FWIW, agree that there are handfuls of Episcopal churches that are thriving, like the one my friend Pat runs in South Carolina (in the article). The AMEs are growing like gangbusters too. They are leading many environmental efforts in Africa, by the way. I’ve seen second hand Pat’s suffering at the hands of the overburden of Episcopal bureaucracy (that Peter mentioned) and liberalism in general. Also, I didn’t use them as examples, but I know two other Episcopal bishops personally that have left the Anglicans, one to the Catholic Church and another has become an evangelical independent. Same reason.

Again, not picking on Anglicans particularly, but thanks for being willing to see that the point – whether I made it well or not – was that a denomination will only be as credible in outreach as their ability to manage their inreach, and their Upreach.

Grace and peace,
Don
evangelicalecologist.com

Today they are a thriving congregation.” So, not a church in decline, but a thriving church evicted by a denomination with a death wish.

Oops! Missed that. There are plenty of congregations in decline for the reasons the evangelical ecologist pointed out. He selected a bad example.

I’ll check out your article on global warming. I just get involved with so many topics I seem unable to keep up with that one. Nonetheless I believe in reducing carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels in general, so I walk the walk, even though I don’t talk the talk!

And what neither the Evangelical Ecologist nor you notes is what really happened in their the example of an Episcopal church “in decline”: this once thriving church “St. Paul’s had been refusing to pay its annual assessment since 1994, in protest of diocesan support in 1993 of the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions”, and so in 1997 “Hiles [the Rector] was inhibited and deposed by Bishop Shaw. With ninety-eight per cent of the former congregation of St. Paul’s in tow, he left. For several years they met in a Seventh-day Adventist church. Subsequently, they built an even larger facility – St. Paul’s Anglican Church – at a new location. Today they are a thriving congregation.” So, not a church in decline, but a thriving church evicted by a denomination with a death wish.

Meanwhile the Church of England has in general reversed its long term decline; there are still formerly thriving churches struggling on with tiny congregations, but there are also many churches like mine which are alive and growing.

But in general this is a good article.

On global warming, you might like to check out my articles on page 3 of the latest issue (issue 16) of Baddow Life newspaper.