Apparently orthodoxy is out and heterodoxy is in favor within the Episcopal Church (ECUSA):
Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill.
On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest.
She does both, she says, because she’s Christian and Muslim.
Redding, who until recently was director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, has been a priest for more than 20 years. Now she’s ready to tell people that, for the last 15 months, she’s also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved.
Her announcement has provoked surprise and bewilderment in many, raising an obvious question: How can someone be both a Christian and a Muslim..?
She says she felt an inexplicable call to become Muslim, and to surrender to God — the meaning of the word “Islam.”
“It wasn’t about intellect,” she said. “All I know is the calling of my heart to Islam was very much something about my identity and who I am supposed to be.
“I could not not be a Muslim…”
Redding’s bishop, the Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, says he accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim, and that he finds the interfaith possibilities exciting. (Seattle Times)
The good vicar contradicts and blasphemes the central tenet of two religions, now that’s ambition! This babe is going places!
Levity aside, this news story is a good example of why the ECUSA is having so many problems right now. The elevation of Gene Robinson, divorced cleric with a gay partner, to the episcopate was only the spark that lit the powderkeg which has been building in that denomination for many years. This has been a persistent problem in recent years among Episcopalians, where priests have openly apostasized only to be supported by their bishops (this latest episode isn’t the first). It doesn’t matter whether one is an Episcopalian or not (I myself am Catholic), but it should be noted that homosexuality isn’t the sole reason conservatives in the ECUSA are bolting. If the church one belongs to isn’t going to remain true to the historic Creeds of one’s faith it is understandable why those who still do may get a tad antsy. Disagreements over sexuality pale in comparison. There is much to criticize conservative Episcopalians for (their alliance with Akinola for starters), but no one should be blinded to the fact that the impending split in that denomination is about far more than just “anti-gay” sentiment.
Hat tip: Ace of Spades
— John (Average Gay Joe)
My diocese is one (of the few) that still doesn’t recognize female priests. They are threatening leaving the Anglican community.
As one of those agnostic Episcopalians, I’m not too concerned but, I feel a bit sad about it all.
(Episcopalians don’t get riled up about much)
Let me ask: Is she politically a Leftist??
I’ve been predicting for some time that, as its next low, the spiritually corrupt and self-destructive Left (that wants nothing more than for the rest of us to join in and destroy ourselves, and America) would go Islamic.
A few interesting points:
she’s also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved.
I was profoundly moved when I attended a Sedr (sp?), but I’m still Protestant. Well, it was Presbyterians practicing a Sedr for educational purposes as well as fellowship, but still.
Ya think?!?
oh lordi, has this tool read the koran? As a woman she is worth less than a man, as a Christain she is a dhimmi and must pay jaziya.
Unbeleivably naive. hope the crocodile eats you last, but will prob eat you first since you’ll be an easy mark.
Left the Epsicopal church longtime ago.
I knew ECUSA was on the road to perdition in 1976 when the ordination of women took place in the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia. I became aware that liberalism was infecting the church in 1960. Prior to then, as a postulant for Holy Orders, I used to attend Evensong at the seminary. The faculty had a reputation for being Anglo-Catholic. When I entered in 1960 there had been some changes and they were the liberals. The professor of dogmatics who I knew to be an A,C,had changed his tune and say ¨I , as a Protestant . . . ¨ A visiting professor of church history, Fr. C. Preston Wiles, suggested to the class that we become members in the ACLU. ECUSA is now reaping the seeds sown back then. Everytime I read an article such as this, I shake my head and am glad I left the church when I did.
Speaking as an Eastern Orthodox, I am constantly amazed at how much the Protestant branch of Christianity seems to bend and sway with every passing breeze. I am also concerned that some of these denominations are more concerned with this life than the next.
I once attended a UMC service with Hubby (who had studied at SMU for the clergy but abandoned it), and I was taken aback by the out-and-out hypocrisy on the part of the clergy and its parishioners. For starters, they would “pray for all,” but then turn around and sideswipe those who opposed their beliefs. In fact, on the Sunday that I attended, it was the day after Reagan’s funeral. The out-and-out hostility on the part of the lay leader’s prayer was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Give me a Greek or Russian Orthodox service any day. At least it has withstood persecution, pestilence, jihad, crusades, world wars and other of man’s ills. But that’s just my $0.02, guys and gals.
Regards,
Peter H.
Is it appropriate to thank God for being agnostic and avoiding all this religion mess?
Peter, you should go to an Roman Catholic service some time. If you set aside the restrictions on priesthood and the issue of abortion and Episcopalians are in virtual lock step with respect to adopting “progressive” causes. Services are virtually identical.
Episcopalians are universally boring and politically clueless. They have been this way for a very long time.
#8 Yes. 😉
I’m not surprised by the “I’m a Christian and a Muslem” thing since I’ve come across at least one person who claimed to be a Christian and a witch. “If what Christ did wasn’t manipulating energies, I don’t know what is.”
Egad.
There are some religions that work inclusively. Christianity and Islam are not them. Islam makes some bit of noise about accepting Christ as a prophet but requires denying the deity of Christ.
That doesn’t work with Christianity which demands Christ and God are the same person (regardless if one goes for “oneness” or the “trinity.”) But more than that, the purpose of the cross and resurrection defines Christianity. Deny that and you’re a Christian in name only, attending a social club for whatever reason.
Christianity isn’t about being spiritual. It’s not about what we do, or how we feel, or belonging, or helping others. It’s about what Christ did for us, quite apart from our acceptance of that or if we approve or find prayer emotionally moving or want to dedicate our life to helping others.
#9 – Thanks but no thanks. I’d rather go to a church that encourages worship and thoughts of everlasting life, rather than indoctrination and political posturing.
I’ve been to Greek Orthodox services in Houston, Dallas, NYC, Athens, Toronto and Montreal. In NONE of them were there any sermons or homilies given that would be construed as political.
Also, after Vatican II, we got a lot of disaffected Catholics who despised the democratization of the Catholic Church. Just FYI.
Regards,
Peter H.
I get a little uncomfortable, when pastors and bishops and various other church leaders support or advocate other pastors or positions that are directly contradictory to some of the most basic Christian tenets and doctrines.
I think there are definitely some gray areas when it comes to theology and doctrine, but believing in Jesus as savior and Islam are about as contradictory as you can get, and to be one, means abandoning the main tenets of the other.
1) Turn the other cheek
or
2) Chop the infidel’s head off
Crow: For the Christian-Muslim it would be turn the cheek of the infidel before lopping off their heads. See how simple that is?
I used to attend services at Episcopal churches, but when I moved to my current city almost four years ago, I found all of the denominations in the western city where I live were much too left-wing for my taste. As a gay male, I’m not what anyone would consider a cultural conservative, but it was the kneejerk anti-war sentiment that irked me. Saying you want to work for peace is one thing, but it doesn’t mean one needs to surrender to death or dhimmitude. But apparently, as the genius profiled in this article clearly demonstrates, many Episcopal priests these days clearly believe otherwise.
oops… wrong word choice… i wrote “denominations” when i meant to write episcopal churches in my community. i was thinking of writing about the fact that most of the mainline protestant denominations are overwhelmingly left-leaning these days, but i didn’t want to start down that path…
“It wasn’t about intellect.”
Hence, religion.
Peter, you´re right about disaffected Catholics becoming Orthodox so too, many Episcopalians. In fact, several branches or national orthodox churches created a western rite Orthodoxy. Litugically they use the tridentine rite (pre’Vatican 2) mass. As for ECUSA, I think the new Prayer Book sucks, except for the catechism. If I were a primate I would have kept the 1928 Prayer Book, remove the communion service , and wrap the book around the Anglican Missal or the American Missal, if the Cowley Fathers would´ve printed a peoples edition (which they never did) to accompany the the altar edition. The mass in the C of R (Church of Rome) is not much better than ECUSA. The tridentine rite,
which preceeded Vatican 2, is the same whether you attended mass in Naples, Italy, Paris, France or Keokuk, Iowa. The only variations permitted were those rites peculiar to monastic orders. For the good old days when Anglican and Roman nuns looked like nuns and not airline cabin attendants, or froppy homemakers, with only a tiny crucifix, a doily on the head, and maybe a cincture, as do the Franciscans, to identify them. If the faith, once delivered to the saints, is to survive it may very well be in the Orthodox Church and those Episcopal Chuches that reject the liberalism that has pervaded the denomination, e.g. St. Clement´s in Philadelphia, St. Anthony of Padua, Hackensack, NJ. the diocese of Dallas. St. Mary of the Angels, Hollywood to name a few.
Had she been a Muslim first living in a muslim country and then converted to Christianity, a fatwa (an ok to assassinate) would have issued for her.
Here in the western world, she just gets commented on in blogs then we move on.
Many disaffected Episcopalians/Anglicans are swimming the Tiber as well, which is why we now have Anglican Use parishes. Personally I think there should be an Anglican Rite, but I do not work in the Vatican and make such decisions.
#8
“Well, I’ve always said, There’s nothing an agnostic can’t do if he really doesn’t know whether he believes in anything
or not.” -Graham Chapman
#21 – Is that the same as a dyslexic agnostic? You know, the one that doesn’t believe in Dog? 😉
Regards,
Peter H.
“Episcopalians are universally boring and politically clueless. They have been this way for a very long time.”
Since Henry VIII. From the beginning, Anglicanism has had to reconcile a broad spectrum of worshippers, so there were high church, broad church, and low church parishes, etc. It’s just that the conflict has shifted from Anglo-Catholic v. roundheads to orthodox Christianity v. feel-good, leftist, group therapy sessionism.
Fapo, Epicopalians are . . . politically clueless. They have been this way for a very long time. How long is a very long time? Ten years? Twenty years? Politically clueless? Maybe it aint what it used to be but the denomination has contributed more presidents than any other; ten to be exact, from George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, Wm. Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Chestar A. Arthur, FDR, and Gerald Ford.