January 23rd will be my twentieth anniversary as a priest. When it comes to questions about staying in TEC or getting out, the blogs are full of commentary by folks I respect and upon whose ideas I can’t improve.His heart is breaking, and mine as well. You see, we've never met; Fr. Fountain came into South Dakota from the Diocese of Los Angeles, after I had made my decision to leave the Episcopal Church -- so we never crossed paths at convention, Convocation, ministerial weekends, summer seminary, or any of the other many diocesan ministerial gatherings. We have swapped comments and e-mail for almost four years, we have talked on the phone, I have been to Evening Prayer at Good Shepherd in April, but he was at the hospital with his wife, and I missed him.
He, and his family, and his congregation, are hurting, as are we because his is the problem of the square peg in the round hole. It will never fit right, it will either chafe at the edges or be too loose to stay in. Sadly, the Anglican Communion, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, have decisions to make, and soon (like midnight, September 30, 2007) if the greater Communion is to be saved from the folk who would so dilute the Word of God, the traditions of the fathers, and the religious practice of 2000 years, to call 'sin' 'NOT sin', to say the Creed is an option, that the Ten Commandments were only suggestions, that the Christ is but one of many ways to the divine, etc., etc., etc.
While you think of your own congregational problems, please remember Timothy Fountain, in his words,
“While” we wait for what’s next, we rely on what Scripture tells us: God does not need us to force a particular outcome. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And it is on the cross – the one that TEC rejects but that still “towers over the wrecks of time”- where God will always show his love for us, wherever we are.his wife, and their sons, as well as their present congregation, Good Shepherd, Sioux Falls, one of very few conservative, orthodox congregations in South Dakota in the Episcopal Church.
That it may please thee to succour, help, and comfort, all who are in danger, necessity, and tribulation;
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
Son of God, We beseech thee to hear us.
