Diocese of Texas going down the drain

The Diocese of Texas had their election for Bishop Co-Adjutor on May 24. There was a little bit of a surprise in that Andrew Doyle, Bishop Don Wimberly's henchman, got the nod instead of Bishop Dena Harrison. Harrison has a lot of pull around the Diocese, especially in Austin which is very liberal. My opinion(and mine only) is that Wimberly turned the screws on some of the clergy. I am so glad that I am no longer in that mess. The Episcopal Church is an organization that no longer resembles a church. It is run by an individual who is not a christian who has a lawyer behind her back suing other congregations. Not my type of church.

Erik

A Few Weeks In...

A few weeks into our new church, and I must say that I am enjoying the freedom of worship. Attendance has been steady. Today was what it was around last week(400). Our church has already started making arrangements for their traditions. In June, there is going to be our first annual fish fry!!! It is going to be at Spring Creek Park. I will be posting a map when it gets closer to when the event is.

To all my readers: you know about my broken knee. Well, my other knee is exhibiting signs of my bad knee. I ask for your prayers. I have been "down in the dumps" about it for a couple of days, and I have my final exams this coming week. I just need to have God's peace and strength throughout this week. I thank you in advance. God bless you.

Erik

From the Houston Chronicle

This is from today's Religion Section of the Houston Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/5713020.html

This is about our former congregation that is splitting and now going to worship at a local junior high school. All of the words you hear about Wimberly saying that he worked with the parish and property are half-truths. He was just tooting the party line. You can bet that he was in constant contact with the Presiding Bishop. Fortunately, our clergy were prepared for just such a contingency. We have church offices, a place to worship, and everything is fine. We have oversight, as well. Our new church is St. Timothy's Anglican Church. We have a basic website up, and it's at:

http://www.sttimothysanglican.org/

It gives directions to where we meet and the time we meet. Thanks be to God. Hope to meet you there!

Erik

Well, they went ahead and did it...

The Episcopal Church went ahead and did it. They went too far. The congregation that my wife and I are a part of, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, has been in a discernment process for the past 40 days. Well, the other shoe has dropped. Because of the Episcopal Church's lack of adherence to the Authority of Scripture, our church has decided to split from the Episcopal Church. We tried. Our rector and our vestry went to the bishop with a plan. He told us that he would get back to us, but he just stalled. The Canon of the Ordinary told us that they wanted us to stay, but given the circumstances, our rector said that he could not. So, we will only be in our building for the next two weeks. Also, the bishop wanted our rector and assistant rector to sign an oath of allegiance to the Episcopal Church; not to God, but to the institutional church. To the United States Episcopal Church. Our rector could not do that. An oath of allegiance of all things! This smells of Hitler! The only allegiance I owe is to God! The triune God! We will have our vote in those weeks to see who stays, and to see who goes. We have contingency plans in force, so we are pretty much organized. As with everything, there will be something that will be forgotten. Another good thing is we have oversight for the next 90 days until we make a decision with whom to go with. I will say this; I have never felt as free to be from under such a pagan organization as the Episcopal Church, USA. "By their fruits, will you know them..." Lawsuits... Virginia, California, Connecticut, New York... You do not sue fellow christians... that is how I know that the presiding bishop is not a christian. She is suing for all the money she can get. I have no respect for someone who has no compunction to do what she is doing. Hasta la vista, Episcopal Church!

Erik

Virginia Church Decision

It was time for the judge in the Episcopal Church v. The Virginia Churches to render a decision. The judge wrote an 88-page decision in favor of the Virginia churches citing that there was a division between the Episcopal Church and the said Virginia churches. The Episcopal Church tried to say that there was not a division, but the counsel for the churches brought evidence saying that division was caused when Gene Robinson was consecrated as Bishop of New Hampshire. There were eleven churches that were part of this suit, and seeing that there were eleven churches shows that this did cause division. Though this court case went the way of the Virginia churches, the legal wrangling is far from over. There will be appeals. Please keep the Virginia churches in your prayers, as well as their counsel.

Erik

Some thoughts...

At church today, my stepdaughter was confirmed in the Episcopal Church. I had tears in my eyes; for several reasons. First, this was a very pivotal moment in her life, since she has not wanted God in her life until recently. She has grown spiritually so much here in the past couple of years. In the past six months, she has been baptized, married, and now confirmed. It has been such a whirlwind of emotions for my wife and I. The next thing is that we had the Bishop of the Diocese of Texas there; Don Wimberly. A man who we thought was an orthodox bishop, but now we know is a liberal leaning bishop, and one who is about to retire in about a year, and has called for a bishop adjutor to be voted on in May of this year. This bishop will take over for Wimberly when he retires. Anyway, Wimberly's sermon was something I wanted to go to the restroom and get rid of my breakfast for. There was so much hypocrisy that I wanted to leave, but since I have a severely injured knee, I was a captive audience, as was the rest of Church of the Good Shepherd. Anyway, we did get the new parish hall opened, and it looks fantastic! Anyway, these thoughts have been bothering me for some time today, and I hope that some people reading this will understand.

Erik

Deposing of +Cox and +Schofield

While the bishops were at Camp Allen, every bishops favorite place to relax(hey, I did Vocares there when I was in college!), they decided to try and get the votes necessary to defrock both Schofield and Cox. The reasons for bishops Cox and Schofield are totally different. They are wanting to defrock Bishop Cox because he supposedly did confirmations without the OK of the bishop of the diocese that he was in. We all know the Schofield mess. I won't try to explain because it just gets too involved. The Living Church reported that they didn't get the votes necessary; but David Booth Beers, the presiding bishop's enforcer, did some creative accounting, and said, "Oh, my gosh, we DO have enough votes!" So, on we go. This is just another nail. I really have no respect for Schori, I'll be honest. Until she repents and gets saved, then we'll talk.

Erik