I am a relatively new reader/followers of yours. Not even sure how or where I found you. So, I don't know you very well yet through your writing, but I'm getting there. I think we share a lot in common.
I live in the Madison, WI area, having moved here from the Chicago area when I retired. I moved here to help start a new ACNA church which is now called Christ Church Madison (christchurchmadison.com), in our 7th year. We were sent by Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, IL. Our bishop, Stewart Ruch III, leads the Diocese of the Upper Midwest, and is a firm believer in church planting. I think we were #12 or #13 in that vision. Christ Church Madison has grown to be the largest ACNA church in Wisconsin. We average 230 for Sunday Worship.
The ACNA allows each Bishop and diocese to decide if it will ordain women priests, deacons, etc. In our case, we ordain men as priests only, and allow women and men to be ordained as deacons. I am comfortable with this, and believe it to be biblical.
Because of the history of the ACNA, and how it came to be, we have this odd arrangement where there is quite a bit of diversity from diocese to diocese. It has some healthy aspects, but also some not so good. I personally hope and pray that the ACNA refines and defines these issues over time so that the entire Province is on the same, biblical page. We have a new Archbishop who I am waiting to see how he will lead.
At Christ Church Madison, and the other churches in our diocese, we welcome all believers to participate in the Eucharist. The caveat is that the participant be baptized and committed to following Jesus. We provide other options if that is not the case. I believe this is a healthy, good way to manage the issue. It maintains proper exclusivity, while extending fellowship to believers of other traditions.
Our community is healthy, thriving, joyful, generous, and growing in the Lord. I am privileged to be a part of it. It saddens me to hear of others experience, as you described it, where no real gospel-preaching church can be found within a practical distance. That would be really tough for me also.
Please consider visiting and worshipping with us if you are ever in the Madison area!
My first church was Episcopal, in the late 1950s, when I was a child. I was delighted when I learned in 2009 that the ACNA had declared its existence, and dismayed a moment later when I learned the church had decided to leave the matter of women's ordination up to each Bishop.
I thought that in lighting the torches to celebrate a long overdue event you guys had also managed to set yourselves on fire. There are individual churches within the ACNA which are excellent, but because from the beginning you had compromised on an essential matter, you had started a slow burn which will eventually destroy you. Because there is a Devil, and feminism has won its non - lunatic battles in the culture in general, it's only a matter of time, and I have a foreboding that that time will be sooner than later.
I hope you are mistaken, but I agree ACNA began too loose in this and another matter or two.
That said, I think the dioceses serve as firewalls, to continue your analogy. I don't see the Dio of FW or the REC ever ordaining women to holy orders, to give one example.
Excellent analysis concerning the current winds of religious culture which has become entrenched in their various apostate denials of the Sacraments, Creeds and Councils. Indeed, we who attach ourselves to those three basic elements are fast becoming a small band of rejects and misfits within the greater expanse of those claiming to be followers of Christ, but whose fruit fails to bear any serious witness to such a claim. But, then again, narrow is the way, and there are few who will find it. As a fellow clergy within the REC, I am in complete unity and submission to what our Province professes and puts to praxis. If not so, I wouldn't be here. I recommend a great book (if you have not already read it) titled, Faith and the Future, by Bishop Joseph Ratzinger. Although it is written from a Roman backdrop, it is quite prophetic with concern to your standing analysis. God bless.
Mark,
I am a relatively new reader/followers of yours. Not even sure how or where I found you. So, I don't know you very well yet through your writing, but I'm getting there. I think we share a lot in common.
I live in the Madison, WI area, having moved here from the Chicago area when I retired. I moved here to help start a new ACNA church which is now called Christ Church Madison (christchurchmadison.com), in our 7th year. We were sent by Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, IL. Our bishop, Stewart Ruch III, leads the Diocese of the Upper Midwest, and is a firm believer in church planting. I think we were #12 or #13 in that vision. Christ Church Madison has grown to be the largest ACNA church in Wisconsin. We average 230 for Sunday Worship.
The ACNA allows each Bishop and diocese to decide if it will ordain women priests, deacons, etc. In our case, we ordain men as priests only, and allow women and men to be ordained as deacons. I am comfortable with this, and believe it to be biblical.
Because of the history of the ACNA, and how it came to be, we have this odd arrangement where there is quite a bit of diversity from diocese to diocese. It has some healthy aspects, but also some not so good. I personally hope and pray that the ACNA refines and defines these issues over time so that the entire Province is on the same, biblical page. We have a new Archbishop who I am waiting to see how he will lead.
At Christ Church Madison, and the other churches in our diocese, we welcome all believers to participate in the Eucharist. The caveat is that the participant be baptized and committed to following Jesus. We provide other options if that is not the case. I believe this is a healthy, good way to manage the issue. It maintains proper exclusivity, while extending fellowship to believers of other traditions.
Our community is healthy, thriving, joyful, generous, and growing in the Lord. I am privileged to be a part of it. It saddens me to hear of others experience, as you described it, where no real gospel-preaching church can be found within a practical distance. That would be really tough for me also.
Please consider visiting and worshipping with us if you are ever in the Madison area!
Thank you. And I think your comments on ACNA and communion are well balanced. I'm in ACNA myself, in the Reformed Episcopal Church.
My first church was Episcopal, in the late 1950s, when I was a child. I was delighted when I learned in 2009 that the ACNA had declared its existence, and dismayed a moment later when I learned the church had decided to leave the matter of women's ordination up to each Bishop.
I thought that in lighting the torches to celebrate a long overdue event you guys had also managed to set yourselves on fire. There are individual churches within the ACNA which are excellent, but because from the beginning you had compromised on an essential matter, you had started a slow burn which will eventually destroy you. Because there is a Devil, and feminism has won its non - lunatic battles in the culture in general, it's only a matter of time, and I have a foreboding that that time will be sooner than later.
I hope you are mistaken, but I agree ACNA began too loose in this and another matter or two.
That said, I think the dioceses serve as firewalls, to continue your analogy. I don't see the Dio of FW or the REC ever ordaining women to holy orders, to give one example.
My good brother,
Excellent analysis concerning the current winds of religious culture which has become entrenched in their various apostate denials of the Sacraments, Creeds and Councils. Indeed, we who attach ourselves to those three basic elements are fast becoming a small band of rejects and misfits within the greater expanse of those claiming to be followers of Christ, but whose fruit fails to bear any serious witness to such a claim. But, then again, narrow is the way, and there are few who will find it. As a fellow clergy within the REC, I am in complete unity and submission to what our Province professes and puts to praxis. If not so, I wouldn't be here. I recommend a great book (if you have not already read it) titled, Faith and the Future, by Bishop Joseph Ratzinger. Although it is written from a Roman backdrop, it is quite prophetic with concern to your standing analysis. God bless.
Thanks! But to avoid confusion, I am a Lay Reader.
Sorry about the mix up. Certainly we are cut from the same cloth, and are of the same body. I may be an eye, but you are an ear.