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| Split in Episcopal Church Affects Illinois |
Thousands of Protestants in Central and Western Illinois will no longer be part of the Episcopal Church. The Diocese of Quincy is one of four Episcopal diocese which are breaking away and joining the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone.
The Rev. John Spencer, vicar of St. Francis Church in Dunlap and a diocese official, says the Anglicans' Common Cause partnership has "announced the provisional formation of the new American province of Anglican churches, which will bring together a number of diocese that have separated from the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and also will bring together a number of other Anglican bodies that have been existing separate from the Episcopal Church."
Spencer says the Episcopalians have been losing conservatives for about 40 years because shifting views on sexual orientation and on allowing the non-baptized to receive Communion. At the heart of some of the unrest is the election of a gay man, the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, to be the Episcopalian Bishop of New Hampshire .
While the Anglicans are starting a new wing that includes the now-former Episcopalians of Quincy -- with others in Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, and San Joaquin, Calif. -- Spencer says he doesn't feel as if he is part of something new: "All we're doing is maintaining the doctrine and discipline and teaching that we have always held in the Diocese of Quincy," he says. "We haven't changed anything. Our view is that the Episcopal Church has, over a good number of years, made major changes. We're the ones who have not changed."
The Diocese of Quincy has 26 churches in an area generally bounded by the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers between the Quad Cities and Quincy .
(Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 12 04 08 by Newsroom |
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