[Apologetics] Re: Another Episcopal bishop decides to convert

[Art Kelly]

Please read my comments on Bishop Stenson in the CWN
blog at
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=53708
and my prior comments on Bishop Pope at
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=52827
as well as my comments on Anglican ordinations at
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=52537

Art

--- Dianne Dawson <rcdianne at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Another Episcopal bishop decides to convert 
> Posted: 23 Sep 2007 02:33 PM CDT
>  For the third time this year, an Episcopal bishop
> is leaving his flock to join the Catholic Church. 
> 
> The following comes from The Living Church
> Foundation, which serves the Episcopalian church: 
> The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey N. Steenson, Bishop of the Rio
> Grande, will resign from his position and become a
> Roman Catholic, The Living Church has learned.
> 
> In a letter to the clergy of his diocese, Bishop
> Steenson said a pastoral letter to all the people of
> the diocese would follow in a few days. He said he
> had invited Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts
> Schori to attend the Rio Grande clergy conference
> Sept. 26.
> 
> “I 
 have sensed how important it is for those of us
> in this position to model a gracious way to leave
> The Episcopal Church in a manner respectful of its
> laws,” he wrote.
> 
> Bishop Steenson was attending the House of Bishops’
> meeting in New Orleans and plans to make an
> announcement concerning his decision on Monday.
> 
> In an interview with The Living Church to be
> published in a forthcoming issue, Bishop Steenson
> said the meeting of the House of Bishops at Camp
> Allen in the spring had a major effect on his
> decision.
> 
> “The spring meeting of the House of Bishops, when
> the majority said that The Episcopal Church was
> fundamentally autonomous and local,” he said. “This
> is not the Catholic doctrine of the Church, and it
> will lead to many unfortunate consequences.”
> 
> The bishop has been the diocesan in the
> Albuquerque-based diocese since 2005. He was canon
> to the ordinary under Bishop Terence Kelshaw for
> five years before being elected to the episcopate.
> Prior to that, he was rector of All Saints’ Church,
> Wynnewood, Pa., Good Shepherd, Rosemont, Pa., and
> St. Andrew’s, Fort Worth. He is a member of the
> Board of Trustees of Nashotah House and the Board of
> Directors of the Living Church Found
> 
> “My conscience is deeply troubled,” he said in a
> statement prepared for the House of Bishops,
> “because I sense that the obligations of my ministry
> in The Episcopal Church may lead me to a place apart
> from scripture and tradition. I am concerned that if
> I do not listen to and act in accordance with
> conscience now, it will become harder and harder to
> hear God’s voice.”
> 
> Bishop Steenson said he had spoken with the
> Presiding Bishop “for her counsel and prayers,” and
> said he would ask the House of Bishops for
> permission to resign as the ordinary of his diocese.
> He said he would do this by the end of the year, and
> added that he hoped then to be released from his
> ordination vows in The Episcopal Church.
> 
> He called the bishops’ meeting last March “a
> profoundly disturbing experience for me. I was more
> than a little surprised when such a substantial
> majority declared the polity of the Episcopal Church
> to be primarily that of an autonomous and
> independent local church relating to the wider
> Anglican Communion by voluntary association. This is
> not the Anglicanism in which I was formed, inspired
> by the Oxford Movement and the Catholic Revival in
> the Church of England 
 honestly, I did not
> recognize the church that this House described on
> that occasion.”
> 
> Regarding his move to the Roman Catholic Church,
> Bishop Steenson said, “I believe that the Lord now
> calls me in this direction. It amazes me, after all
> of these years, what a radical journey of faith this
> must necessarily be. To some it seems foolish; to
> others disloyal; to others an abandonment.”
> 
> Bishop Steenson will be the third bishop of The
> Episcopal Church to become a Roman Catholic this
> year. Bishop Dan Herzog of Albany moved shortly
> after his retirement in January. Bishop Clarence C.
> Pope, retired Bishop of Fort Worth, returned to
> Roman Catholicism in August.
>  
> Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul
> longs for you, O God.
> Ps 42:1
> 
> 
>      
>
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> 


ART KELLY, ATM-S
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