Same-Sex “Marriage” Agenda Closes Watertown Church
June 19th, 2009 by Peter
Connecticut’s Episcopal Diocese would rather sell off a 245-year-old church in Watertown than give in to its pro-family dissenters. From Tuesday’s (Waterbury) Republican-American:
And last year Palmer was there [at Christ Church] when nearly all of the congregation left to form their own church because of the national Episcopal Church’s stance on homosexuals and other issues.
On Sunday, Bishop Laura J. Ahrens of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut told the congregation the final services in the building will be July 26. It is closing.
Today’s Rep-Am has a follow up story peddling the line of Christ Church’s current leadership, that the closing would have occurred regardless of controversy over homosexuality and scripture because of money troubles. And yet there is this:
Even before the split [over practicing gay clergy], Christ Church had fewer than 100 members. On Jan. 6, 2008, when it held its first service without the break-off members, only three worshipers were in the pews. In the six months since Kemmerer has been there, Sunday morning worship has inched up to between 20 to 30 members — an improvement but not nearly enough to sustain the church.
The article cites national data to back up Rev. Kemmerer’s claim that Christ Church simply fell victim to the decades-long trend of a membership decline in mainline denominations–without any discussion of the role of theological liberalism in causing that decline. From a portion of the article not available to non-subscribers:
“Episcopalians do not define themselves by what they believe, but by how they worship,” said Bradley.
Or, as Jesus never put it, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of Whatever, teaching them not to observe all that I have commanded you; only to not define themselves by what they believe but by how they worship.”
When a ‘church’ looks and acts like the world and less like the “Church” that Christ Built on the Rock of Peter, it ceases to be all that is has been, which is not of the world, but opposed to the World and which the world persecutes. The “Church Militant” is what the Chuch is called to be; it is the Body of Christ on earth, fighting on, running the race and keeping its eye on the prize all the while facing persecution and beng opposed by the world on everything for the Church is right on everything and the world is wrong.
But when a ‘church’ embraces the world, endorses homosexuality and preaches perversion of the “Word” it ceases to be the “Church Militant” and becomes a church belligerent and ceases to look like the body of Christ, and looks more like the perverse and corrupt culture which has rotted it from the inside; Such a church gives in not only to militant homosexual doctrine but decades ago when the decay first began, it began by giving in to the mindset of contraception, betraying the culture of life by adopting pro abortion doctrine and the ultimate death knell of such a church embracing the culture of death in the radical homosexual agenda of same sex unions and same sex marriage which is a dead end unto itself.
It is no wonder that so few people come to such a church when such a church preaches such doctrine; sin ceases to exist, truth changes or is non existent. Such a church which dies such a death has long ago stopped resembling the body of Christ, and looks more like the rotting corpse of everything else dead on this earth. It becomes Lazarus dead and in the tomb without Christ to come and call him forth.
Hopefully this trend continues, it’s about time.
[…] Via the Family Institute of Connecticut. […]