart Gingerich in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

antinomianism, Barton Gingerich, discipline, Gene Robinson, Roman Catholic Church, The Episcopal Church

The Last Supper by Peter Pourbus (Photo Credit: http://www.wga.hu)

The Last Supper by Peter Pourbus (Photo Credit: The Web Gallery of Art)

by Barton Gingerich (@bjgingerich)

Bishop Gene Robinson took up his pen to give Pope Francis & Co. a few pointers on church leadership. It seems unusual that an openly gay bishop who oversaw the precipitous decline of his New Hampshire diocese should offer advice to the head of the world’s largest Christian communion. Citing a study that argues ex-Catholics are America’s 3rd largest “denomination,” Robinson (now a Senior Fellow at the Center of American Progress) analyzes the perceived ailments of Roman Catholicism in the United States.

The retired bishop opines, “Many Catholic laity are experiencing a painful disconnect between the official teachings and pronouncements of the Catholic hierarchy and what they believe in their hearts.” And what do these laypeople believe? According to Robinson, many cradle Catholics want same-sex marriage, abortion, and contraception, all of which are expressly forbidden by the Vatican. These moral constraints on human morality act as levees, blocking out a flood of potential church members.

So what does CAP’s bamboozler of orthodoxy recommend to the Washington Post‘s loyal subscribers? Well, chaos of course! Bishop Robinson advises an abandonment of the Church’s anthropology, founded as it is on the idea that man is the Imago Dei. Moreover, the Episcopal figure condemns any kind of punishment for violating the Church’s teachings. “I believe that using Communion as such a manipulative tool surely profanes the sacrament,” he crows, “Perhaps these Catholic leaders should revisit their church’s theology of the Eucharist.” Robinson urges that, if the abusive pedophile clergy can partake of the sacrament, so can those who identify as pro-choice or engage in homosexual activity. Later, he claims, “It seems that Catholic laity are refusing to be treated like morally ignorant children who cannot think for themselves… [I]t appears that the hierarchy wants to shut down open discussion by punishing those who would raise any questions about the church’s stance on these issues.”

Prying deeper, we can also see Robinson’s horrendously deficient theology. He encapsulates his view of redemption and the sacraments: “If those who have fallen short of God’s moral desires for humankind are to be denied Communion, then none of us can in good conscience receive the body and blood of Christ. The good news message of Jesus Christ is that despite our failure to be all that God would want us to be, we are all welcome at the Lord’s Table anyway.” Here, he parrots the argument of Integrity USA and other revisionist church caucuses: all the sacraments for all the baptized, no matter what.

First, one notices the lack of repentance in all of this. Yes, all the saints gather at the Table to feast, but, as St. Paul warns, they must not do so unworthily. This is why there is confession and absolution: believers are given the opportunity to confess besetting sins to their pastor, who forgives them in the name and authority of Christ. Sinners must intend to lead a new life in faith, “walking henceforth in His holy ways.” In giving Himself to the Church, Christ seeks to make a certain kind of people. This includes the changed habits, behaviors, and desires that result from the Christian’s struggle against sin.

Mercy without repentance is either ineffectual or torturous. It leads to antinomianism in this life, and who knows what fruit it yields in the life to come. Moreover, it denies the transformative power of God’s sacrificial grace to us.

Robinson’s view is an affront to human dignity since his theology is a direct assault on human free will and its accompanying responsibility. He and his sympathizers are soft Calvinists–one’s own actions, beliefs, and decisions do not ultimately matter. God has predestined everyone to happiness in the end, so the moral life is pointless (or else pivots on individual consent).

Second, if Robinson’s notions of “Church” were true, Christianity would not exist. If someone denies Christ in belief and action, that person must seek correction and restoration to re-enter full fellowship with Christ and his body. If truth did not matter, then neither would belief. However, that is not what the Church asserts. The Arian is not a Christian, nor the Nestorian, nor the proponent of marriage redefinition or abortion. All are preaching something that the Church has fully condemned.

Similarly, all sin blocks us from God and must be removed by the ministrations of Christ through the Holy Spirit. There is mercy for the pedophile, the homosexual, the adulterer, the liar,…the sinner. Christ, our warrior-king and substitute, can free us of sin (in its dominion and claim on us) through those means He has seen fit to employ. He seeks us, and we respond one way or another. Both the pedophilic priest and the actively homosexual person would have to seek absolution (the loosing and binding power that Christ grants to His apostles) before partaking of the sacrament. Sinners who are not sorry for their wickedness and fully intend to sin again are forbidden from the Eucharist. It’s for the protection of the sinner as well as reverence for the Body and Blood of our Savior. He who partakes unworthily heaps condemnation upon himself.

Of course, Gene Robinson rejects all of these permanent absolutes. American churches in general and Roman Catholics in particular face a membership-retention problem. What is more, the clericalism that led to the abuse cover-ups must come to an end. No one should contest otherwise. However, letting all men do what is right in their own eyes is not an option. This is irresponsible advice from an irresponsible cleric.

Religious Groups Celebrate Day to Thank Abortion Doctors

18 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Institute on Religion and Democracy in News

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

abortion, John Lomperis, Methodist, National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, Presbyterian Church (USA), Pro-Life, RCRC, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, The Episcopal Church, Unitarian Universalism, United Church of Christ, United Methodist

(Photo credit: Google)

(Photo credit: Medical Advice)

By John Lomperis (@JohnLomperis)

In case you missed it, March 10 was National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day.

Yes, a special day to celebrate the work done by our friendly neighborhood abortionists.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), which enjoys official, unqualified endorsements from a collection of liberal Protestant, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, and atheist/humanist groups, marked the holiday by e-mailing supporters a statement entitled “The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Thanks and Blesses Abortion Providers.”

Most self-identified “pro-choicers” are driven by their God-given consciences to say that they are not comfortable with abortion, that they do not like abortion, and/or that they would support efforts to make abortions “rare.”

But such squeamishness is not for RCRC. According to this church-endorsed, atheist-funded interfaith group, religious leaders should celebrate the “holy work” (which has claimed the lives of over 55 million Americans since 1973), by thanking, blessing, and offering prayers of gratitude for the work of “abortion providers around the world.” After all, performing abortions is driven by “equal parts compassion and courage,” as well as, for many providers, “a deep religious faith,” RCRC assures us.

RCRC’s endorsers include four oldline Protestant denominations: the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church, and the United Church of Christ. While many members of each denomination have protested this affiliation, RCRC enjoys strong support from the liberal factions and denominational elites in all four.

Liberals within the United Methodist Church (my own denomination) openly celebrate how their Macchiavellian tactics prevented a proposal to sever the UMC’s ties with RCRC from ever coming to a vote at denomination’s 2012 General Conference. Observers on both sides believe that this proposal would have passed if delegates had not been forcibly prevented from voting on it, even despite the way in which the United Methodist bishops (with a couple of notable exceptions) have chosen to abdicate their responsibility of moral leadership.

The RCRC e-mail also promotes a video featuring an abortionist and RCRC board member, Dr. Willie Parker, accepting RCRC’s inaugural “Moody-Patterson Award for Leadership in Reproductive Justice.”  Throughout his speech, succinct propaganda from RCRC appears on the screen.

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice email on abortion

As is typical for defenders of all abortions, there is disproportionate attention given to rare “hard cases” which account for only a tiny percentage of American abortions.

But the award recipient makes clear that his abortion business also includes many cases of simply “unplanned or unwanted pregnancies.” He defends his work by asking such questions as “Should the relatively innocent college girl who underestimates the power of alcohol and becomes pregnant during a casual date be punished to the degree of being forced to give up her college education and social standing, bringing untold hardships to her family?” or if a married woman who already had as many children as she wanted should “be punished” for contraceptive failure when raising an additional child would be financially challenging.

Meanwhile, creative, non-violent solutions to such challenging circumstances (including but not limited to adoption) are treated as unworthy of even a moment of consideration.

For the large portion of the human population whose conception was not planned, RCRC’s implied message seems clear: the value of your life is inherently lower than that of others. In fact, your being allowed to live is defined primarily as a “punishment” and a source of “untold hardships” for your family.

The statement from the “religious” front group gushingly claims that in the video, Parker “eloquently explained why providing abortion care is a part of his own spiritual life.” However, his speech actually makes no reference to God, scripture, or even to his personally adhering to any religion. The most religious part of his speech is when Parker approvingly quotes a statement from the Clergy Consultative Service praising abortionists for “living by the highest standards of religion and of the Hippocratic Oath” and then Parker goes on to recall “revering” that group’s founder, the late Rev. Howard Moody, a partial namesake of the award.  (RCRC’s rather broad use of the term “religion” would hardly exclude Ancient Near Eastern traditions mentioned in the Old Testament which practiced child sacrifice.) The Service was a forerunner to RCRC which helped mothers get abortions before it was decriminalized throughout the United States.

The citation of the Hippocratic Oath is rather odd, given how abortion is explicitly rejected in the classical version of that oath for doctors of Western medicine.

RCRC’s on-screen text dishonestly claims that “In the years before Roe v. Wade was decided [in 1973], it’s estimated that tens of thousands of women died each year due to unsafe abortions….” Abortion-defending activists have long been exposed for blatantly lying in inflating such statistics, but few put their exaggerations as high as RCRC’s asserted 20,000 – 100,000 maternal deaths every year.

The premature death of anyone is always tragic. But the truth is that there were actually only 39 maternal deaths from illegal abortions reported to the Center for Disease Control in 1972, less than the deaths from legal abortions.  Meanwhile, RCRC appears unconcerned over the many documented mothers who have died from legal abortions since 1973.

As an apparently deliberate rhetorical strategy, the speech and RCRC text repeatedly connect abortion to the words “compassion” and “care,” even framing the procedure itself as “abortion care.” In fact, Parker frames his work as so driven by compassion that his retort to questions about his comfort with personally performing abortions is that he is “uncomfortable at the number of abortions [he] failed to provide for the first 12 years of [his] practice.” Meanwhile, RCRC’s on-screen text also notes common “reproductive rights” talking points lamenting how the performance of abortion is not more widespread throughout the country.

Yet for all the talk of compassion and care, this abortion-appreciation presentation includes no hint of acknowledgement that abortions involve another human being besides the woman and the abortionist, let alone acknowledgement of the scars abortion leaves on surviving mothers, fathers, and siblings.

Two objective scientific facts are (1) that unborn children are indeed human and (2) that they are fundamentally distinct beings from their mothers, genetically and otherwise.  The question is if we will extend compassionate care to them.

But in RCRC’s dictionary, “compassion” and “care” are redefined to mean mercilessly drowning another human being in poison or cutting him to pieces, and taking great pains to avoid acknowledging he ever existed.

The 2003 book, Holy Abortion? A Theological Critique of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, carefully documents how the extremism of RCRC directly conflicts with the more nuanced (although sadly not strongly pro-life) positions of its four affiliated Protestant denominations. Since then, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has strengthened its opposition to late-term abortions while the United Methodist Church has inched in a more pro-life direction in several key incremental steps.

These denominations include countless faithful Christians who worship a God Who created each person in His own image, Who “fearfully and wonderfully” “knit [each person] together in [his or her] mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13-14), and Who personally became incarnate in the womb of a teenage girl whose own “social standing” and financial security were challenged by this unexpected (for Mary) pregnancy. They follow a Lord Whose welcoming of children, expanding the boundaries of “my neighbor,” and stressing the importance of our treatment of “the least of these” are certainly relevant to our treatment of naked, defenseless children whose lives are threatened.

These Christians’ faith is framed by a Bible whose core values such as self-sacrifice (in contrast to sacrificing the lives of others) could hardly be more opposed to RCRC’s worldview of treating your own financial stability, education, and “social standing” as not just valuable, but absolute idols to be defended at any cost, even the death of other human beings created in God’s own image. They reject RCRC’s insistence that one must choose between loving a mother or loving her child, recognizing and demonstrating that the love of God extends to all, including unexpectedly pregnant mothers, their unplanned children, and post-abortive women.

Yet the vast majority of members of these denominations are utterly unaware of the extremism or even existence of this “religious” group which claims to speak for them. Since such ignorance is crucial in dulling momentum for denominations revisiting their affiliations, RCRC likes to keep things this way.

[Update 2:04 PM EST: We have added the original RCRC email in question to the post. It was not previously included.]

John Lomperis directs UMAction at IRD. This blog post originally appeared on LifeNews.com. If you liked this post, visit IRD’s website to learn more about our programs and how you can support our work!

Two Very Different Episcopalianisms Meet in Charleston

29 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by Bart Gingerich in News

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

@bjgingerich, Barton Gingerich, Charleston, Christianity, Church, diocese, Episcopal, Katherine Jefferts Schori, Mark Lawrence, Mere Anglicanism, South Carolina, The Episcopal Church, theology

Sign outside the rump diocese meeting (Photo Credit: IRD/Bart Gingerich)

Sign outside the rump diocese meeting (Photo Credit: IRD/Bart Gingerich)

By Bart Gingerich (@BJGingerich)

Last week, orthodox Christians convened at the historical St. Philip’s Church to participate in theological discussions at the Mere Anglicanism Conference. Most of the attendees expressed support for the Diocese of South Carolina under Bishop Mark Lawrence, which has been forced out of the Episcopal Church through heavy-handed persecution against traditional Christians within the denomination. Ironically, revisionist Episcopalians met only eight blocks away to reorganize the rump diocese loyal to the national Episcopal Church, USA under Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori.

Mere Anglicanism started off on January 24th with a traditional evensong from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer with the Rev. Dr. Leander Harding of Trinity School of Ministry acting as officiant. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Paul Barnett lectured the next morning on five epiphanies that convinced him of the historicity of Christ. The former Anglican Bishop of North Sydney emphasized the powerful manuscript evidence, the archaeological-geographical credibility of the Biblical record, the multiple attestations to miracles, and the existence of external hostile sources. He likewise excoriated the textual skepticism and deconstructionism that dominates many seminaries today. “The health in the seminary influences the health of the ministers, and the health in the ministers influences the health in the churches,” he surmised.

The impressive scholarship continued with Dr. Allen P. Ross of Beeson Divinity School, who exposited Zechariah’s concept of holiness, its role in God’s people, and its accomplishment through Christ. The Old Testament and Hebrew professor observed, “God requires holiness from people who serve Him and promises deliverance from unrighteousness.” Quoting Anglican divine Lancelot Andrewes, Ross advised, “It is not our task to tell people what they want to hear; we must tell them what in some sad future time they would wish they had heard.”

The Rt. Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali taught the audience about the “unique and universal Christ.” In this informative lecture, the former Bishop of Rochester noted that Christ’s divinity is under cultural attack. He mounted a defense of the principle of substitution within Christian atonement theory, which frequently comes under assault in nearly all theological circles. Nazir-Ali reported that imams in Islamist societies now translate and distribute revisionist biblical scholarship undercutting biblical accounts of the supernatural in order to discredit Christianity. Bishop Nazir-Ali also critiqued the Insider Movement, a missiological theory proposing Christian converts “follow Jesus in the context of another faith.” The Pakistani native worried about a “loss and crisis of integrity.”

That evening, conference attendees celebrated Eucharist led by Bishop Mark Lawrence, with Bishop Barnett preaching on the conversion of St. Paul. The Australian church leader emphasized the importance of the apostle’s theological and evangelistic vision, especially in a 21st-century context.

The Rev. Dr. David Wenham, who teaches New Testament at Trinity College in Bristol, explored St. Paul’s witness to Christ. He defended the Pauline teaching regarding Jesus from critics who desire to push a wedge between the Gospels and the more “dogmatic” epistles. In Wenham’s view, such a project is truly vain from a scholarly point of view. Wenham and Barnett both affirmed the reliability of Pauline epistles; they criticized accusations that St. Paul “reinvented” early Christianity into a heavy orthodox dogmatism so hated by liberal seminarians. As Bishop C. Fitzsimmons Allison summarized in one of his conference comments, Christianity in America faces a crisis of trust and love. Instead of cultivating devotion through and affection for God’s Word, theologians now often look at biblical texts with suspicion and clinically sterile distance.

Finally, the Mere Anglicanism crowd enjoyed a riveting presentation by noted author Eric Metaxas, who recounted the social witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany. Metaxas hoped that Christians would continue to offer a bold religious witness in the public square, especially in the spheres of traditional marriage, abortion, and religious liberty.

Meanwhile up the street, disaffected Episcopal South Carolinians met at Grace Episcopal Church to cast their lot in with the fast-declining national denomination (TEC). A sign outside the parish was labeled the Diocesan Convention for the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, replete with the diocesan shield blanked out with “image not available.” A South Carolina court ruled in favor of the departing diocese, forbidding TEC loyalists from using the seal and name of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. In her opening remarks to the Friday evening meet-and-greet, Presiding Bishop Schori was careful to avoid any legally problematic language, gingerly calling the convention an “occasion.” Obviously, the TEC weekend proceedings focused on policy rather than theology.

The next day, TEC loyalists celebrated a choral Rite II Eucharist with Schori serving as celebrant and preacher. She marched into the sanctuary to a particularly defiant rendition of Highland Cathedral. In her controversial sermon, she likened Bishop Lawrence and his colleagues to terrorists and mass murderers. The attendance at the official convention Communion was about 2/3 the size of the Mere Anglicanism crowd at its height. The Rt. Rev. Charles vonRosenburg was instated as bishop of the rump diocese. When Presiding Bishop Schori brought the meeting to order, she called quorum by what seems to be sheer force of will. While the Diocese of South Carolina under Lawrence had 71 parishes and missions; only 9 parishes, 10 missions, and 8 “continuing” parishes (disaffected shadow congregations) attended the convention.

While Schori’s tone has proven harsh, the future interaction between the original South Carolina diocese and the liberal rump remains uncertain. Some supporters of Lawrence’s diocese express the famous South Carolinian fighting spirit, referring the rump as the “Vichy diocese” and wearing “bonnie blue” crosses in solidarity. Nevertheless, many on-the-ground observers foresee an unfortunate but civil divorce between the diocese and TEC.

Anti-Israel Zealots Chastise Episcopal Church

25 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by Institute on Religion and Democracy in News

≈ Comments Off on Anti-Israel Zealots Chastise Episcopal Church

Tags

@MarkDTooley, Israel, Mark Tooley, The Episcopal Church

Israeli Flag

By Mark Tooley

Prominent, radically anti-Israel Episcopalians are urging their denomination to adopt a more aggressive stance towards Israel, including divestment. The Episcopal Church largely has stood back from some of the more stridently negative policies towards Israel adopted by other old-line Protestant denominations.  It has avoided serious consideration of anti-Israel divestment.  And its officials did not endorse an ecumenical plea with other denominations last October asking the U.S. Congress to reconsider U.S. military aid to Israel, a plea prompting major Jewish groups to cancel scheduled interfaith dialogue with those denominations.

As reported by Episcopal News Service, the anti-Israel “Episcopal Voices of Conscience” drafted a letter dated on Martin Luther King’s birthday as a self-proclaimed “Prophetic Challenge” to their denomination’s executive council.  “Just as this church stood with South Africa and Namibia during the dark days of Apartheid, so we recognize that we need to be standing with our sister and brother Palestinians who have endured an Apartheid that Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has described as worse than it was in South Africa,” their plea began.  They lavishly quoted from Martin Luther King to justify their “call for justice on the land where Jesus lived his earthly ministry,” ignoring that King himself strongly supported Israel.   Interestingly, the “Voices of Conscience” themselves evidently had not yet publicized their letter.  So seemingly the Episcopal Church leadership chose to preempt it with their own response.

Read the complete piece here.

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