The downward spiral of the Episcopal Church in the USA has continued as a local parish, St Andrew's-in-the-Pines, voted 145 to 67 (or 68 per cent) to separate from the national church and the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta.
The church's vestry, or governing board, subsequently voted to honour the parish's overwhelming desire to depart from the Episcopal Church led by controversial Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori.The vestry also voted to join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) - the US missionary branch of the Anglican Church of Nigeria - in order to maintain the parish's ties to the worldwide Anglican Communion.
"We simply want to continue to worship Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour in the way that we always have," one church member said after Sunday's vote. "The vast majority of us still have faith that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that Jesus is the one true Son of God, born of a virgin, crucified until dead, and then resurrected to life. All of that is contrary to what a majority of the Episcopal Church leadership believes. The authority of Scripture and the issue of Jesus as THE Saviour are important to us."
St Andrew's Senior Warden David Wardell said the parish - which intends to retain its property - plans to work with the Diocese of Atlanta to achieve an amicable separation.
"Our decision to disaffiliate is a reflection of our commitment to the biblical faith, which is now in direct contrast with the belief and practice of the majority of the Episcopal Church's leadership," Wardell said. "However, the vestry has a strong willingness to work together with the diocese and Bishop Alexander so that this separation can occur with Christian charity, not hard feelings or hostility."
The Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta, the Rt Rev Neil Alexander, tried to short-circuit the church's internal voting process last week by sending a letter to all parishioners that was clearly intended to disrupt the church's efforts and sway or prevent the vote.
The letter attempted to discredit the church's plan for a fair and impartial decision by stating that the vote would have "no official standing".
Bishop Alexander, who is well known for his embrace of theological revisionism, also threatened to remove the entire church vestry and replace it with a group that he would hand pick.
St Andrew's joins approximately 250 other Episcopal member churches that have split from the main Episcopal Church since 2003 for similar reasons. More than two dozen of those churches have also joined CANA, which is experiencing rapid growth and emerging as a forerunner in the realignment of North American Anglicanism.
Founded in 1975, St Andrew's has a current membership of 350 and is presently without a permanent priest since the recent retirement of Father Dan Brigham. The parish has a predominantly orthodox membership, unlike the USA Episcopal Church, which has been pursuing a course of increasingly radical theological revisionism for over four decades, during which time the church has lost approximately 40 per cent of its membership.
Like St Andrew's, a majority of the Anglican Communion's other 37 provinces remain at odds with the direction and top leadership levels of the Episcopal Church, which faces the possibility of being disciplined at the upcoming Primates' Meeting, to be held next week in Tanzania.
