George Woodliff: A Call to Prayer and Fasting

Back in July, the Rev. George Woodliff III, posted the following on Stand Firm as part of a longer reflection on a Nashville prayer gathering he attended which attracted 60,000 people:

So, what relevance, if any, does this have to our current struggles in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion? I have been interested in the various currents which have brought us to this moment in our history. I am aware, generally, of such developments as the gradual corrosive effect of higher criticism on the authority of Scripture; the insouciant dilution and demotion of Christian doctrine; the continued deferment of the problem of the locus of authority; the effects of the Enlightenment on the believability of the Gospel and the concomitant lack of confidence in proclaiming it; the particular American ethos of radical individualism and autonomy. These and other currents have brought us to our hour. And yet I have had, for several years, a growing sense, an intuition, of something else, something behind the scenes, at work.

It is the belief that what is really going on is spiritual warfare and that we are actors in a great cosmic struggle. Paul understood it: “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” [Ephesians 6:12] Milton understood it:

Belial came last; than whom a Spirit more lewd
Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love,
Vice for itself. To him no temple stood
Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he
In temples and at altars, when the priest
Turns atheist, as did Eli’s sons, who filled
With lust and violence the house of God?
In courts and palaces he also reigns,
And in luxurious cities, where the noise
Of riot ascends above the loftiest towers,
And injury and outrage; and, when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

[Paradise Lost, Book I]

Solzhenitsyn understood it:

“It was granted to me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer, and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. And it was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political [one could add ecclesiastical] parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of hearts, there remains… an unuprooted small corner of evil.” [The Gulag Archipelago Two]

I suspect that most of us, deep down inside, understand it also. That is why I believe that this historic gathering in Nashville on 7-7-07, which on its surface may seem outre to sophisticated Anglicans, does have some bearing on our current ecclesiastical agony. The forty year period does seem to correspond to the decline of the Episcopal Church. The presenting symptom of our crisis is homosexuality which arguably has its roots in the Sexual Revolution of 1967. The covenant breaking, which is a fruit of Baal, corresponds to the breaking of our Communion. The prescription offered by the leaders of The Call – prayer, fasting, solemn assembly – is essentially a call to holiness of life, not unlike the prescription of two of our ablest theologians, Ephraim Radner and Philip Turner: “Our contention is that communion is maintained not only by the obedient practice of mutual subjection, scriptural immersion, holiness of life, and godly discipline but also by submission to divine judgment.” [Radner and Turner, The Fate of Communion, p. 11]

The next critical scene in our unfolding Anglican drama is, I believe, the meeting of Archbishop Rowan Williams with the Episcopal House of Bishops in New Orleans on September 20, 2007. It will be a “hinge” moment in the history of the Communion. Therefore, I respectfully call on all Anglicans, worldwide, to a day of prayer and fasting on that day. This is the time, like the woman with the issue of blood, to press in to the Lord. Like her, we have been hemorrhaging far too long. As with her, He is the only one who can heal us and restore our peace.

The full text is here.

George’s wife, Jill, has posted some suggestions about fasting at Lent & Beyond, and she and the rest of the L&B crew will be posting prayers and Scriptures frequently today and throughout the next week. You can find all the relevant Lent & Beyond entries here.