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I am compiling a list of parishes, cathedrals, chapels and local churches in Mainline and other denominations that have unusual and potentially erroneous practices and beliefs. Presently the list includes the following parishes, local churches, and cathedrals, in alphabetical order:
All Saints Evangelical Anglican Church, Ventura, California (Evangelical Anglican Church in America)
Since apparently the Episcopal Church is not liberal enough, there exists an Anglican denomination for those who want to ensure the use of politically correct gender pronouns in their worship. I have only found this one parish of it thus far.
Bethel Church, Redding, California (New Apostolic Reformation)
This megachurch engages in unusual, and in my opinion, somewhat troubling worship practices, including “grave soaking.” It has 11,000 members making it larger than many historic denominations, including the Remonstrant Church in the Netherlands, founded by Arminius, and several traditional Lutheran and continuing Anglican churches, making it something of a church unto itself.
Capitol Hill Baptist Church (SBC / 9Marks) Washington, DC
This Southern Baptist Church is pastored by Mark Dever, one of the senior leaders of 9Marks, a psuedo-denomination of Calvinist churches including parishes of the SBC, PCA, OPC, and non-denominational churches. 9Marks is known for membership contracts and abusive “church discipline”, wherein if someone fails to leave a 9Marks denomination in a state of good standing and following the correct procedure, they are not permitted to join another 9Marks-affiliated church. 9Marks also published on its website an extremely offensive blog post which appeared to justify Muslim antipathy towards Christians on the basis that the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics are “idol-worshipping, inappropriate contentography-viewing, sexually promiscuous drunks,” which is not a very Christian thing to say.
Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ, Dallas, Texas
This church recently joined the United Church of Christ, having previously been a part of the Metropolitan Community Church, a denomination catering to the homosexual community, and is characterized by unscriptural views on the subject.
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Episcopal Church, Manhattan, New York City, New York
This cathedral recently consecrated an altar with a crucifix depicting our Lord and Savior, the only begotten Son and Word of God, as a woman.
Edit: I recently saw photos of a deeply disturbing Halloween party at this cathedral, which I will not be sharing, but for the sake of a party, they exploited the Gothic architecture of the cathedral to put on something of an actual horror show.
Churchill Park United Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba
I debated for a time on whether to include this church because their behavior is so shocking, I am aware of at least one Canadian Lutheran church which has in fact pronounced an anathema against them. For a time, I refused to even disclose what they did because I found it so horrific, but I have realized that people need to know the truth. And the horrible truth in this case is that this church committed an act of extreme sacrilege by putting a man to death in their sanctuary in a ritualized euthanasia ceremony, something so horrific as to be difficult to believe. Indeed, prior to this happening, the nightmare in question was confined to the imaginary realm of the 1970s science fiction film Logan’s Run, but they turned it into reality.
Ebeneezer Lutheran Church aka “herchurch” ELCA, Alameda, California
Under the leadership of the current pastor, this formerly de rigeur Lutheran parish has been radically transformed into a temple of the “divine feminine.” They are known for selling “Mother Goddess Rosaries” with an idol of a female goddess.
First Methodist Church, Seattle, Washington
This church is on this list specifically because of a deeply problematic blog run by its Elder (Pastor), Rev. Jeremy Smith, entitled “Hacking Christianity.” Whereas the title implies hacking in the favorable sense of advanced computer development, as opposed to criminal hacking, or cracking (the programmers who developed the Internet, and the key software that runs on it, the UNIX operating system, and most open source projects such as the Linux operating system and GNU programming environment, as well as computer security specialists, identify as hackers; noted UNIX/Linux developer and open source advocate Eric S. Raymond is famous leader in the Hacker community and maintains the “Jargon File” which is something of an explanatory guide to that community), however, the approach he takes in his blog strikes me as representing “Hacking Christianity” in the sense of hacking it apart. Among his controversial positions are that John Wesley was opposed to creeds, and that creeds, like our CF.com Statement of Faith, are “Weaksauce”, and that the modernist faction of the UMC, despite having been defeated at every GC for the past decade and despite the Traditional Plan having continually won support, should not concede to the proposed schism but rather simply ignore the African conferences that voted for the Traditional Plan, as their views don’t matter, whereas the views of United Methodists like George Takei, who is at odds with how most members of the UMC define moral theology, do matter. There is much more shocking and outrageous material on his blog, and if we make the reasonable assumption that this is reflected in what he preaches from the pulpit, his church definitely warrants a place on this list.
The Fountains United Methodist Church, Fountain Hills, Arizona
I did not imagine there was a clergyman more removed from the mainstream United Methodist Church and the typical North American Methodist parishioner than Rev. Jeremy Smith of First Methodist Church in Seattle, described above, until I read about this unfortunate parish in the Juicy Ecumenism blog, and subsequently verified their claims directly from the website of the church and its leader, Rev. David M. Felten, who oddly styles himself “the Reverend” of this parish, rather than the more usual Methodist terminology of Elder or Minister or Pastor. Rev. Felten adopts such an extreme postmodern liberal theology that it would be impossible to reconcile his views with the Nicene Creed. Specifically, Rev. Felten denies that the Holy Spirit impregnated the Blessed Virgin Mary, and instead appears to give some credence to the Talmudic slander that our Lord was the result of a rape by a Roman soldier named Panthera. This blasphemy is accompanied by an implicit denial, found within the liturgical texts, of the deity of Jesus Christ. What is more, the “Reverend” is also a Pelagian, and has recently written several articles attacking the doctrine of original sin. He furthermore views the Scriptural text as “outdated” with regards to human sexuality and “reproductive rights.” And as one might expect by this point, he is a fellow traveller of John Shelby Spong and Dominic Crossan on the doctrine of the Resurrection, which is to say, he doubts that our Lord rose from the dead, at least physically. The majority of Methodist laity who are simply looking for a reliable, decent church in which to worship should give this parish a wide berth.
Old South Church (United Church of Christ), Boston, Massachusetts
This beautiful church is sadly run by those who support the ugliest forms of human behavior. I recall a young minister preaching an angry sermon about the evils of the Supreme Court ruling which Christians throughout the United States have been praying for, for nearly fifty years, and this parish has put their views in support of abortion in writing. Such blatant disregard for the value of human life from the moment of conception automatically earns them a spot on this list.
St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco, California
This Episcopalian parish has an eclectic style of worship, blending elements of Russian Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox liturgy with Shaker dance, and distressingly, elements of Shinto and non-Christian religions. Their ceiling features icons painted in the Eastern Orthodox style, which include an icon of the Kangxi Emperor, responsible for banning Christianity under penalty of death. They have written a number of their own anaphoras, in imitation of Oriental Orthodox practice, one of which is dedicated to Cain, the first murder, and another to the UN Millenium Development Goals. Their funeral service makes use of a Shinto shrine, in which the cremains are temporarily placed (there is no provision for traditional burial). The name doubtless comes from the common misconception that St. Gregory of Nyssa was a universalist; he was not, but rather merely considered apokatastasis, which is the restoration of all things, an eschatological possibility. The church might have taken a different name had they realized that St. Gregory of Nyssa was one of only a handful of church fathers who found it necessary to write canons for his diocese specifically prohibiting homosexuality.
St. Paul Catholic Church, Lexington, Kentucky
Depressingly, this is the first Roman Catholic church I have had to add to this list, as a denominational outlier, after a priest in a rainbow stole gave a clearly liturgical blessing to a Lesbian couple in the nave of this parish, in an act which appears to violate even the deeply problematic Fiducia Supplicans, and which is certainly in direct contradiction to the kerygma of Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, memory eternal.
Sunshine Cathedral, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Since the departure of the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas for the United Church of Christ, this church is now the largest remaining in the perverse “Metropolitan Community Church,” which boasts of being the “Largest Queer Church in the World.” It seems probable that this was the parish whose members attempted dialogue with the great Presbyterian moral theologian Dr. James Kennedy, memory eternal, who was not only thoroughly unmoved by their arguments, but was prompted by them to make a sermon explaining how arguments that sodomy does not refer to homosexuality but to inhospitality are entirely wrong, which is something of a classic. Lately, the pastor of this church delivered a sermon in which he called into question the relevance of belief in the miracles traditionally attributed to our Lord, which is enough, combined with its size and prominence, to earn its place here as a potentially heterodox church.
Trinity-on-the-Green Episcopal Church, New Haven, Conneticut
This Episcopalian parish earned a well-deserved spot on the list because the leadership of this church thought it would be a good idea to have a special Choral Evensong for gay pride, accompanied by their well known Boys’ Choir, which has the effect of forcing their youth into accepting unbiblical doctrines regarding homosexuality which contradict the doctrines of the Anglican Communion and the Book of Common Prayer.
Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Kansas
This church is widely known for its extremely hateful message and for protesting funerals.
West Hill United Church, Toronto, Ontario
This church has become notorious for having an atheist as its minister, the result of a settlement between the United Church of Canada and Greta Voss, the atheist in question. Voss is probably the only openly atheistic minister of a Trinitarian denomination, although atheist clergy are not uncommon in Unitarian churches, since once you deny the deity of Christ, it is just a hop, skip and a jump as we say in the American vernacular to denying the deity altogether. I gathered from the Settlement that the UCC had concerns about what it could mean for it existentially, in terms of Canadian law, had they deposed her, but on this I could be mistaken. Aside from the severe problems this implies, the church also rejects Scriptural and normative Christian teaching on human sexuality and other issues, as one would expect.
I am interested in learning of additional churches that fall into this general category of unusual and potentially heterodox practices and belief, whether they are liberal mainline, Catholic, Orthodox, or conservative Protestant. There is for example in the Bay Area a Roman Catholic church that prior to the installation of Archbishop Cordilleone, was known for being dominated by homosexuals, but fortunately, the Archbishop, installed by Pope Benedict XVI, is a conservative traditionalist who has secured traditional values in his archdiocese.
i am particularly interested to hear if any churches are actively reading New Testament apocrypha. In 2009, a now-deceased Episcopalian priest in Orange County called for removing the creeds from the liturgy, on the basis that they disrupt “the flow”, and quoted the psuedepigraphical Gospel of Mary in support of his thesis. There is the Ecclesia Gnostica, but they are obviously not a Nicene Christian church, so I am not concerned about them.
I think it is important to raise awareness of potentially problematic parishes, particularly in the mainstream Christian denominations like the SBC, ELCA, PCA, OPC and the Episcopal Church.
All Saints Evangelical Anglican Church, Ventura, California (Evangelical Anglican Church in America)
Since apparently the Episcopal Church is not liberal enough, there exists an Anglican denomination for those who want to ensure the use of politically correct gender pronouns in their worship. I have only found this one parish of it thus far.
Bethel Church, Redding, California (New Apostolic Reformation)
This megachurch engages in unusual, and in my opinion, somewhat troubling worship practices, including “grave soaking.” It has 11,000 members making it larger than many historic denominations, including the Remonstrant Church in the Netherlands, founded by Arminius, and several traditional Lutheran and continuing Anglican churches, making it something of a church unto itself.
Capitol Hill Baptist Church (SBC / 9Marks) Washington, DC
This Southern Baptist Church is pastored by Mark Dever, one of the senior leaders of 9Marks, a psuedo-denomination of Calvinist churches including parishes of the SBC, PCA, OPC, and non-denominational churches. 9Marks is known for membership contracts and abusive “church discipline”, wherein if someone fails to leave a 9Marks denomination in a state of good standing and following the correct procedure, they are not permitted to join another 9Marks-affiliated church. 9Marks also published on its website an extremely offensive blog post which appeared to justify Muslim antipathy towards Christians on the basis that the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics are “idol-worshipping, inappropriate contentography-viewing, sexually promiscuous drunks,” which is not a very Christian thing to say.
Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ, Dallas, Texas
This church recently joined the United Church of Christ, having previously been a part of the Metropolitan Community Church, a denomination catering to the homosexual community, and is characterized by unscriptural views on the subject.
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Episcopal Church, Manhattan, New York City, New York
This cathedral recently consecrated an altar with a crucifix depicting our Lord and Savior, the only begotten Son and Word of God, as a woman.
Edit: I recently saw photos of a deeply disturbing Halloween party at this cathedral, which I will not be sharing, but for the sake of a party, they exploited the Gothic architecture of the cathedral to put on something of an actual horror show.
Churchill Park United Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba
I debated for a time on whether to include this church because their behavior is so shocking, I am aware of at least one Canadian Lutheran church which has in fact pronounced an anathema against them. For a time, I refused to even disclose what they did because I found it so horrific, but I have realized that people need to know the truth. And the horrible truth in this case is that this church committed an act of extreme sacrilege by putting a man to death in their sanctuary in a ritualized euthanasia ceremony, something so horrific as to be difficult to believe. Indeed, prior to this happening, the nightmare in question was confined to the imaginary realm of the 1970s science fiction film Logan’s Run, but they turned it into reality.
Ebeneezer Lutheran Church aka “herchurch” ELCA, Alameda, California
Under the leadership of the current pastor, this formerly de rigeur Lutheran parish has been radically transformed into a temple of the “divine feminine.” They are known for selling “Mother Goddess Rosaries” with an idol of a female goddess.
First Methodist Church, Seattle, Washington
This church is on this list specifically because of a deeply problematic blog run by its Elder (Pastor), Rev. Jeremy Smith, entitled “Hacking Christianity.” Whereas the title implies hacking in the favorable sense of advanced computer development, as opposed to criminal hacking, or cracking (the programmers who developed the Internet, and the key software that runs on it, the UNIX operating system, and most open source projects such as the Linux operating system and GNU programming environment, as well as computer security specialists, identify as hackers; noted UNIX/Linux developer and open source advocate Eric S. Raymond is famous leader in the Hacker community and maintains the “Jargon File” which is something of an explanatory guide to that community), however, the approach he takes in his blog strikes me as representing “Hacking Christianity” in the sense of hacking it apart. Among his controversial positions are that John Wesley was opposed to creeds, and that creeds, like our CF.com Statement of Faith, are “Weaksauce”, and that the modernist faction of the UMC, despite having been defeated at every GC for the past decade and despite the Traditional Plan having continually won support, should not concede to the proposed schism but rather simply ignore the African conferences that voted for the Traditional Plan, as their views don’t matter, whereas the views of United Methodists like George Takei, who is at odds with how most members of the UMC define moral theology, do matter. There is much more shocking and outrageous material on his blog, and if we make the reasonable assumption that this is reflected in what he preaches from the pulpit, his church definitely warrants a place on this list.
The Fountains United Methodist Church, Fountain Hills, Arizona
I did not imagine there was a clergyman more removed from the mainstream United Methodist Church and the typical North American Methodist parishioner than Rev. Jeremy Smith of First Methodist Church in Seattle, described above, until I read about this unfortunate parish in the Juicy Ecumenism blog, and subsequently verified their claims directly from the website of the church and its leader, Rev. David M. Felten, who oddly styles himself “the Reverend” of this parish, rather than the more usual Methodist terminology of Elder or Minister or Pastor. Rev. Felten adopts such an extreme postmodern liberal theology that it would be impossible to reconcile his views with the Nicene Creed. Specifically, Rev. Felten denies that the Holy Spirit impregnated the Blessed Virgin Mary, and instead appears to give some credence to the Talmudic slander that our Lord was the result of a rape by a Roman soldier named Panthera. This blasphemy is accompanied by an implicit denial, found within the liturgical texts, of the deity of Jesus Christ. What is more, the “Reverend” is also a Pelagian, and has recently written several articles attacking the doctrine of original sin. He furthermore views the Scriptural text as “outdated” with regards to human sexuality and “reproductive rights.” And as one might expect by this point, he is a fellow traveller of John Shelby Spong and Dominic Crossan on the doctrine of the Resurrection, which is to say, he doubts that our Lord rose from the dead, at least physically. The majority of Methodist laity who are simply looking for a reliable, decent church in which to worship should give this parish a wide berth.
Old South Church (United Church of Christ), Boston, Massachusetts
This beautiful church is sadly run by those who support the ugliest forms of human behavior. I recall a young minister preaching an angry sermon about the evils of the Supreme Court ruling which Christians throughout the United States have been praying for, for nearly fifty years, and this parish has put their views in support of abortion in writing. Such blatant disregard for the value of human life from the moment of conception automatically earns them a spot on this list.
St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco, California
This Episcopalian parish has an eclectic style of worship, blending elements of Russian Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox liturgy with Shaker dance, and distressingly, elements of Shinto and non-Christian religions. Their ceiling features icons painted in the Eastern Orthodox style, which include an icon of the Kangxi Emperor, responsible for banning Christianity under penalty of death. They have written a number of their own anaphoras, in imitation of Oriental Orthodox practice, one of which is dedicated to Cain, the first murder, and another to the UN Millenium Development Goals. Their funeral service makes use of a Shinto shrine, in which the cremains are temporarily placed (there is no provision for traditional burial). The name doubtless comes from the common misconception that St. Gregory of Nyssa was a universalist; he was not, but rather merely considered apokatastasis, which is the restoration of all things, an eschatological possibility. The church might have taken a different name had they realized that St. Gregory of Nyssa was one of only a handful of church fathers who found it necessary to write canons for his diocese specifically prohibiting homosexuality.
St. Paul Catholic Church, Lexington, Kentucky
Depressingly, this is the first Roman Catholic church I have had to add to this list, as a denominational outlier, after a priest in a rainbow stole gave a clearly liturgical blessing to a Lesbian couple in the nave of this parish, in an act which appears to violate even the deeply problematic Fiducia Supplicans, and which is certainly in direct contradiction to the kerygma of Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, memory eternal.
Since the departure of the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas for the United Church of Christ, this church is now the largest remaining in the perverse “Metropolitan Community Church,” which boasts of being the “Largest Queer Church in the World.” It seems probable that this was the parish whose members attempted dialogue with the great Presbyterian moral theologian Dr. James Kennedy, memory eternal, who was not only thoroughly unmoved by their arguments, but was prompted by them to make a sermon explaining how arguments that sodomy does not refer to homosexuality but to inhospitality are entirely wrong, which is something of a classic. Lately, the pastor of this church delivered a sermon in which he called into question the relevance of belief in the miracles traditionally attributed to our Lord, which is enough, combined with its size and prominence, to earn its place here as a potentially heterodox church.
Trinity-on-the-Green Episcopal Church, New Haven, Conneticut
This Episcopalian parish earned a well-deserved spot on the list because the leadership of this church thought it would be a good idea to have a special Choral Evensong for gay pride, accompanied by their well known Boys’ Choir, which has the effect of forcing their youth into accepting unbiblical doctrines regarding homosexuality which contradict the doctrines of the Anglican Communion and the Book of Common Prayer.
Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Kansas
This church is widely known for its extremely hateful message and for protesting funerals.
West Hill United Church, Toronto, Ontario
This church has become notorious for having an atheist as its minister, the result of a settlement between the United Church of Canada and Greta Voss, the atheist in question. Voss is probably the only openly atheistic minister of a Trinitarian denomination, although atheist clergy are not uncommon in Unitarian churches, since once you deny the deity of Christ, it is just a hop, skip and a jump as we say in the American vernacular to denying the deity altogether. I gathered from the Settlement that the UCC had concerns about what it could mean for it existentially, in terms of Canadian law, had they deposed her, but on this I could be mistaken. Aside from the severe problems this implies, the church also rejects Scriptural and normative Christian teaching on human sexuality and other issues, as one would expect.
I am interested in learning of additional churches that fall into this general category of unusual and potentially heterodox practices and belief, whether they are liberal mainline, Catholic, Orthodox, or conservative Protestant. There is for example in the Bay Area a Roman Catholic church that prior to the installation of Archbishop Cordilleone, was known for being dominated by homosexuals, but fortunately, the Archbishop, installed by Pope Benedict XVI, is a conservative traditionalist who has secured traditional values in his archdiocese.
i am particularly interested to hear if any churches are actively reading New Testament apocrypha. In 2009, a now-deceased Episcopalian priest in Orange County called for removing the creeds from the liturgy, on the basis that they disrupt “the flow”, and quoted the psuedepigraphical Gospel of Mary in support of his thesis. There is the Ecclesia Gnostica, but they are obviously not a Nicene Christian church, so I am not concerned about them.
I think it is important to raise awareness of potentially problematic parishes, particularly in the mainstream Christian denominations like the SBC, ELCA, PCA, OPC and the Episcopal Church.
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