We write as the vestry of St. Michael's of the Valley Episcopal Church. We rejoice in who we are as a congregation who loves our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and who wishes to make
him known to the world.
We are committed to Jesus Christ and also to The Episcopal Church and we rejoice in its rich historic, authentic tradition of worship, outreach, and evangelistic mission while also seeking
to be a place where all are welcome to worship the Lord and grow in grace.
However, recent actions in some portions of the church have raised great concerns for us.
Specifically the actions of the 76th General Convention in resolutions D025 and C056 which
we believe do not serve the Church well, especially in the wider context of our relationship to
The Anglican Communion. While we understand that we represent a congregation with
varying opinions on issues of sexuality, we also believe these resolutions open the door to
innovations, which are not in concert with the majority of the Church and certainly The
Communion. We are concerned that the passing of these resolutions will continue to strain our
international relationships and we believe that they encourage an ethical stance, which is
contrary to scripture. For these reasons we reject them.
We are also concerned with opening remarks made by The Presiding Bishop at the General
Convention. We find her statement that the "great western heresy (is that) we can be saved as
individuals, that any of us alone can be right with God" extremely troubling. We have read the
full text of her speech and while we appreciate her emphasis on exercising our faith in right
relationship, we believe her statement about individual salvation to be wrong, and we reject it.
The rest is here-
http://www.stmichaelsligonier.org/UserFiles/file/vestry%20statement%209-21-09.pdf
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