One November night, Bishop John W. Howe stood at the pulpit of Grace Episcopal Church as members with worried and frustrated faces stared back at him.
Howe, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, was there to tell the members what they all wanted to hear.
“During this time of transition, however it comes out, neither I or the Diocese of Central Florida intend in any way to abandon you. . . . Neither your rector [pastor] or your vestry [pastor and lay members] will decide for you whether you want to be a part of The Episcopal Church or the Diocese of Central Florida or not,” Howe said. “That’s something that you’re going to decide for you.”
Howe visited the church to address Grace Episcopal Church’s recent decision to “disaffiliate” from the Central Florida diocese and The Episcopal Church (USA) – a movement that’s happening in Episcopal parishes all across the country. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion and has 2.4 million members. Approximately 80 million members belong to the global denomination.
Conservative Episcopalians believe the church is losing its biblical and traditional roots because of what they describe as a growing liberal leadership. The division between liberal and conservative Episcopalians centers on issues from Bible interpretation to accepting homosexuals. Most notably was the consecration of Gene Robinson, an openly gay man in a committed relationship, as the Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. Blessings of same-sex unions in some Episcopal churches also have drawn much criticism in the Communion.
My opinion is that +Howe is behaving with much graciousness. It should be a model for other bishops. He is retiring soon and it almost seems like he wants to accomodate those who are leaving as best he can without stepping totally outside the lines drawn by TEC. In a way he has stepped over one line — the line that says sell the property to anyone but a church which is going to be “anglican”.
[blockquote] Howe said the diocese isn’t considering the church’s’ request until a protocol that was drafted recently has been approved. It will be presented Thursday at the joint meeting of the Diocesan Board and Standing Committee, which acts as an advisory council to the bishop. Curran is president of the Standing Committee. [/blockquote]
Here’s the first conundrum. What will happen when the Presiding Bishop wades in with David Booth Beers at her side, telling the diocese what to do, backed up by a real or implicit threat of litigation and/or deposition? Supposedly trustworthy figures in Virginia reversed course when confronted with 815.
[blockquote] The Central Florida diocese, for now, [Rev. Curran ] said is an orthodox diocese with an orthodox bishop. However, Howe, who has been bishop for 18 years, is close to retirement. When a new bishop is elected, Curran believes the complexion of the diocese will change just like the others. “You can’t build the walls high enough to keep it out,” Curran said. “It will happen in Central Florida. It’s just a matter of years.” [/blockquote]
Here’s the basic problem. TEC is [i]not[/i] going to reverse course; they’ve sworn to never go back. An orthodox bishop as ordinary to an orthodox diocese is only a temporary refuge.
I would like to see a diocese like this tell 815 it has no authority to intervene in property settlements the diocese makes with its departing parishes and missions. In fact, at the very first hint at interference by 815 I’d like to see a diocese legally force 815 to prove it has such power rather than just cowardly shrinking back in the face of a woman who some are calling the “wicked witch of the west.” Even Griswold knew he had no such authority as Mrs. Shori and her attorney are claiming she does.
It’s nice to read a newspaper article that is so informative and for the most part even-handed. It conveys very well the graciousness of Bp. Howe, whom I greatly admire, and the spiritual and emotional struggle of so many of those who are either leaving or staying. I think +Howe shows good sense in how he is handling these matters.
What the article does not do is ask other Episcopalians to comment on the claims against TEC being made by some of those leaving. For example: “”It’s all about doing good works. It’s all about loving your neighbor. It’s all about reaching out to somebody in need. That’s all good stuff. We do that here at Grace . . . but it doesn’t reconcile you with the Father,” he said. “I mean that comes through the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why we have the cross. The Episcopal Church has lost its understanding of the meaning of the cross, totally lost it”
While i do not doubt the sincerely with which such opinions are held, I quite disagree that “The Episcopal Church” has totally lost the meaning of the cross, or that its leadership no longer believe in the Sonship of Christ or the power of the Spirit; or that it is ALL about good works. These kinds of broad, sweeping assertions do not do justice to all of the faithful Episcopalians, bishops, other clergy and laity, whose Nicene faith is strong. And as for biblical faith, this priest might do well to meditate on 2 Cor. 5:18. God HAS reconciled the world through Christ (cf. Col. 1:15-20), and also on Matt. 25:31ff. Those who do all of those good works referred to above will be welcomed into the Kingdom. These issues are more complex than often presented; even within the New Testament, different perspectives are in conversation with one another. What I hear from the leadership of the Church and read in national and diocesan church publications is that these good works are being done because of faith in Christ, not ignoring it; those doing mission work say so time and time again.
The inhabitants of central Florida are largely persons who can rightly be called conservative in various aspects of life, thought and belief. It’s deputations to GC certainly have fit that description in the realm of religion. When the blow-up over women’s ordination took place in 1977, many CF Episcopalians left to form new Anglican bodies, and their largely small congregations are scattered about this same area. So, it is no surprise to me that others now would leave. I pray Godspeed for those who leave, and comfort and support for those who stay. And especially for Bp. Howe.
Bob, I think I hear what you’re saying, and I largely agree. But…
Speaking only for myself, not Bp Howe’s flock, I would say that I accept that many (even most) of the clergy and laity within TEC are faithful Christians with good (if mixed) motives and intentions.
And yet it’s still possible for TEC as a corporate entity to take on it’s own persona. And that corporate persona is described by its corporate words and actions. Despite the words that you and I have read in diocesan publications and such, there are (rapidly) increasing numbers of words and actions that reinforce the image of an unmoored Church. We’ve moved beyond merely fialing to discipline the occasional rogue bishop, and we’re now repeating and actively promoting their rogue theology and practice. Not merely tolerating, or encouraging healthy debate about them, but actively promoting and celebrating them. The questions are no longer “is this Christian or not”, but “how hard and fast should we impose this idea”?
There’s no need in this forum to cite examples, as you know. The fruit is there. It’s just a question of discerning whether it’s good fruit or bad fruit, and therefore the nature of the tree that bore it. I’ll agree with you that there’s good fruit, and much of it. But there’s more and more rotten fruit being produced.
It is what is not being said to balance the views of some in TEC. I do not know whether good works arise out of orthodoxy or “orthopractcy (sp).” My bishop has continually criticized those who maintain the position of reasserters and never said anything about the other side. He told my former congregation what he could not side with those who thought it was ok to kill Muslims because they were going to hell anyhow. It was insulting to everyone there. Out diocesan newspaper reports no controversy in the church until a parish leaves. What ever happened to fair and balanced?
I sense that a feeling of dis-ease, a feeling of uneasiness is beginning to spread throughout ECUSA’s parishes. Its seems that the ‘pew-sitters’ and the ‘conflict-avoiders’ and the ‘it will all blow over’ members of the laity are starting to take notice.
The revisionists who injected the secular politics of “gay rights” into ECUSA’s polity should and I believe are beginning to understand that the laity are more concerned about about their children and grandchildren and about preserving a moral society within which to raise those children than they are the “gay rights” issue which only affects a very small percentage of society.
In fact, the “gay rights” issue is seen by many as one of a number of sexual threats to their parental and grandparental authority and responsibility to pass on family values to their children during their critical pre-adolescent and adolescent years.
When you bring “gay rights” advocacy into the church, you bring that advocacy into the Sunday schools, either directly or indirectly.
Nobody that I know of has said they would; thus, this is a red herring. That some people may end up taking a different route to church on Sundays to do so – no question about it. But many of us have had to do the same thing as a result of the tender leadership of rectors holding the same philosophy as the Presiding Bishop which +Howe protects and supports. Get over it.
Money quote IMHO –
“Approximately two-thirds of the congregation wanted to leave and a third wanted to remain a part of the diocese. Howe said the departing two-thirds left the property, relocated, rented for a while and finally bought a church that another congregation had outgrown. The new church is now Prince of Peace Anglican Church.
“They’re doing very, very well,” Howe said. “ They’re about three times the size that they were when they left and St. John’s continues in its place and it’s well into recovery.” Emphasis added.
There are now 65 congregations in CANA
http://www.canaconvocation.org/
http://www.pwcweb.com/ecw
Bob from Boone,
Whe you have a presiding bishop who uses the term `Mother Jesus` in her inaugural sermon and states in an interview that Jesus is A way (not THE way) to the Father, then indeed the leadership of the national church has `lost it`s understanding of the meaning of the cross`.