Jezebel. - First it was the condoning and promoting of the sin of homosexuality, now it appears the Episcopal Church in the USA is seeking out other gods to worship.
Ted Olsen has a post on his weblog on ChristianityToday with the title, "Episcopal Church Officially Promotes Idol Worship."
Olsen begins:
Imagine for one moment that you're a leader in the Episcopal Church USA. You know that within the next few days, a global commission is going to release a report on how the global Anglican Communion should respond to your church, and is likely to be critical of the ordination of an actively homosexual man as bishop. You know, and have said yourself, that the debate isn't just about sexuality: It's about how one views the Bible. And you know that all eyes will be on your denomination over the next few weeks. What do you do?
What the real leaders of the Episcopal Church did was to take an action that makes ordaining a homosexual man as a bishop almost a non-issue. They started promoting the worship of pagan deities.
What's this about? It's about the Episcopal Church's Women's Ministry's resource website that offered a Woman's Eucharist not focusing on Christ but instead focused on the pagan deity, the Queen of Heaven.
Olsen notes that the Eucharist was taken almost in its entirety from a rite of the present day Druid clan - Tuatha de Brighid. Their rite is titled, "A Celebration of the Divine Feminine in A Eucharist to our Mother Goddess."
The ritual begins:
We gather around a low table, covered with a woven cloth or shawl. A candle, a bowl or vase of flowers, a large shallow bowl filled with salted water, a chalice of sweet red wine, a cup of milk mixed with honey, and a plate of raisin cakes are placed on the table.
The plate of raisin cakes is raised and a woman says,
"Mother God, our ancient sisters called you Queen of Heaven and baked these cakes in your honor in defiance of their brothers and husbands who would not see your feminine face. We offer you these cakes, made with our own hands; filled with the grain of life—scattered and gathered into one loaf, then broken and shared among many. We offer these cakes and enjoy them too. They are rich with the sweetness of fruit, fertile with the ripeness of grain, sweetened with the power of love. May we also be signs of your love and abundance."
The plate is passed and each woman takes and eats a cake.
Olsen notes that these raisin cakes have a specific Biblical reference and he details that starting with Hosea 3:1:
And the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins."
This queen got the Israelites in a great deal of trouble as Olsen points out. Click over for the full read. It is very enlightening on the current state of the Episcopal Church in America.
You may be wondering what the Episcopal Church has had to say about Olsen righteous reprimand to their unrighteousness. Well, for one thing they removed the web page containing the Pagan ritual.
But they didn't repent of the ritual. They repented of violating the copyright for the ritual.
The material questioned in Olsen's article, "A Women's Eucharist: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine" was sent to us in good faith in response to our recent call for resources. We regret we did not realize that the material was copyright protected. Proper notifications were not included by mistake and so the page has been withdrawn from our website.
The response continues by saying:
The resources listed on our website are not approved liturgies of the Episcopal Church. These liturgies are intended to spark dialogue, study, conversation and ponderings around women and our liturgical tradition. There is quite a difference in presenting resources for people’s interest and enlightenment and promoting resources as official claims of the Episcopal Church. Only General Convention has this authority.
So it's okay then to post the Pagan ritual for the church women to discuss. But then why did they remove it? Oh yeah, the copyright thing. I suppose they could just have gone back and given "Proper notifications".
But what of the page from which it was originally drawn? You know the Druid web site. Well, mysteriously, that too has evaporated but Google contains a cache of it here.
Given this episode, I am reminded of another scripture from the Bible. An end times scripture:
But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. (Revelation 2:14-15)
Since we're on the discussion of the Episcopal Church USA here is some other interesting news from around the web.
Stephen Mbogo, a correspondent for CNSNews.com, has an article titled, "Homosexuality Dispute: African Priests Will No Longer Train in the West.
Mbogo begins:
Anglican Church leaders in Africa have decided they will no longer send priests to the United States and Europe for training, so as not to expose them to teachings that condone same-sex "marriage" and ordination of homosexuals.
He goes on to infer that the African arm of the Anglican Church's opinion on the issue of the sin of homosexuality is based on the culture of Africa which has long viewed homosexuality as unnatural. Of course that can be said of pretty much all cultures throughout history, even the American culture. But that hasn't stopped the ordaining of openly and enthusiastically homosexual ministers and priests here.
Turning back to ChristianityToday, there is an article by Obed Minchakpu titled, "'African Church Has Come of Age,' Say African Anglican Bishops."
Minchakpu begins by noting a five-day conference taking place currently in Lagos, Nigeria by the African Anglican Bishops where the declaration was made that the "African Church has come of age."
Minchakpu writes:
The church must now become self-sufficient to withstand unbiblical Western spirituality and the advances of militant Islam, said Peter Akinola, the Chairman of the Conference of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) and the head of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.
Minchakpu continues:
Akinola charged the 282 African bishops to shed the social vices that are killing the church in the West, and Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, backed the bishops' stand.
Also noted is that there is a Militant Islamic threat facing the Church in Africa and that the Church there believes it will loose the battle if they allow fighting over doctrine to distract from the real needs and calling Christ has given them.
The Great Separation continues.
Update 04.10.30:
I don't know how I missed it yesterday on the ChristianityToday (CT) weblog but Marty is precisely right on the money with his post in the comment section below. I guess I was just so shocked with the first bit of news that I failed to see the follow up by Olsen.
The person who wrote the pagan ritual is the same person who submitted it for the Episcopal Church USA's website for a Eucharist. That person is Glyn Lorraine Ruppe Melnyk, rector of St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Malvern, Pennsylvania. She and her husband, Bill Melnyk also an Episcopal priest, both moonlight as Druid priests according to the information that Olsen has.
Bill Melnyk apparently goes by the Druid name of OakWyse and his wife by the name of Raven.
Click over to read the follow-up on CT.
Now we know why the Druid website also took down the incantation webpage.
Thanks Marty!
