US Episcopal Church Loses Nearly 35,000 Members in 1 Year [ChristianPost]

At the turn of this century I was disgusted by the GC of the TEC and there were no orthodox Anglican churches near me. I then went to the RCC and the mass was very similar to the service I had grown up with. Unfortunately, more and more I've regretted the "conversion" as I always looked at doctrines/dogmas from the Anglican POV. I realized this more and more, starting to disagree with many things (infallibility of the Pope and magisterium, equating mortal sin with canons of the Church, etc.) Having been an Anglo-Catholic anyway, I was very familiar with many of the devotions. I never felt I could "connect" either and even worse, I was going nowhere spiritually. I had been seeming to progress in the TEC before they "went off the rails". Now there is still no orthodox Anglican Church near me and tho' I could just go to confession, give an invalid confession, go against my Anglican POV and take Communion with the Roman Church I feel that would be pure hypocrisy. There is a LCMS church near me, but they have closed communion. There is a TEC near me, but it makes me queasy even to think of Communing there. I certainly don't mean in anyway to come to any judgments about these churches. They are just not right for me to increase my knowledge of God.

 

Welcome among us Brigid. I know nothing of the Anglican Church in North America, however there are people here who do. As an Australian I am very familiar with that which we term the tyranny of distance. There is it seems to me a limitation as to how far it is that we travel for the community of faith that fits us, of to recognise our limitations and acknowledge that we may not be a perfect fit, however this is where I sojourn for the moment. The hope is always that we may learn from them what God would have us learn from them, and they in their turn may learn from us. Sometimes I fear that we have become a very picky generation, and sometimes we act as though anything less that 100% is not a pass. There is of course the reality that we have to ask, how far can the elastic band of Anglican faith be stretched without breaking, and many have concluded that it is broken. Anyway, welcome among us, we hope that you find nurture and strength for the journey from this ethereal band of pilgrims.

 

Are you saying Lutherans won't accept people who are confirmed as Anglicans into their church? Pray tell, why?

 

They seem to need a Statement of Faith concerning their beliefs before allowing Communion much like the RCC, which I can understand although I may not agree that that's what Christ wanted.
This is true for the LCMS and the WELS, but not the ELCA (which is well on it's way to the errors of the TEC).

Botolph, thank you for your welcome. I agree that we've become a very picky generation, but that needn't be a bad thing where Christianity is concerned. Do you agree?

 

I take the point, but as for 'agree?', I conclude not wholly. Sometimes we need to be challenged out of our comfort zone. There are numbers of lessons in the New Testament which ask us to be open to the challenge. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a story where the good guy in the story turns out to have been the one we thought would have been the bad guy. In John 4 the story of the woman at the well, all the accepted norms are being challenged. I understand we are called to be discerning, and yet we need to be open to the challenge.

Where I go to Church there is a push for 'interactive sermons' and I have to say that the whole idea causes me to cringe. Now as it happens I do not always agree with what is preached, however I am not there to mark the sermon, but rather to listen for what God has for me in the sermon. I loathe the idea than opinionated lay-folk might have the opportunity to enter into public discussion with the preacher. The tail is not called upon the wag the dog.

On the other hand I do think that preaching is dialogue, and I know that on an occasion following a D J Trump response to the use of chemical weapons a preacher made some disparaging remarks about the DJT response. As I was less than enthused at the poor treatment of the matter, I was able to construct a well thought through email on the subject (OK 4000 words), and made the suggestion that perhaps our faith should inform our politics. Whilst I am not a fan of violence, the call of justice sometimes moves us from sideline commentary to engagement.

However I do drive past one Anglican Church to go to another, so I can't suggest that I am without some pickiness. A Parish Community is important as part of our spiritual life and development. There are three B's to being christian, Believe, Belong and Behave. Loren Mead clearly identified our faith communities as the most significant shapers of ideas and opinions second only to our families of origin. So whilst I may be prepared to accept some uncomfortableness in a Parish Community, I must also be able to experience some sense of belonging, otherwise I am just a visitor.

 

Officially LCMS is closed-communion, but in practice, it is up to the pastor at each parish. You can ask, and he might be happy to commune you, Brigid. As for the RCC, I have never seen a priest question someone approaching to receive. I was previously Orthodox, and the RC's will commune EO's, but on the occasions I took communion in an RC parish, no one ever asked me what I was. The RC parishes here in San Diego are usually large, and with so many people communing, they can't ask them all. The parish I received at the most had, besides the priest, eight lay Eucharistic ministers helping to administer the sacrament.

 

Why not try the LCMS church, and/or the Roman church (as long as their Marian etc devotions aren't egregious), and just stay away from communion? After all if you receive holy communion once a year, by all rights, that traditionally is still acceptable, and in the olden days the Roman church, the Anglicans, the Lutherans, all had that prescription: in the Roman church you were okay if you received communion once a year, and the Romans and Lutherans increased it to be mandatory for at least 3 times a year, so frequency should not be your stumbling block here...

 

I would second the idea of talking to the LCMS pastor about this. It is possible that if he understands that your views on the Eucharist are compatible with those of the LCMS, he might allow you to partake of their communion. I do think that the LCMS is a relatively sound church and a good place to be.

 

Botolph, I will need to rethink my pickiness.

Peteprint, Anglican74 and Will, I need to check out the pastor at the LCMS. Since this part of the country is so liberal it's even more likely that he'll let me take the Eucharist.

Anglican74 I do value the Eucharist very much and feel empty without it.