Idealogian

Holiday Shopping

Changes in Episcopal Church Spur Some to Go, Some to Join

The decision this year by the Episcopal Church USA to ordain an openly gay bishop has set off a wave of church switching, according to dozens of interviews with clergy members and parishioners across the country.

Some lifelong Episcopalians have left their churches, saying the vote to affirm a gay bishop was the last straw in what they saw as the church's long slide away from orthodoxy. Many of these people have started attending Roman Catholic churches.

Some Episcopal parishes, meanwhile, are welcoming clusters of new members, many from Roman Catholic churches, who say they want to belong to a church that regards inclusivity as a Christian virtue. The newcomers include singles and families, gay people and straight people.

While it is too soon to assess the fallout, some Episcopal clergy members told of an unusually high rate of arrivals and departures in recent months.

They said the newcomers were far different from casual "church shoppers" checking out a Sunday sermon. Many of the new arrivals say they intend to join, and some have already been confirmed or received into the church by their bishops.

"They're not coming in as they used to even three years ago announcing, 'I'm just church shopping, I'm just looking around,' " said the Rev. Elizabeth M. Kaeton, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chatham, N.J. "The people I've seen recently have come to me and said, 'Sign me up, I'm ready.' "

"What we're going to see, given this increase in fluidity, is a strengthened effort by various denominations to attract and retain congregants," speculated Joseph Welton, a professor of religious studies at Yale University. "Now that people feel more comfortable switching, churches will need to make themselves more appealing as options."

Indeed, that seems to have already begun. On the heels of the Episcopal Church's ordination of its first openly gay bishop, a number of churches are said to be weighing options that would present themselves as more accommodating of modern diversity.

A number of Methodist pastors in the New York region have reportedly suggested to their congregations that they may forego Sunday morning prayers at church if they are instead diligent in praying at home at least once over the course of the week, while the Presbyterian Church is said to be examining the possibility of adding a new holiday in mid-July, often considered the "dry season" of religious holidays.

More surprisingly, unnamed sources within the Lutheran Church have indicated that the group may soon ease its previously harsh stance on premarital intimacy.

In what must certainly be the most innovative move being considered, the Mormon Church has raised the possibility of a three "anytime/anywhere" sin allowance per worshipper, per month. This would allow churchgoers a bit more flexibility in what is otherwise viewed as a particularly rigid sect of Christianity. Whether or not this would include a "rollover" clause, allowing followers to carry over unused sins from one month to the next, analysts say that such a policy would be a shrewd move, sure to gain a greater share of adherents in what many believe to be an oversaturated market.

Can you tell where the news ends and the satire begins?

(If I had more time and knew you had more patience, I would have made this longer, with a slower and more subtle transition. I did the best with what we have.)