New Conservative Group Threatens to Withhold Money
Episcopal News Service. June 15, 1994 [94116H]
Fifty Episcopalians -- including seven bishops -- formed a new organization aimed at pressuring the church to maintain conservative positions or face decreased financial support from the grassroots. In a covenant adopted at the initial meeting of Episcopalians in Apostolic Mission (EAM) in Atlanta, signatories criticized "tendencies within the wider Episcopal Church today contrary to official Anglican ethical standards," even if they are authorized by General Convention. The members further agreed that "we will not conform ourselves to [such actions], we will not directly financially support them, nor will we permit those who engage in them to minister regularly within our congregational and/or diocesan life." Members of EAM called for protection of life "from conception to natural death" and the limitation of "sexual intimacy and intercourse" to "heterosexual, monogamous, lifelong marriage." The covenant describes divorce as "always sinful and rarely appropriate." Although granting that other religions "contain truth and profound error," the covenant declared that only Jesus "is the full revelation of God" and that Christians were called to witness to all people." Members of EAM include lay and clergy from as many as 20 dioceses and bishops from the dioceses of San Joaquin, Central Florida, Florida, Quincy, Dallas, West Missouri and the Rio Grande.