UM Clergy Becomes Catholic
For those of you who may not be aware, Allen Hunt, of the Allen Hunt Show announced he would be leaving the UMC to become Roman Catholic. While I've been aware of this for sometime, I just happen to be cruising around and found there was a great deal of celebration in the Catholic-blogosphere regarding this announcement.Allen's decision really doesn't bother me. What is surprising is the poor journalism in reporting the announcement. On numerous sites, it is a headline that Allen was at the third largest UMC in the world.
For one thing, since the 2007 Annual Conference, Allen was no longer the Senior Pastor at Mt. Pisgah. A visit to Mt. Pisgah's site would have confirmed that.
Second, according the statistical tables of the North Georgia Conference, membership at Mt.Pisgah in 2006 was 7,010. That is behind Roswell UMC @ 7,272, Cascade UMC @ 7,252, Ben Hill UMC @ 9,826, and Mt Bethel UMC @ 7,951. The statistical tables are public record at www.ngumc.org.
Having served with Allen, my prayers are with him and I wish him and his family all the best.
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2 comments:
I love the Catholic faith. I think it's intriguing. I dig reading about it, and I have some good friends who are Catholic. The thing that is a bummer is that it feels like we're fighting against each other. It feels like some Catholics have a hard time seeing Protestants as brothers in the faith that are also trying to follow of Christ. So there's this attitude where they feel like they've won a battle when someone converts from a protestant denomination to Catholicism. I think that's missing the point and it makes me sad.
You and I both share that I think. There is a great deal of meaning and symbolism and a lot of it, we're starting to learn from in the protestant faith.
John Wesley was fairly harsh on Catholicism but UMs like Albert Outler and others have done a fair share of trying to bridge that. I've felt in recent years the Vatican has done the same. However, reading what I've read recently regarding Hunt has left me scratching my head.
I've got some good friends who are Catholic as well and I can't imagine thinking of them in any way other than Christian and I certainly would not try to get them to "convert."
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