[Thew] Forrester’s writings and sermons are sufficiently distressing to call into question his fitness, not only to be a bishop, but to even be a priest. Add to that the fact that Forrester adds stuff to the liturgy like a reading from the Qur’an in place of the appointed lesson from the apostle Paul, while also taking away from the liturgy the renunciations, and also so thoroughly revising the theological grounding of the act of adherence that it bears little resemblance to anything specifically Christian.
Given what we know from his sermons and liturgical experimentation/revision, I think there is little basis for believing that Mr. Forrester, if consecrated as a bishop, will heed the call “to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church” (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 517). It’s much more reasonable to expect that he would continue doing what he’s already been doing: departing from the core tenets of the Christian faith and revising the liturgical practices of the Episcopal Church accordingly.
One word: Apostasy.
You know, as miuch as I hate to say it, (and I do!) this kind of stuff sounds eerily like Tim LaHayes’ fictional “Left Behind” series, where “The Apostasy” begins. If and when the church of Jesus Christ truly becomes a syncretizing social club, the Antichrist simply cannot be far away. Maybe I ought to re-read those books. I thought they were pretty silly the first time around. Maybe not.
This really is a ‘dog bites man’ story. Most current TEC bishops would find nothing wrong with applying their own creative touch to just about any bit of liturgy that struck their fancy. Baptism Shmaptism – this is not an issue of concern in TEC so long as his innovations don’t foreclose the TEC obsession with ‘social justice’ über Jesus Christ.
Forrester+ is in trouble in this regard only because he exceeded the quite voluble bounds of weird currently in vogue within TEC. Had he confined his excesses to a clown Eucharists or neon vestments or open communion or any other more conventional and readily acceptable apostasty he would be just fine and well within the mainstream.
It’s always the pioneers who take the arrows.
#3…. your middle paragraph is the most penetrating insight I have seen on T19 in some time. The phrase “he exceeded the quite voluble bounds of weird” will doubtless go down in history along with the pithier comments of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.