“there is nothing in what Welby has written before being appointed to the chair of Canterbury, there is nothing that at least that I have read that Canon Porter has written that would indicate that for them that Reconciliation means anything more than learning to live with very difficult differences and maintain institutional unity despite that: Reconciliation means living with utter differences and finding ways to cooperate on various things that we can cooperate on.
……..
And to that, to that idea, how can any Christian who knows his or her Bible well, not say ”˜NO’? No, we can’t engage in common mission and walk across the rainbow bridge to share a common Gospel because we don’t share a common Gospel. The behaviours that men like Bishop [Shannon] Johnston are promoting, St Paul says will keep people out of the Kingdom of God, if they engage in them ”“ will keep people out of the Kingdom of God!
………
How can we join hands and go along in a common Christian mission if the things taught and promoted by one man, by the people we are holding hands with can and do lead people to the Pit? There is a different gospel at play here, a different understanding of Scripture, a different understanding of its authority, of its meaning ”“ a different jesus altogether. So the jesus that Bishop Johnston walks across the bridge to proclaim is not going to be the Jesus of the New Testament. It’s going to be a different jesus who cannot save. So we cannot engage in common mission, we cannot proclaim the same gospel, we can’t even ”“ we can’t do anything that will legitimise in the eyes of any onlooker, be it with a person within the church or a person outside of the church ”“ we can’t do anything to legitimise in any way a false teacher’s office or teaching.
And by holding hands, maintaining institutional unity, doing what we can to “reconcile” with those people, short of repentance, then what we are doing is we are saying ”˜this person is a Christian brother, this person is a leader and the issue over which we disagree is a small, inconsequential issue that is worth debating, and is worth disagreeing over, but is not worth dividing over, because we all share the same gospel. In other words, you reduce the issue of homosexual behaviour in the church to ”˜a diaphora’, a non-essential issue. And that, my friends, is a betrayal of the Gospel ”“ that’s a betrayal of the Gospel.
……..
if he means what he says, if reconciliation means what he has said reconciliation means, then it is not true reconciliation, it is surrender, it is compromise, it is collaboration, it is something that we cannot go along with.
Listen to it all with thanks to Stand Firm where there is more and an unofficial transcript is below:
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Fr. Matt Kennedy: Summing up the ++Justin Welby Debate
After the many debates on facebook and elsewhere regarding Justin Welby, his appointment of a Director of Reconciliation, and my friendly response to Kevin Kallsen and Fr. George Conger’s glowing review of his first few days, I thought I’d sum up my thoughts on Justin Welby:
I thought I would take a few minutes and talk about the Justin Welby situation. I know there has been a lot of discussion online, on my facebook page, on Stand Firm about his recent appointment of a Reconciliation Director, a Director of Reconciliation, I don’t know exactly how that title was said, but I do know that there is a lot of hope out there. A lot of people are hoping that Archbishop Welby will be our saviour, that he will deliver the Communion, that because he is an evangelical, he had a conversion experience at Nicky Gumbel’s church that he is therefore the one to look to to rescue the Communion. In fact I wrote an article this morning because I heard on Anglican TV a discussion of Welby, and my good friend Kevin, and my good friend George both gave him ”“ well George gave him an A for effort in his first few days, and Kevin gave him an A+ I think it was, based on the reasoning that, well, Archbishop Welby is an Evangelical, he had his conversion experience so when he appoints a Director of Reconciliation, then he must mean by that, that he is going to engage in a Reconciliation Process that is conducted in a manner that is consistent with the Evangelical understanding of reconciliation ”“ which would mean therefore that there is going to be a call for repentance, a call to Biblical faithfulness, and then on that basis we all agree to reconcile.
And if that is the case, oh and I hope it is [don’t get me wrong!], if that is the case, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, that’s wonderful. But ”“ there is nothing in what Welby has written before being appointed to the chair of Canterbury, there is nothing that at least that I have read that Canon Porter has written that would indicate that for them that Reconciliation means anything more than learning to live with very difficult differences and maintain institutional unity despite that: Reconciliation means living with utter differences and finding ways to cooperate on various things that we can cooperate on. So if you happen to read then Bishop Welby’s article that he wrote for the Centre Aisle, for the diocese of Virginia, he indicated very clearly in that article that one way to accomplish a form of reconciliation between people who promote same-sex blessings and want to ordain people who are living in same-sex relationships to the priesthood and to the episcopate ”“ one way reconciliation can be accomplished between those people and orthodox Christian leaders is by engaging together in common Christian mission because we can all walk together across the bridge to other peoples and give the Gospel.
And to that, to that idea, how can any Christian who knows his or her Bible well, not say ”˜NO’? No, we can’t engage in common mission and walk across the rainbow bridge to share a common Gospel because we don’t share a common Gospel. The behaviours that men like Bishop [Shannon] Johnston are promoting, St Paul says will keep people out of the Kingdom of God, if they engage in them ”“ will keep people out of the Kingdom of God!
How can we join hands and go along in a common Christian mission if the things taught and promoted by one man, by the people we are holding hands with can and do lead people to the Pit? There is a different gospel at play here, a different understanding of Scripture, a different understanding of its authority, of its meaning ”“ a different jesus altogether. So the jesus that Bishop Johnston walks across the bridge to proclaim is not going to be the Jesus of the New Testament. It’s going to be a different jesus who cannot save. So we cannot engage in common mission, we cannot proclaim the same gospel, we can’t even ”“ we can’t do anything that will legitimise in the eyes of any onlooker, be it with a person within the church or a person outside of the church ”“ we can’t do anything to legitimise in any way a false teacher’s office or teaching.
And by holding hands, maintaining institutional unity, doing what we can to “reconcile” with those people, short of repentance, then what we are doing is we are saying ”˜this person is a Christian brother, this person is a leader and the issue over which we disagree is a small, inconsequential issue that is worth debating, and is worth disagreeing over, but is not worth dividing over, because we all share the same gospel. In other words, you reduce the issue of homosexual behaviour in the church to ”˜a diaphora’, a non-essential issue. And that, my friends, is a betrayal of the Gospel ”“ that’s a betrayal of the Gospel.
So, if Bishop Welby means by reconciliation what he has written that he means by reconciliation, what he has said many times, not just in that article from the Centre Aisle, but you can read a sermon that he wrote, that we posted on Stand Firm, you can read his address before the Episcopal Church House of Bishops, if he means what he says, if reconciliation means what he has said reconciliation means, then it is not true reconciliation, it is surrender, it is compromise, it is collaboration, it is something that we cannot go along with.
So I just wanted to put this out there, today so that you can all hear it, and let me know what you think in the comments.
Here’s a link to the facebook discussion/debate that ultimately involved Kevin Kallsen and Peter Ould
And here’s a link to some of the documents I reference in the audio above:
Center Aisle article
Pentecost Sermon
Address to the TEC HOB
Article Quoting Canon Porter