Officials of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, which oversees more than 70 parishes along the coastal half of the state, meet today for a special convention that could significantly change the nature of the diocese ‘s relationship with the national church.
Concerned over what many diocese officials say is the liberal trajectory of The Episcopal Church, they have proposed five resolutions to be voted on.
The gloss from those sources boils down to three basic points:
* This move is a natural response to requests from some Anglicans to join the Catholic church, rather than a case of the Vatican going fishing for new converts. (That’s why many Catholic leaders have winced at headlines using the term “lure” to describe what’s going on; their line is, ‘We didn’t go looking for them, they came to us.’)
* By allowing these folks to bring a fair bit of their spiritual heritage into the Catholic church, the decision is a gesture of respect for the Anglican tradition. (The statement from Williams and Nichols actually said this move would not have been possible without forty years of Anglican/Catholic dialogue.)
* The decision will not disrupt official ecumenical relations between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church.
The Church of England may see a “flood” of traditionalist members moving to the Roman Catholic Church following an offer by Pope Benedict XVI to welcome Anglican priests and worshippers, a religious group said.
The Vatican said yesterday it has set up a special structure to integrate Anglicans and enable the faith’s married priests to become Catholic clerics.
“It could well be a flood, provided the terms and conditions are favorable,” said Stephen Parkinson, director of the Anglican traditionalist group Forward in Faith. As many as 1,000 priests could convert, he said today in a telephone interview. “We haven’t seen the fine print yet.”
Today, the Roman Catholic Church released an “Apostolic Constitution” offering a way for some orthodox Anglicans to enter into a full communion relationship with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving some aspects of their Anglican heritage. This action recognizes how deeply broken the Anglican Communion has become as a result of the abandonment by some Anglican leaders of historic Christian teaching and discipline. Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church in North America ”“ of which ANiC is a part ”“ has also provided a means for those within North America to remain faithful Anglicans.
“We are encouraged to see the Archbishop of Canterbury working with the Vatican to make accommodate these Anglicans,” said the Right Reverend Donald Harvey, moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada. “We urge him to do the same for us by joining with the Anglican Primates who have already officially recognized and endorsed the Anglican Church in North America.”
The Most Reverend Robert Duncan, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church in North America also responded, saying in part, “We”¦ thank God for the partnership that orthodox Anglicans have long enjoyed with the Roman Catholic Church”¦ While our historic differences over church governance, dogmas regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary and the nature of Holy Orders continue to be points of prayerful dialogue, we look forward to an ever deepening partnership with the Catholic Church throughout the world.” [See Archbishop Duncan’s full statement here.]
“While we can’t know the full significance of the Vatican’s move until we have fully reviewed and considered the content of their ”˜Apostolic Constitution’,” adds Bishop Harvey, “the three questions I am most interested in seeing answered are:
1. “Will the Roman Catholic Church require Anglican priests who choose this option to be re-ordained?
2. “Will people who accept this invitation have to subscribe to Roman Catholic dogmas to which the Anglican Formularies are diametrically opposed ”“ such as “Papal Infallibility”, the “Immaculate Conception” and Transubstantiation?
3. “Will Anglican priests ”“ especially married ones ”“ choosing to accept the Roman Catholic Church’s invitation have equal status with existing Roman Catholic clergy and will their ministry be interchangeable and welcomed in Roman Catholic parishes?”
After hearing the news today, an ANiC priest wrote Bishop Harvey: “As for me and my house, we will remain ever faithful to the authority and primacy of the Holy Scriptures and the Faith and Order of the undivided Catholic Church. I need not become a Roman Catholic to be a Catholic Christian. As an Anglican, I am a Catholic Christian.”
“A quote from the English reformer John Jewel (1522-1571) sums up where I believe we in ANiC stand,” says Bishop Harvey. “Jewel said: “We have returned to the Apostles and the old Catholic Fathers. We have planted no new religion but only preserved the old that was undoubtedly founded and used by the Apostles of Christ and other holy Fathers of the Primitive Church.””
Today, ANiC numbers 32 parishes with 3500 Canadians in church on an average Sunday. Members of the Anglican Network in Canada are committed to remaining faithful to Holy Scripture and established Anglican doctrine and to ensuring that orthodox Canadian Anglicans are able to remain in full communion with their Anglican brothers and sisters around the world.
In an extraordinary bid to lure traditionalist Anglicans en masse, the Vatican on Tuesday announced that it would make it easier for Anglicans who are uncomfortable with their church’s acceptance of women priests and openly gay bishops to join the Roman Catholic Church.
A new canonical entity will allow groups of Anglicans “to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony,” Cardinal William Levada, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said at a news conference here.
Though both Catholic and Anglican leaders sought on Tuesday to present the move as a more coherent, unified response to those seeking conversion, the Vatican appeared to have announced the move to the Anglican Communion only in recent weeks and as a fait accompli. And many Anglican and Catholic leaders expressed surprise, even shock, at something they said would undermine efforts at ecumenical dialogue and capitalize on deep divisions within the Anglican Church over issues like the ordination of gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.
In June, four breakaway conservative dioceses formed the Anglican Church in North America, a rival national province to the Episcopal Church. Dozens of individual parishes have also joined.
But the Diocese of South Carolina is not considering that.
“The only model that’s been out there for us has either been leave or acquiesce, and that hasn’t been working,” Lawrence said Monday.
“We need to get the 30,000 members of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina awakened to the challenges before us,” he added. “Once we have done that, then the question is how do we engage the larger Episcopal Church?”
One of the resolutions to be debated Saturday says the national church has “failed to operate within the boundaries of its canons and continued participation in such behavior would make the Diocese of South Carolina complicit in this dysfunction.”
It authorizes the bishop and the diocesan Standing Committee “to begin withdrawing from all bodies of the Episcopal Church that have assented to actions contrary to Holy Scripture, the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this Church has received them.”
Harmon likened the resolution to a wife in a troubled marriage moving to a room down the hall.
We inform accredited journalists that tomorrow, Tuesday 20 October 2009, at 11am, in the John Paul II Hall of the Press Office of the Holy See, a briefing will be held on a theme pertaining to the relationship with the Anglicans, at which His Eminence Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and His Excellency Mgr Joseph Augustine Di Noia OP, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments will take part.
Make sure to read the rest.
Eight years after the deceptively swift toppling of the Taliban, the prospects for the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan seem worse than ever. Every Western casualty, every reinforcement and every pious political homily on the “justness” and “necessity” of the war seem only to leave the mission floundering deeper and more hopelessly. Already battered by mounting casualties, Western support for the war has been further dented by an Afghan presidential election in August, wildly rigged in favour of the incumbent, Hamid Karzai. Against this gloomy backdrop, Barack Obama is faced with a request from the American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for large numbers of new troops (see article). The decision may define his presidency. Despite the difficulty””indeed, because of the difficulty””he should give the general what he needs.
The alternative is not, as some opponents of an Afghan “surge” suggest, less intensive, more surgical “counter-terrorism”, relying on unmanned air raids and assassination. Mr Obama seems, rightly, to have ruled that out. General McChrystal, a special-forces veteran, is emphatic it would not work. On its own, it is more likely to kill civilians and create new enemies than to decapitate and disable al-Qaeda. A counter-terrorist strategy is a euphemism for withdrawal””which is what plenty of Westerners think should happen.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori notified Keith Ackerman by mail and email October 16 that she has accepted the former Bishop of Quincy’s voluntary renunciation of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.
In a statement released by the Presiding Bishop’s office October 16, JeffertsSchori cited Title III, Section 7 of the Canons: “I have accepted the renunciation of the Ordained Ministry of this Church, made in writing to me in July 2009 by the Rt. Rev. Keith L. Ackerman, Bishop of Quincy, Resigned who is, therefore, removed from the Ordained Ministry of this Church and released from the obligations of all Ministerial offices, and is deprived of the right to exercise the gifts and spiritual authority as a Minister of God’s Word and Sacraments conferred on him in Ordinations.”
According to the statement, Jefferts Schori had thanked Ackerman in an October 7 letter “for your follow up note regarding your plans to function as a bishop in the Diocese of Bolivia in the Province of the Southern Cone. As you know, there is no provision for transferring a bishop to another Province. I am therefore releasing you from the obligations of ordained ministry in this Church.”
We are deeply disappointed that former members of the vestry at Christ Episcopal Church have chosen to use the Ridgewood Blog and other public forums to address what is clearly an internal matter involving the congregation ”“ especially when a more appropriate forum had already been provided and communicated to all members of the congregation.
The Office of the Bishop has been in conversation with the clergy and lay leadership of Christ Church, and together we have developed a process ”“ already underway ”“ to address any and all issues and concerns raised by the congregation’s members. That process was outlined in a letter from the wardens and rector to the congregation dated October 1.
At a Rector’s Forum held on Sunday, October 4, the rector and wardens discussed this process and responded to questions from parishioners. During the forum, which is held every Sunday, matters of concern to parish members are regularly discussed. In fact, a large number of parishioners who had received the letter from the rector and wardens participated fully in that open conversation.
We are confident that through patient listening, candid conversation, and the good faith efforts of the clergy, lay leadership and parishioners ”“ working together ”“ the mission and ministry of Christ Church will continue to serve the needs of the congregation, the community of Ridgewood and the wider world.
–Nina Nicholson, Director of Communications, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark
As you have heard, ten of the twelve elected members of the Christ Church Vestry have resigned since the February Annual Meeting, nine of us in the past week. We feel it is important that we express the reasons for this most extraordinary development to you directly. All of these matters have been previously brought to the attention of the Rector and/or Wardens, most recently in an Executive Session held two weeks before we resigned.
The mission that grounds Jefferts Schori is transforming the world so that it looks like the reign of God. She is vocal about the Episcopal Church’s priorities, including the United Nations Millennium Development Goals that address issues including poverty and hunger, climate change and care for the earth and sustainable development. “There’s more in the Bible about hunger and poverty than sexuality,” she said. “Jesus healed people more than he did anything else.”
Jefferts Schori also challenges the church she pastors to “recognize, bless, and celebrate multicultural reality.” In the Omaha diocese, Episcopal, Jewish and Muslim congregations are purchasing a single piece of property to build a shared building that will include worship space for each faith and a common area that can be used by the community during the week. The example of interfaith relations recognizes the commonality of the three denominations Abrahamic roots and their differences, Jefferts Schori said.
Attendance at the Episcopal Church is declining just as it is at other traditional denominations. The average Episcopal congregation has 75 worshippers on a Sunday and 19,000 more members of the aging church die than are born each year. The presiding bishop said the solution is to reach out to growing populations, including Hispanics, who have not been part of what is mistakenly perceived as a white, upper class church that kneels and stands and supports gays and lesbians. “The task of evangelism is to present worship in a language that can be understood and shape worship to speak to a new generation. It’s not necessarily change. It’s addition,” Jefferts Schori said.
From the Diocesan website:
Statement from the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Bishop
Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles
October 5, 2009
The Diocese of Los Angeles greatly appreciates the action and insight of the U.S. Supreme Court in declining to hear the case decided earlier this year by the California Supreme Court affirming that the property of St. James’ Episcopal Church, Newport Beach, is held in trust for the current and future mission of this Diocese and the wider Episcopal Church.
I reiterate that reconciliation and renewal in Christ continue to be our priorities in this matter, with our baptismal covenant calling us to respect every person’s dignity.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s action today follows the strong and comprehensive opinions issued by the California Court of Appeal and affirmed by the state Supreme Court.
St. James’ Episcopal Church was established and continues as part of the Diocese of Los Angeles in which the congregation was formed in 1946.
The Episcopal Church continues to live out its traditional mission of welcoming people who hold a diversity of opinion while remaining united in common prayer.
Here is one:
4. Title: Task Force on Reunion
Resolved: that this 144th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church direct the Standing Committee (or Ecclesiastical Authority) of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh to form a broadly based task force, including at least three clergy and three lay persons, to study the possibility of the reunion of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh and the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania under the provisions of Title I, canon 10, section 6 of the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, 2006 [see below], and to prepare a report on the results of that study and any recommendations to the 145th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, in the fall of 2010. The Task Force shall consider specifically the potential long-term impact of such reunion on the financial and administrative resources of the two dioceses, and shall invite the Bishop and Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania to participate in the study.
Here are some of the highlights found within its pages:
♦ The diocese has grown. A section on parish statistics shows that total membership among our 28 parishes now stands at 9833, a five-percent increase over what those same parishes reported a year ago.
♦ The proposed $847,000 budget would lower what most parishes pay in diocesan assessments. On the expense side, the diocese would allocate more funds to support congregations and special outreach initiatives, especially for youth.
♦ More than a dozen resolutions have been offered. They range from courtesy recognitions to addressing the diocese’s relationships within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion. One resolution not yet included – but soon to be added – asks the Convention to approve the Standing Committee’s recommendation to transfer ecclesiastical authority to a provisional bishop, namely Bishop Kenneth Price.
♦ The document contains the names and biographical sketches of those nominated to fill elected leadership positions and the annual reports and activities of twenty diocesan governing groups, offices, and organizations.
Doctors, by a large majority, support adding a government run health insurance program that would compete with private insurance. That’s according to a new survey. What’s been called the public option continues to be one of the most contentious issues in the health care debate, but the survey shows that doctors are already used to dealing with government run insurance.
NPR’s Joseph Shapiro reports.
JOSEPH SHAPIRO: In the survey, nearly three-quarters of doctors said they favor a public option. Co-author Dr. Salomeh Keyhani is a researcher at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Dr. SALOMEH KEYHANI (Researcher, Mount Sinai School of Medicine): The results of the study demonstrated that the majority of physicians support a public option in the United States of America.
SHAPIRO: That included the 63 percent who say they’d like to see patients get a choice of public or private insurance and another 10 percent who favor a public option only. They’d like to see a single-payer system. When the public in general is surveyed, support for a public option has run between 50 and 70 percent.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.
Genetic mutations that could account for more than one in five cases of Alzheimer’s disease have been found, in a significant leap forward for dementia research, scientists say.
British scientists have discovered two genes associated with the degenerative illness of the brain and their French colleagues uncovered a third. Having certain variations of the three genes could increase the risk of having “common” late-onset Alzheimer’s by ten to 15 per cent, the researchers say.
It is thought that cancelling out their effects could prevent almost 100,000 cases of Alzheimer’s disease in the UK each year.
Seven diocesan bishops of the Episcopal Church are presently at Lambeth Palace for a brief–but, I’m sure, intense–consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury. All seven are members of the Communion Partners, and all seven are signatories to the Anaheim Statement.
I have no inside knowledge of the subjects under discussion, but it doesn’t require any eavesdropping equipment to figure out that they’re talking about how Dr Williams’ “two tier/two track” plan might actually get implemented. More specifically, it is a safe bet that each of the seven is interested in what steps a diocese might have to take to remain on Tier/Track One even as TEC per se is assigned (consigned?) to Tier/Track Two.
I will take comments but only by email (to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com) since a post like this, which I have no choice in posting, invites unwarranted speculation.
“Take time with your decision,” [Bishop Mark] Hanson said after the vote in Minneapolis. “Step back and understand the magnitude of the decision if you choose to leave, because we will be diminished by your absence.”
Bishop Warren Freiheit, who leads the ELCA’s Central/Southern Illinois synod, echoed Hanson’s call for patience. “It’s my continued counsel to wait and see what filters out of this,” Freiheit said.
Some Missouri Synod leaders say that even if their denomination benefits from some who leave the ELCA, the ordination decision hurt the reputation of American Lutheranism.
“Even if people from the ELCA came over in droves, this vote was in no sense good news for the (Missouri Synod),” said Will Schumacher, dean of theological research and publications for Concordia Seminary. “This drives a wedge between American Lutherans and the worldwide church that was not there before.”
[There are] …three basic approaches to the monogamy question. I cannot believe that the debates have grown simpler, rather than more complex.
First of all, there are gay theologians whose definition of this term is very traditional, arguing that gay unions are forever and that those taking vows must remain sexually faithful to one another. Twin rocking chairs forever.
Then, there are those who, in effect, say that “monogamy” essentially means serial monogamy (this, of course, is the definition used by most heterosexuals today in a culture rooted in easy divorce). In other words, things happen and relationships break up. However, partners are supposed to be sexually faithful to one another while the relationship lasts. Twin rocking chairs for right now.
Finally, some say that gay, lesbian and bisexual Christians can be “emotionally” faithful to a partner, while having sexual experiences with other people ”” secondary relationships that do not threaten the primary, “monogamous” relationship. The twin rocking chairs are symbolic.
I kept thinking of this Andrew Sullivan statement:
Dan [Savage] and I agreed that moderate hypocrisy – especially in marriages – is often the best policy. Momogamy [sic] is very hard for men, straight or gay, and if one partner falters occasionally (and I don’t mean regularly), sometimes discretion is perfectly acceptable. You could see [Erica] Jong bridle at the thought of such dishonesty. But I think the post-seventies generation – those of us who grew up while our parents were having a sexual revolution – both appreciate the gains for sexual and emotional freedom, while being a little more aware of their potential hazards. An acceptance of mild hypocrisy as essential social and marital glue is not a revolutionary statement. It’s a post-revolutionary one. As is, I’d say, my generation as a whole.
Or this one from Sullivan’s Virtually Normal:
Same-sex unions often incorporate the virtues of friendship more effectively than traditional marriages; and, at times, among gay male relationships, the openness of the contract makes it more likely to survive than many heterosexual bonds. Some of this is unavailable to the male-female union: there is more likely to be greater understanding of the need for extramarital outlets between two men than between a man and a woman; and again, the lack of children gives gay couples greater freedom. Their failures entail fewer consequences for others.
It’s been 142 years since parishioners from Trinity Episcopal Church split off and formed St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. On Aug. 30, history will happen in reverse.
St. Paul’s, 212 Clay St., will host its last Sunday service at 9 a.m. Aug. 30 and the two congregations will merge.
“This is a sad day for St. Paul’s and it’s a time we need to give thanks for over a century of Christian life,” said the Rev. Clarke French, rector of Trinity, 227 Sherman St. “There is a group of people who attend St. Paul’s in their 80s that were baptized in there. It’s really a generational story.”
We leave today after worship to go to the airport. We will spend the night in Pittsburgh with Elizabeth’s parents, Irene (87) and Ed (90) Deenihan. We will then drive Monday morning to attend the Memorial service that has been mentioned earlier on the blog.
It’s too long a story for another time, but in the weird and wonderful way that only God’s Providence can work, John and Blanche Heidengren are not only dear friends in ministry, but we also overlap at Silver Bay on Lake George, a place where both our families, from two different traditions, go regularly. It was only a few summers ago that our family was playing cards together with theirs at the Heidengren’s cabin on Oneida Bay. It is all so unimaginably sad, yet we keep our vice grip on the power and truth of the resurrection, or rather, better said, the resurrected Lord keeps his vice grip on us–KSH.
Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Priest, Martyr
August 14, 2009
A Pastoral Word
My Sisters and Brothers:
As you may know, yesterday the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence, Bishop of our neighboring Diocese of South Carolina, called a meeting of his clergy to discuss the future of the diocese in the light of resolutions D025 and C056, passed at General Convention 2009. [D025, affirming, in accord with the canons, the openness of the ordination process, and C056, calling for collection, over the next triennium, of resources for blessing same-sex unions and for “generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church,” “particularly in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal.”]
Because of the historical and social ties between our two dioceses, what happens in one diocese affects the life of the other; and because recent secular news reporting on the Episcopal Church has been filled with inaccuracies and misleading phrases, I want to provide for your firsthand information Bishop Lawrence’s complete statement to his clergy. I also refer once more to my website comments on General Convention as a reminder of my own position on these issues.
Follow this link for my comments, and this one for Bishop Lawrence’s statement.
In closing, let me say that my most immediate concern about all this is for you, my clergy, and what you may face this coming Sunday morning. Holding a faithfully comprehensive middle ground on such intense issues is difficult and costly; yet, it is the ground that I believe must be tended and done so with great care. I am grateful to you, the clergy of
So, even though I am away from the Diocese at this time, I nonetheless send you my deepest care and affection and a blessing, hoping that this message is a tangible reminder that we are in this together and that our God is the God of deliverance and new life. Please join me, as I know you do, in praying that we may use our firmly rooted trust in God to be courageously open to receiving the Holy One’s gracious life and will.
–(The Rt. Rev.) Dorsey Henderson is Bishop of Upper South Carolina
“At a purely pragmatic level, TEC should never have proceeded to the consecration of Robinson before having addressed theologically and ecclesiologically the matter of the blessing of same-sex relationships. The fact that they put the cart before the horse has led not only to the problems we now face, but also to an inner incoherence within TEC itself. As an outsider, I wonder why no one had the intelligence to spot this one earlier.”
And I responded:
With respect, this is not true. Indeed I said exactly this at the hearing in a packed house on Friday night in Minneapolis in 2003 BEFORE the General Convention vote on the New Hampshire election:
“As if all this isn’t enough, there are three more matters which make this resolution so crucial. Everyone here knows that the questions raised by THIS resolution are inextricably intertwined with the vote on the New Hampshire election. But the questions raised here tonight are the ones which must be settled BEFORE, as the resolution itself recognizes, the liturgies can be developed and therefore the relationships can be approved. We are in the midst of a debate and we need to decide the debate as a debate to respect the dignity of the people and the process involved.
Let us be quite clear. If Gene Robinson is confirmed by General Convention, it would bring through the back door a practice that the Episcopal Church has never agreed to approve through the front door. If we do that, it will be an end run around the debate before the debate itself has been settled. It will be a process in the name of justice and integrity which has no justice or integrity. (And please just so there is no confusion: this is not a comment on the New Hampshire process, but on the national process. If we are going to change church teaching, then let us be forthright and honest and open and change church teaching and THEN vote on an election in accordance with the change in church teaching).”(http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/957253/posts)
It is hard to describe the degree of incoherence in the Episcopal Church to those who are not part of it. Not only was what we did wrong (in the view of many in the Communion) but how we did it was wrong. For those who FAVOR changing the church’s teaching in this area the Episcopal Church have been set back years by how the Episcopal Church went about this decision, and ample warning was given at the time.
This situation continues down to this today. Numerous descriptions of TEC I read in Fulcrum are far out of touch with what is actually happening here. Consider this, we still have not changed our teaching as a church on the matter of same sex blessings, but some 20-25 dioceses at least enourage and/or allow for and in some cases have official liturgies for same sex blessings.
Part of the reason all these blessings need to stop is that if they do not the Episcopal Church will be well on its way to exporting its ecclesiological dysfunction into the rest of the Communion.
–From Monday 28 July 2008
The Rev. Michael Owens says nothing compares with dunking someone toward salvation.
Owens, the pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in this small church-crowded hamlet in northeast Louisiana, recently joined a dozen other pastors in leading outdoor baptisms in Lake Providence. They baptized 40 white-robed children, ages 4 to 15, plus three adults who waded in unannounced.
“Spirit’s in that water,” Owens said after the ceremony, his white robe still drenched from the waist down.
To no one’s surprise, this summer’s Convention in Anaheim, California, decided to wriggle out of the very loose restraints which it had imposed upon itself in the 2006 Resolution B033. In that resolution it had accepted a certain form of the moratoria on the election of partnered gay clergy as bishops and on liturgical recognition of same-sex partnerships, as requested by the Anglican Communion’s Instruments of Unity. This resolution was not technically repealed at Anaheim. Nonetheless, in the view of almost every observer, Resolution D025 has opened the door to the ordination of such persons; Resolution C056 has opened the door to liturgies for quasi-marital blessings of their unions. (The Presiding Bishop insisted that these resolutions are “descriptive” rather than “prescriptive” in force, but it is to be doubted whether such gossamer-fine distinctions will be maintained, even by her. What is acknowledged is permitted, and what is permitted soon becomes mandatory ”“ that is the pattern of most innovations over the past forty years.)
Because these resolutions authorize what the Bible and the Church catholic have not authorized, they cannot be reconciled with the fundamental constitutional commitments of the Episcopal Church to “uphold and propagate the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer”, and to do so as “a constituent member of the Anglican Communion”. Nor can they be reconciled with the teaching of the Communion articulated in Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference.
In an age of social tolerance like ours the controversy these resolutions stir up may seem inexplicable. It is worth attending to the recent reflections of the Archbishop of Canterbury ”“ a theologian who cannot be accused of reactionary views, and indeed is considered by many conservatives to concede too much to the liberal position (the complete statement may be read at http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2502). He argues convincingly that the action of General Convention destroys the very communion that is intrinsic to the Church’s mission:
“the issue [he writes] is not simply about civil liberties or human dignity or even about pastoral sensitivity to the freedom of individual Christians to form their consciences on this matter. It is about whether the Church is free to recognise same-sex unions by means of public blessings that are seen as being, at the very least, analogous to Christian marriage.
“In the light of the way in which the Church has consistently read the Bible for the last two thousand years, it is clear that a positive answer to this question would have to be based on the most painstaking biblical exegesis and on a wide acceptance of the results within the Communion, with due account taken of the teachings of ecumenical partners also. A major change naturally needs a strong level of consensus and solid theological grounding.
“This is not our situation in the Communion. Thus a blessing for a same-sex union cannot have the authority of the Church Catholic, or even of the Communion as a whole. And if this is the case, a person living in such a union is in the same case as a heterosexual person living in a sexual relationship outside the marriage bond; whatever the human respect and pastoral sensitivity such persons must be given, their chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church’s teaching sanctions, and thus it is hard to see how they can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate, requires. (…) … a person living in such a union cannot without serious incongruity have a representative function in a Church whose public teaching is at odds with their lifestyle. (…)
“When a local church seeks to respond to a new question, to the challenge of possible change in its practice or discipline in the light of new facts, new pressures, or new contexts, as local churches have repeatedly sought to do, it needs some way of including in its discernment the judgement of the wider Church. Without this, it risks becoming unrecognisable to other local churches, pressing ahead with changes that render
it strange to Christian sisters and brothers across the globe.
“This is not some piece of modern bureaucratic absolutism, but the conviction of the Church from its very early days. The doctrine that ‘what affects the communion of all should be decided by all’ is a venerable principle.”
Where then does the schismatic unilateralism of the General Convention leave the diocese of Georgia? Since our communion with the wider church is through the local bishop and not the General Convention or the Presiding Bishop, we must be grateful that Bishop Louttit in conscience voted against these resolutions. Moreover, the lay delegation of the diocese voted 4-0 against both resolutions. Less happily, the clergy (hereby dubbed the weakest link) voted 3-1 in favour of C056 and was divided 2-2 on D025. Since two of the clergy delegates are candidates for bishop (William Willoughby and Frank Logue), how they voted is a matter of legitimate public interest which the report on the diocesan website coyly withholds. As for Saint John’s, at the next Vestry meeting I trust the State of the Church committee will propose a resolution declaring where we stand as a parish.
–The Rev. Gavin Dunbar is rector, Saint John’s, Savannah, Georgia
The main difference I see is the difference between a post-Christian American society and a post-Western Christianity rising in Africa and elsewhere. The one is in decline, at least intellectually, and the other is in spate. The taming of Christianity in North America requires very different tools from those required by the conditions favoring expansion in Africa. Christians are not afraid to go to church for prayer and healing when they are ill, for instance, whereas in North America prayers may be said for people who are ill but only in absentia.
Africans trust God for their spiritual, physical, social, and medical needs; Americans don’t.
Episcopal Church leaders in Los Angeles on Sunday nominated an openly gay priest and an openly lesbian priest as bishops in a move sure to ratchet up tensions in the global Anglican Communion.
The move follows an announcement on Saturday by the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota of three candidates identified to become the Bishop of Minnesota, including a partnered lesbian priest in Chicago.
The nominations come just weeks after the 2 million-member Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, lifted a de facto ban on the consecration of gay bishops.