Father David Epps column

The venerable old Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) has fallen on some hard times. Of the nearly 30 U. S. denominations that bear the name “Episcopal” or “Anglican,” ECUSA is the oldest and largest of them all.

Formerly the most influential and prestigious denomination in the United States, no less than eleven U. S. Presidents—including George Washington—have held membership in what was once the flagship denomination of America. No other communion has been able to claim so many residents of the White House. In fact, 10 Vice-Presidents, 88 of the Founding Fathers, 13 of the 29 U. S. Senators and 24 of 66 U. S. Congressmen of the “The 1st Federal Congress of the United States of America (1789-1791)” were Episcopalians. Today, only 3 of the 50 Governors are Episcopalian while only 42 of the 535 members of Congress are members of the Episcopal Church.

While ECUSA has been on the numerical decline for decades, the election of Gene Robinson to the Episcopacy rocked the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion. On Nov. 2, 2003, Gene Robinson became the world's first openly gay Episcopal bishop when he was elected by the Diocese of New Hampshire. His appointment and confirmation have caused tremendous division in the Episcopal Church. Robinson, who was married for 13 years and had two daughters, has, for more than 16 years, been in a relationship with a man.

In 2003 ECUSA posted a decline in membership of some 36,000 people, according to the Episcopal News Service. Since 1965, ECUSA has lost in excess of 1,000,000 members, over a quarter of its membership.

Many in the Episcopal Church hoped that, with the election of a new Presiding Bishop, the trend could be reversed and new life would flow into the ancient and stately denomination. If traditional, orthodox Episcopalians were hoping for a new Presiding Bishop that would return the denomination to a more conservative path, it was not to be. In 2006, at the 75th General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, the bishops and delegates elected, for a nine year term, Katherine Jefferts Schori as their new leader and spokesperson. She is the first woman to hold the post in the 400 year history of the Episcopal Church. There’s no doubt that The Right Reverend Schori is intelligent and gifted. She received a Bachelor of Science in biology from Stanford University in 1974; a Master of Science in Oceanography from Oregon State University in 1977; a Ph.D. from Oregon State University in 1983; and a Master of Divinity from Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 1994. Ordained both a deacon and a priest just twelve years ago, Schori was elevated to the office of bishop just seven years later, a fast track by any standard, and was consecrated the ninth Bishop of Nevada on February 24, 2001, a small diocese of some 6,000 members in 35 congregations.

In fact, Schori has little obvious experience in her religious background that would seem to qualify her to lead the struggling denomination into an uncertain future. At the time of her election in Nevada, Schori was assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Corvallis, Oregon, where she also served as pastoral associate, dean of the Good Samaritan School of Theology, and priest-in-charge, El Buen Samaritano, Corvallis. Prior to ordination in 1994 she was a visiting assistant professor in the Oregon State University Department of Religious Studies; a visiting scientist at the Oregon State University Department of Oceanography; and an oceanographer with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle. She is also an active, instrument-rated pilot, who has logged more than 500 flight-hours. All of which is intriguing, but absent is the tenure and experience that a full-fledged pastorate would provide. The Episcopal Church seems to have elected as their chief pastor a person who has virtually no pastoral experience.

What Bishop Schori does have, however, is the blessing and backing of those bishops who have embraced the ultra-liberalism that has fractured ECUSA and isolated it from much of the Anglican Communion. Schori was, herself, a supporter of the election of Bishop Gene Robinson. While the shrinking minority of orthodox bishops and priests are desperately trying to return the Episcopal Church to its scriptural and traditional foundations, the majority of her American bishops seem determined to drink the Kool-Aid and maintain the course that has decimated and fragmented this once proud and influential institution. Unless something is done to stop the hemorrhaging of exhausted and discouraged members, the day could come when The Episcopal Church in the USA, the church of the Presidents and of the Founding Fathers, will simply cease to exist at all.

Father David Epps is Rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church, located at 4881 Hwy. 34 between Peachtree City and Newnan. He may be contacted at frepps@ctkcec.org. The church, which meets at 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. on Sundays, has a web site at www.ctkcec.org.

Episcopal Roots

Submitted by PTC Guy on Fri, 08/18/2006 - 12:12pm.

Since when did your list of Presidents and such denote a healthy church?

The problem with the denomination, and many other denominiations, is that they have abandoned the Bible and its teachings for their own.

In another column you finally responded to some questions I asked you, after a long silence, on many prior columns.

I stated your church and your practices were non-biblical in many important points.

You replied you were most assuredly Biblical, 100%.

I posted a literal list of what you do and practice with the Biblical verses directly stating rejection of the practices. You did not respond.

The problems of many denominations are that they have become the modern Pharisees and Sadducees.

That means man made traditions, rites, laws and the rest, have replaced Biblical teachings, even regarding the nature of salvation.

As Christ said, you cannot put new wine in an old skin. It will shatter it. Your old skin of doctrinal error is so fermented the skin cannot survive having fresh new wine put in it.

Think about it. Which you will not.

Your devotion to your denomination, title and authority will not allow you to consider the points.

And that is the problem with so many denominations today. They have pushed the true Christ and his Bible out of the picture for their own.

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Keeping it real and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

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