Discussion at the Press and Sun

Good Shepherd is not the only orthodox Anglican congregation in the area. The people of St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Vestal, led by their rector, the Rev. Tony Seel, left their buildings behind a year before us.

This last week, a couple of Tony's+ former parishioners wrote a letter to the Press and Sun (following an earlier letter by Roberta Szwalla, one of our former parishioners). They were upset that Tony+ did not "reveal" his beliefs about sexuality prior to being hired by St. Andrew's.

I thought it strange that Tony's+ former parishioners would be so upset at Tony's+ beliefs...so I posted a comment:

Interesting that the authors of this letter thought it necessary for their pastor to "reveal" his beliefs regarding human sexuality prior to his employment--especially since his beliefs are entirely consistent with those plainly "revealed" in scripture and held by the church everywhere for 2000 years.

Apparently the Episcopal Church has sunk to such a level that simple orthodoxy is an unexpected and unwelcome characteristic in her pastors. Episcopal pastors must now "reveal" the scandalous secret truth that they actually believe in the truthfulness of God's word...and, apparently, such revelations drive "true Episcopalians" elsewhere.

Very sad.

But I am also very thankful for faithful pastors like Tony Seel who will not compromise biblical truth even if it means professional and personal loss.

From that point, a number of people entered the discussion, including two atheists.

Many of the issues/ideas we've discussed in our Sunday morning adult education class come up in the exchanges, so I thought I would post the link here. If you are interested you might check it out.