The Saga of the Episcopal Church - A Conversation with David Roseberry 

I have a Methodist hymnal from the 1930s that I consider the finest hymnal I have laid my hands upon it. It's amazing how much of the Book of Common Prayer, greatly abbreviated, can be found in it. Conservative Methodists and Conservative Anglicans will find they have much in common, "two eyes that make one in sight." Definitely worth further exploration.

I served the AWF Conference of the UMC for thirty five years, retired in 2017 (before the fighting started) and joined the Episcopal church. The dignity and formality of our service's minister to me weekly. The last conference committee I worked on was basically numbers and stats . Facts are,,, our conservative denominations are losing members just as much as our liberal ones. Nondenominational, storefront and cottage churches are fast becoming the norm, and that's not even factoring in the changes brought on by the advancements in technology. Congregations are learning that the church is people. People are learning that ministry and connection can take many forms.

My grandmother was Episcopal and I went with her to church in the summers. I strayed far from God as an adult. Two years ago returned to God and started attending the Episcopal Church. I thought it would be my forever faith home. It breaks my heart to say I am looking at other options. My Priest does not believe that Mary is/was a Virgin and when I tried to push the point church members made fun of me. Why recite the Nicene Creed if you don’t believe it? They are blessing abortions. It should be sad when a baby dies. I tried to argue for the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and was told: Until you go to seminary you have no right to an opinion. The leadership has fallen the way of Judges. : Everyman did what was right in his own eyes. And the Congregation is suffering for it. The good news is that all of this has led me to reading the Bible, reading the church fathers, and digging deep into the Christian faith.

I learned a lot from Canon Roseberry. His explanation about the differences between Liberal and Conservative were spot on. It not only explained how the Episcopal church was taken over by the Woke crowd but also how our political situation in our country has been take over by the Left Liberals. I have witnessed how the left leaning people will school like sharks even though they may disagree with each other and the right conservatives feel the need to stand up singularly and not compromise their beliefs just to push out the lefties. I am a conservative Episcopal clergy who has watched as the Woke crowd has pushed out the conservatives one baby step at a time. It is sickening. Every denomination has its problems. I wish the GMC all the best and for those in UMC who are conservative and think their voices will be heard and valued, my condolences. You will be slowly marginalized out of all positions of importance. Prayers for a better world. Jeffrey thank you for your channel and your openness to hear others.

Thank you Jeffery. Very informative conversation.

After listening to David, it sounds like Methodists have more autonomy built in at the annual conference level than the Episcopalian's have at the diocese level. The AC is the basic unit of the UMC and the AC is the trustee. GC doesn't have any say in reality on a church leaving. This made it much easier as you only had to pressure the AC and those people really had to live with the people that may be unhappy. Very interesting interview, Jeffery.

Rev, Roseberry...... thoughtful wisdom. That's something we need more of in this crazy time. Thanks for the conversation.

My church in Virginia left the episcopal church. It cost somewhere around 40 million to litigate and finally lost the historic property that dated to 1732. They recently built a huge new church about a mile away…

If anyone would like to see a podcast interview with the new archbishop Steve Wood of the ACNA, see the Anglican Unscripted #868 podcast. (This is a very enlightening podcast every time, BTW.)

At 21:58 I never thought I'd see the worlds "seminary" and "Berkeley" in the same sentence.

Great conversation!!

Thank you! Very interesting.

I would like to start moving away from the splintering and start coming back together as the church. The first “easy” fellowship to attempt seems to be a fellowship between the ACNA and the GMC. A dream would be all traditional Methodist denominations come back together and join GAFCON. I know it sounds crazy but it is possible since it wouldn’t require the dissolution of the denominations just a joining of an umbrella organization.

Fr. Roseberry is the real deal. I grew up Episcopalian in the 60s and 70s, and it was a wonderful experience. These were the best people I knew ... but I do remember cracks of liberalism and progressive thought here and there. In my college years in the early 80s, it was worse (college churches are always way to the left of the denomination). In my adult years, I left the church for a time and attended other churches, but by age 30, I returned to the Episcopal Church, but something was lacking. My town has four churches, and I tried three of them. One was rocked by sex scandal after sex scandal. One was for the weathly only. One was the hippie church (I never tried that one). And one was Charismatic. I finally landed there ... and it was rocked by a split over how one church service was handled. We went from standing room only to just a handful of people and the priest in charge being asked to leave. After a long while of no leadership (nobody would come to our church), I left church again. I was fed up. But then I found Fr. Roseberry ... and fortunately, I stayed Christian through the 2000s. Finally my town got an Anglican church ... but it was formed by people who were angry at the Episcopal church and that anger seemed to define everything about it. It's hard to explain. So, as I reached my 50s, I decided to try the Methodists. I didn't know they were fixing to enter a split and that I would relive my days in the Episcopal church all over again. The Methodist church I attended was really not "Bible focused" at all ... though they were decidedly anti-gay. I found that amusing and disturbing. The men's Sunday School books we used for the two years I attended were woke, liberal garbage. So, I gave up. Covid came and nobody was having church anyway. Last year, as I'm approaching my 60s, I decided I would try church one more time. I won't name the church, but it's an old time denomination that professes to be scripture based and conservative. Today we had a congregational meeting to vote on a new pastor, and I declare, that meeting was anything but Christian. Truthfully, though we sing old hymns and follow old rituals and profess conservative beliefs, I don't see Christ anywhere in this church. If I had a spiritual crisis, there is nobody I could go to for counsel. If I wanted to talk football or the stock market, there are plenty of people ... but spirituality is non-existent. There is no bible study. No small groups for spiritual development. Nothing but Sunday service. I think I've decided to quit. There is no other "conservative" church in my town to try. I had a really rough day today. I wish I had access to a church like Christ Church in Plano. THAT is a church!

I like that guy by the way.

At 34:44 if you want to go down the rabbithole of just how ugly this can be, Google "Saint James the Great" and "Newport Beach" and any of a variety of years (2009, 2015, 2017) but you might need to take a shower afterwards. In short the Bishop kicked out the Biblical Pastor and congregation, installed a new Woke Pastor, and while publicly supporting the new congregation's efforts to get on their feet the Bishop made a secret agreement with a Real Estate Developer to sell the property, defying orders from above. After decades of incredibly expensive litigation the Bishop emerged triumphant (California does have the most Woke courts in the nation). The Bishop now has on his resume the distinction of having kicked two different congregations, one Biblical, one Woke, out of the same building.

Calvin Robinson became " old catholic.". per wiki..

Jeffrey, if you keep using the BCP you will become an Anglican. That is what happened to our ACNA priest. You should interview the gents at Anglican Unscripted for a blow-by-blow story about the bad break-up days of the TEC. Both are Christian reporters who were at the major events back then. A priest in Savannah, GA told me about the break-up of his TEC church back then. It was the big centuries-old parish downtown. The priest and about 3/4 of the congregation packed up, bought a big vacant church down the street, and left. He told me a couple weeks after the move, he got a call from the old church, telling him to come and get the old prayer books. He drove over to pick them up and found them stacked on the street curb.

I left the anglicans over gays, female ordination, charismatics and roman traditions creeping back in...

"Liberals play well together." This.

I sincerely hope TEC's new presiding bishop is not a KJS.

If you are not the proper sort, none of the Episcopal/Anglican groups welcome you.

The ACNA is the Best thing to come out of these failed miserably attempts to change scripture and GODS word. The word of GOD is the word of GOD No denomination can change that!!!