Category: Other Christians

The Southern Baptist Convention voted yesterday to sever its 99-year relationship with the Baptist World Alliance on the grounds that it includes a Baptist denomination with openly homosexual members.

This is a huge controversy among the Baptists. It’s worth reading the whole article to get the gist of it. What they need is a universal magisterium and less autonomy. Though even with the gifts God has bestowed on His true Church, we’re still plagued with similar issues of faithfulness to Church teaching.

Now this is one for the geek Catholics: obscure intra-Church stuff with an ecumenical angle.
The Ukrainian Catholic Church has petitioned the Pope to be raised to the dignity of a patriarchal Church — giving its principal archbishop the title of Patriarch of Kiev. In practice, their clergy have been using the title for years. Since the Russian Orthodox Church gave itself the same status many years ago, it only seems fitting that the Ukrainian Church, which was founded earlier, should have it too. The prelates of the Russian Orthodox Church, however, don’t take kindly to the idea.
Here’s a statement from Ukrainian Catholic bishop Basil Losten.

One thing I like about the Orthodox Eastern Churches: they have bishops who don’t fool around with being polite about the weird heresies that come from sexual confusion.
In October, after some Russian priest performed a wedding ceremony for two guys, not only did his bishop defrock him, he had the chapel razed. I’m not saying I approve of doing that, but it does demand respect.
After the Robinson consecration in November the Russian Orthodox Church told PECUSA officially there wasn’t any point in talking any more.

the ‘consecration’ of a gay priest has made any communications with him and with those who consecrated him impossible. We shall not be able to cooperate with these people not only in the theological dialogue, but also in the humanitarian and religious and pubic spheres. We have no right to allow even a particle of agreement with their position, which we consider to be profoundly antiChritian and blasphemous.

[Don’t blame me for those two typos, folks: they’re verbatim. Besides, we might get some search-engine hits out of ’em.]
The arrogant “progressives” don’t hesitate to preach their false gospel even to venerable prelates, and sometimes the prelates give ’em a good smackdown. Hawk-eyed Lee Penn quotes Episcopalian bishop William Swing on his attempt to instruct the Ecumenical Patriarch:

I mentioned that I have ordained more women than any other bishop in the history of the Church and would be glad to talk about my experience. He said, ‘I don’t want to know your experience.’ That was that.

God grant the Ecumenical Patriarch many years.
The Oriental Orthodox Churches (Armenian Apostolic, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox) have told the Episcopalians to go “reflect upon” the consecration of their gay bishop, and when the phone don’t ring, you’ll know it’s us.
Who’s left for the PECUSA to collaborate with? Just liberal Protestantism.
Thanks to Dom for posting Lee’s article.

The idea of a “Lord Of The Rings mass” over in Holland made Kathy Shaidle flinch and made Mark Shea‘s eyes roll back into his head, but fortunately De Telegraaf describes the place as a gereformeerde church — that’s Reformed, y’all. Whew: it’s not one of ours.

I guess the combination of being Dutch and Reformed doesn’t mean the same thing there as it does here, given that they also held a “Harry Potter service”.

Oh, the spirit of worldly compromise has reached Wheaton College in Illinois, that former bastion of Evangelical wholesomeness: they’re not only allowing students to dance off-campus, they’re letting them perform those bodily gyrations in the gymnasium of the college itself.
They probably got the idea from the late but still active radio preacher J. Vernon McGee, whose words expose him, I suppose, as a dreadful liberal:

There are lots of other preferences that are often stated as laws …
Some have said that those who dance are catering to lust. Now, I would agree that I’ve seen some dancing that seemed to be doing just that … but we must not say that all dancing is that way. We must not forget that many people danced for joy before the Lord.

First you let your faculty dance with their spouses at weddings off-campus, and then it’s Katie bar the door.