Wednesday, February 07, 2007

A Timeline to Disaster


Those interested in how the Episcopal Church got into its present morass may wish to peruse this well put-together timeline which lists the events of the past 80 years that caused her to go so far off the rails. Many will quibble when the line should begin. Catholics may insist (with some merit) the timeline should begin at the year 1536 when Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII head of the Church of England. Some Evangelicals may date the decline to 2003 with the election and installation of +Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, an adulterous priest who abandoned his wife and two daughters and moved in with another man, an event I regard as just the hideous last straw. My view is the downward slope to universalism grew precipitously in 1967 when the Church's leadership decided against a trial of +Pike of California for heresy even though he denied fundamental doctrines of the Church, including the Trinity and virgin birth. The Church's lamentable inaction is, to me, the proverbial camel's nose under the tent that led to the enormities of the next forty years.

Few, however, can quibble that any of the events found on the timeline were not deleterious and it's authors' (it's a wiki) are owed thanks for giving us this handy reference. Particular thanks should go to Andy Figueroa of the Stand Firm gang who conceived it (immaculately, no doubt!).

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