Division Weakens the Body of Christ

Oh please.

Few, if any, scholars believe "The Secret Gospel of Mark" is anything but an 18th century forgery.

According to the US Biblical scholar, Morton Smith, of Columbia University, a fragment of manuscript he found at the Mar Saba monastery near Jerusalem in 1958, showed that the full text of St. Mark chapter 10 (between verses 34 and 35 in the standard version of the Bible) includes the passage:

"And the youth, looking upon him (Jesus), loved him and beseeched that he might remain with him. And going out of the tomb, they went into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days, Jesus instructed him and, at evening, the youth came to him wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God".

Dear Rev. Lloyd,

The homosexuality issue in the Church is a red herring.

The real question is do:

You believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen?

You believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end?

You believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen?

Do you believe a word of that? Does Bishop Chane?

Re: Division Weakens the Body of Christ

As an ecumenical Roman Catholic, I agree with much of what you say, and endorse many of the progressive issues being championed by the Episcopal Church. I also disagree with the views held by the separate province of the Episcopal Church, but I believe they represent a necessary conservative view within Christianity. My disagreement with your essay is your argument that differing theological views will diminish the unity of the Body of Christ. Personally, I think that differing theological views have benefited the church, not diminished it, even though new denominations have formed as a result of it. When I look at the positive theological insights that produced the Orthodox, Lutheran, or Anglican separations from the Catholic Church, I see growth in the Body of Christ, not division. I wonder at what point in Christian history the Body of Christ was defined? Certainly, many in my own church believe that the Protestant Reformation was the ultimate severance of unity, and would find it odd that one of the separated brothern would be complaining about a split in the unity of the Body of Christ.

no request is too extreme http://www.real-wishes.com

Reverend.

You said “God's truth is bigger than any one part can claim.” Amen.

This is the fundamental flaw with all religion today. They all claim to have the final answer when in fact they have a limited understanding of “Ultimate” reality.

I have always been baffled that there is such reverence of books written thousands of years ago when we can only guess at what people meant, thought and understood during those times.

The splintering of Christianity could indeed be due to the fact that a certain interpretation not longer works for many people. As much as we would like to believe religion have all the answers, at some level we know this s not true and look to evolve our understanding.

As Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Compromise with Sin weakens the body of Christ.

I hate to say it, but I thought the same thing as Perspective1 when I read this. Granted, I'm not a Christian so I don't have a vested interest in this really, but hasn't the entire history of your faith been one of schisms? Wasn't the very act of getting together in the 4th century CE under Constantine to decide one what was going to be in the official canon an act of division? That is to say I imagine there were Christian ideas that were discarded because they didn't "toe the line" (whatever that line was). Then you've got the reformation under Martin Luther and the gradual splitting into Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, etc etc etc. Hate to sound like a jerk, but you guys don't really seem like you were EVER all that unified. I've run into many Christians in religious discussions who are perfectly willing to dismiss people from other denominations as not "true" Christians. Granted I don't have any numbers or concrete figures on this, but overall I'd say your history looks to be one of strong division that isn't looking like it's going to resolve itself anytime soon.

With all due respect, if the “body of Christ” is so important, why are you Episcopalian? Your being Episcopalian implies, as you have stated, that you have diminished Christianity.