Would you attend this class?

[foundsheep]

3-26 One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism

This session will focus on the 10 years of covenant between Lutherans, Episcopalians and Roman Catholics, highlighting areas where it is successful as well as those areas requiring attention. The panel will consist of The Rt. Rev. Alexei Smith, Ecumenical Officer for the Los Angeles Archdiocese; Rev. Dn. Dr. Gwynne Guibord, Ecumenical Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles; and Pastor Carol Nolte, Ecumenical Officer for the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Special emphasis will be placed on practical suggestions of how this covenant might be implemented on the pastoral level.

Rt. Rev. Alexei Smith

In 1987, Rev. Alexei Smith, a Greek Catholic priest and Los Angeles native, was assigned to serve two small Eastern Catholic communities in El Segundo, Calif.: St. Andrew Russian Greek Catholic Church and St. Paul Melkite Greek Catholic Mission. In 2000, Rev. Smith was appointed Director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, making him the first Greek Catholic priest to head an archdiocesan office.

Rev. Dr. Gwynne Guibord

Rev. Dr. Gwynne Guibord is the Officer of Ecumenical and Interreligious Concerns for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. She is immediate past President for the California Council of Churches and past President of Progressive Christians Uniting. Dr. Guibord currently serves as Vice President of Southern California Ecumenical Council, as Chair of the national board of The Interfaith Alliance, and as member of the Los Angeles’ Interreligious Council.

Rev. Carol A. Nolte

Rev. Carol Nolte is a graduate of Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. Ordained in 1982, she has been an active member of the ecumenical dialogues for her entire ministry and was recently appointed by her bishop to serve as the ecumenical representative for the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Rev. Nolte is Pastor of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in West Los Angeles.




BTW:the episcopal and Luthuran "Rev's" are women.

Edited November 10, 2004 by foundsheep

[Sinner]

Me personally......... no.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Hmmm...sounds like it could be good, solid, orthodox ecumenism or shaky ground...either way, we can't assume the worst, and if it is bad, you can rep Phatmass and be our double agent.

[Good Friday]

This is bad news. Bad, bad news.

First of all, this is the Archdiocese of Los Angeles we're talking about. Remember the Archdiocese of Los Angeles? Cardinal Mahony said that he wouldn't prevent Kerry or other pro-abortion Catholics from receiving Communion. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is also the one with the cathedral that has the statue of Mary, which looks more like Mr. Spock. Remember? It's not a bastion of orthodoxy. It's also the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that Barbara Nicolosi, a well-respected Catholic blogger, reported was [b]insisting[/b] that people stand during the Eucharistic Prayer and after receiving Communion instead of kneeling -- this, [b]after[/b] the clear instructions from the General Instruction on the Roman Missal.

Secondly, these are two female ministers. In this bastion of orthodoxy, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Catholics there are going to see two female ministers and wonder: What's so wrong with that? And you know what the Archdiocese is going to tell them? Either absolutely nothing, leaving their minds to ponder the question, or they'll say: "Absolutely nothing!" meaning that there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Either way, this will no doubt leave many Catholics attending the class wondering what's wrong with female ministers, and having seen these two women, they will inevitably come to the conclusion that there's nothing wrong with it, and that the Church is wrong. I see this as only a way of undermining the Church's teaching. It certainly isn't going to help ecumenically, because female ordination is one of the sticking points in the ecumenical process, one that the Church insists that its teaching be preserved.

Finally, the Episcopal minister is past president of Progressive Christians Uniting and Chair of the national board for the Interfaith Alliance. She is also past president for the California Council of Churches, she is currently Vice President of the Southern California Ecumenical Council, and she is a member of the Los Angeles Interreligious Council.

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Progressive Christians Uniting identify themselves as ". . . both moderate and progressive [read: dissenting] Christians who lift our voices to affirm a radically inclusive [read: we support gay marriage and a woman's right to murder] gospel at a time when the name 'Christian' has been seized and polluted by apostles of fear, mistrust, violence and division [read: Catholics and mainstream/evangelical Protestants]."

PCU has position papers that are: supportive of [url="http://progressivechristiansuniting.org/papers.html#latinamerican"]liberation theology[/url], specifically condemned by the Church; supportive of [url="http://progressivechristiansuniting.org/papers.html#abortion"]abortion and contraception[/url]; supportive of [url="http://progressivechristiansuniting.org/papers.html#humanrights"]"gay rights" (read: the right to marry) and "the right to die with dignity"[/url]; and many more. My favorite was the paper on [url="http://progressivechristiansuniting.org/papers.html#feministtheology"]feminist theology[/url], which endorses goddess-worship and the ordination of women to the priesthood. It's written by none other than Rosemary Radford Ruether, a dissenting Catholic who's in favor of inclusive language (to the extreme) and female ordination.

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[url="http://www.interfaithalliance.org/"]The Interfaith Alliance[/url] is an organization that worked for the separation of faith from politics in this election, and also subtly worked for Kerry's election to the presidency. They refer to their opponents (us) as fundamentalists, and . . . well, just check them out and see for yourself, I don't think I have to do much explaining.

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The California Council of Churches [url="http://www.calchurches.org/ballot_prop_2004.html"]supported Proposition 71[/url], which provided California funding and permission for embryonic stem cell research. They chose to post a [url="http://speakheart.srv3.pmachinehosting.com/index.php/weblog/statement_from_the_reverend_dr_troy_d_perry/"]commentary[/url] from Rev. Dr. Troy D. Perry, the Founder and Moderator of the Metropolitan Community Churches, which are gay activist churches, to their weblog. His commentary is on his opposition to the amendments passed in 11 states that banned same-sex marriage. They support a [url="http://capwiz.com/cachurches/issues/bills/?bill=6013796"]piece of legislation[/url] in the California Legislature called AB1967, which would reverse an earlier law that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman, and instead would enact gender neutral language. Enough said, yes?

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The best I could do with the [url="http://www.scec.faithweb.com/"]Southern California Ecumenical Council[/url] is that it is strongly affiliated with the California Council of Churches. As of October 2002, it was affiliated with the Metropolitan Community Churches. It also claims affiliation with the Catholic Church, no doubt through the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

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I couldn't find a website for the Los Angeles Interreligious Council, but given the above information, I think it's safe to assume that it's just like the others.

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The only conclusion one can come to is that any class given by this Episcopal minister is not going to be a good thing -- she's thoroughly indoctrinated in teachings that are anti-Catholic and anti-ecumenical, and any class that she's leading should probably be seen as an attempt to indoctrinate others into those same teachings. It wouldn't surprise me if the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is willing to help her in her efforts.

Edited November 10, 2004 by Good Friday

[cmotherofpirl]

I wouldn't go, but O! to be a fly on the wall and listen.
Good analysis Good Friday.

Edited November 10, 2004 by cmotherofpirl

[CatholicCrusader]

No, do not take the class.

[Brother Adam]

yeah, what he said.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Hmmm...seems like the Diocese of Los Angeles has some problems I didn't know about.

Don't go...or go and rep the pope like none other.