My new acquaintance, a self-described traditional Christian who has issues with the ordination of women (never mind gays and lesbians), shook his head. From his perspective, the Episcopal Church is out of touch with the majority and has failed to recognize its place in the world.
I would argue that Episcopalians, who number around 2 million in a worldwide church of 80 million, are acutely aware of their place on the global Christian stage….
Episcopalians know [about the global Church shift from North to South]. Whatever their views on sexuality, they speak passionately about the importance of preserving relations and avoiding a major schism.
The question then becomes how to balance the desire to remain in communion with the desire to be fully inclusive of gay and lesbian members.
Who says TEc is out of the Worldwide Anglican Communion? Rowan has not said anything of the kind to date.
Eileen Flynn just doesn’t get it. The clash of mutually exclusive worldviews and rival gospels within Anglicanism means that you can’t have it both ways. You simply can’t support the unbiblical “gay is OK” agenda and the relativist worldview it epitomizes and still be authentically Anglican. Bioshop Doyle, quoted in the article, is living in a fantasy land when he imagines that he’ll forever be both an Episcopalian and an Anglican. Now granted, if ++RW has his way, he can be part of the eventual “Track Two” variety of Anglicanism, which will actually not be truly Anglican at all (IMO).
Eileen’s assumptions reflect a lingering colonialist mentality. The Lebanese Christian was right. Western Anglicans of a progressive bent really don’t know, or refuse to accept, that their dominant place in the world has ended. A new global, post-colonial (and hopefully post-Christendom) Anglicanism is emerging. Thanks be to God.
David Handy+