A Visit With the Connecticut Six

This past weekend I went to Connecticut to meet with members of "the Connecticut Six" - 6 parishes under threat of inhibition from their Bishop because they will not concur with his support for Gene Robinson and the homosexuality agenda.  The heavy handed tactics of the Bishop against these six orthodox churches (convicting the Rectors of "abandonment of communion" and threatening to remove them and take over their churches; he made good on this threat with one of the parishes) have made international headlines over the past months. Connecticut is ground zero these days is the conflict for the soul of the Anglican Communion.

Go here for lots of reading on this sorry series of events. Or turn to the Pittsburgh website for more.  Recently nine orthodox Bishops issued a strong letter of support for the inhibited clergy (Fr Mark Hanson), indicating their readiness to have him serve from their dioceses, AND their readiness to bring charges against the Bp of Conn in church courts.  Read about it here. 

  So I was glad to have the chance to spend a weekend with this courageous group of believers.  We celebrated Eucharist on the Feast of the Transfiguration Sat night for about 100 people.  The worship was STRONG and uplifting.

 

   I opened my sermon with these words...

I bring you greetings tonight from the people of Pittsburgh.  Back in the Diocese of Pittsburgh we call ourselves, “the land of the free”.  You can appreciate the phrase!  But tonight I stand in the “home of the brave”.  So, from "the land of the free" in Pittsburgh to "the home of the brave" in Connecticut, I bring you gospel greetings and affection.

I talked about two Kingdoms in conflict, about the importance of the struggle not just to the future of our Communion, but to the future of Western civilization (these battles deal with issues that large), and thanked them again and again for their faithfulness to the Gospel.  What a great group of folks!  I came away so blessed by their clarity and courage.  These people are champions for God!

Sunday morning I preached at St Paul's/Darien where Christopher and Janet Leighton, my good friends, lead that strong congregation.  I picked up a copy of the Episcopal shield there (see top of this post).  The Bp of Conn. was passing these out to rally people against the six parishes and in support of himself.  In Darien, they are putting them on their cars upside down, an international symbol of distress!

I preached from Acts 14.19-22

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

In the midst of "almost to the death" persecution, Paul went BACK into the city of Lystra, faced his persecutors, strengthened the believers, kept them working together, and above all kept making disciples for Jesus and planting churches!  That is a Kingdom strategy for dealing with hostile and aggressive Bishops!

I drove home later on Sunday grateful for strong and clear faith in the middle of hard times.  Make sure you stop by the website for the Connecticut Six, and drop them an encouraging note. You can find it here.