General Convention is also notable for its sheer ostentation and carnival atmosphere. For seven straight nights, lavish cocktail parties spilled into pricey steakhouses, where bishops could use their diocesan funds to order bottles of the finest wines.

Evangelicals were entrepreneurial and started new churches, while Mainline Protestantism “doesn’t value entrepreneurship.” The “negative side” is that the evangelical world is “almost all male” dominated with “loud white guys like me,”

The new amendment easily passed stating that the dissolution of the ministry of a bishop requires a two-third supermajority for all voting bodies. After the passing of the amendment, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said nothing but appeared stunned.

Bishop Lawrence said that he had “expressed the personal feelings” of his deputation to his colleagues in the House of Bishops and would withdraw in solidarity with the deputation from the remainder of the convention.

There’s so much that’s encouraging, one respondent told the magazine, but he too perceived an “unmistakable climate of suspicion.” You see and feel it in presbytery and General Assembly, he said. Some are sure that the denomination is teetering on the brink of liberalism, while others fear that we’re becoming rigid and sectarian.

Anyone who says that the church of Jesus Christ shouldn’t have serious disagreements about weighty issues simply hasn’t read Paul’s epistles carefully. Don’t forget that another metaphor for the church is a family. Do you know any families that never argue? With the close of another large General Assembly this week, the world of Presbyterianism... Continue Reading

The Bishop and Deputation of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina have withdrawn from the 77th General Convention. On 11 July 2012 the lay and clergy deputies released a statement confirming their withdrawal. “Due to the actions of General Convention, the South Carolina Deputation has concluded that we cannot continue with business as usual. We... Continue Reading

We are grateful that the rite, as approved by General Convention, contains provisions that protect diocesan bishops and parish priests who cannot for the sake of conscience authorize or use the liturgy.

But no Christian church should gloat, and not just out of politeness, either. Putnam & Campbell documented that all Christian churches are seeing declining numbers. We are living through a great shift in religion and society now.   More sunny news: numbers from the Episcopal Church show a stunning collapse in church attendance between 2000... Continue Reading

In this sermon, Jefferts Schori continued her mission of destroying the Christian faith through her rhetorical device of dismissive ridicule. On July 8, 2012, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached her brand of post-Christian religion while masquerading as a Christian bishop. She mocked most of the crucial doctrines of the Christian faith, including the God... Continue Reading