The Episcopal bishop of Arizona, the Rt. Rev. Kirk Stevan Smith, was surprised. “I don’t know what would cause him to say this at this time.” Smith pointed out that Catholics and Episcopalians in the community work together frequently.
These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called ‘Churches’ in the proper sense.
The church was founded in 1981 after a split with the mainline Presbyterian Church over the denomination’s increasingly liberal direction. The EPC started with just 12 churches. In the years since then, it has grown to include 188 congregations and 75,000 members.
Gospel songs thundered through the speakers as televangelist Benny Hinn landed outside Uganda’s national stadium last month in an immaculate white helicopter, before addressing 40,000 enraptured faithful.
Another organization of breakaway churches is requesting a bishop who will support those who cannot accept the ordination of women.
More than half of the breakaway churches associated with Bishop Martyn Minns and the Nigerian Church in North Amerca (CANA) can’t afford to give funds to the lawsuit with the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church or have made no plans to do so.
Pentecostal churches are good at evangelizing, bringing people in, but they have also noticed that many of those people that they have brought into churches would over time go to more traditional churches and seeker-friendly megachurches. Is traditional liturgy part of the appeal?