An alternate title for this excellent commentary by Bishop Atwood might be “Manure and the Anglican Soup.” It pairs well with the article from Christianity Today which I’d just read and posted below.
[…]There is nowhere in the Church where there is more vulnerability for the Gospel to be undermined than in the Anglican Communion. Certainly, there are other churches and denominations where the historic faith has been more fully and formally abandoned by the official decisions of institutional leadership, but the current vulnerability in the Anglican Communion is that the historic faith and Gospel commitment which has driven missionary zeal and Biblical fidelity for centuries is being de-emphasized in order to “get along.”
Right now, there are countless initiatives at the institutional level to attempt to convince people that the “cut-glass crystal punch bowl” is so beautiful that when it is polished, preserved, and appreciated the recipe of the punch it contains is unimportant. The challenge, however, is how much adulteration to the punch is acceptable. I addressed the House of Bishops in one of our Anglican Provinces and pointed out that the soup that was being made (to switch metaphors) has lovely carrots, beautiful potatoes, succulent chicken, and tasty broth. “How much manure can be added to the soup before you no longer can consume it and stay healthy?” I asked them. Not surprisingly, they did not want to have any manure added to the soup, and yet, quite a number of them were participating in conferences sponsored by liberal entities that completely undermined the Gospel, replacing it with institutional focus and uncritical acceptance of sin.
While I was tremendously excited at the selection of Justin Welby as the Archbishop of Canterbury, and had hoped and prayed for his selection believing that he was the best of the available candidates, I have been concerned at what appears to be a perspective that everything can be reconciled with everything else. While most relational disruptions can be reconciled, theological positions are another matter. It is impossible, for example, for the position “Jesus is Lord of all” to be reconciled with “Jesus is not Lord of all.” While theological disagreements may not seem to be that stark, it is precisely that revelation that is at stake in the Anglican Communion. The Lordship of Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture, and how He viewed Scriptural authority is very much in play.
A whole lot of stuff has been added to the Anglican gumbo in some provinces. Those cultural variations in the recipe result in a new creation that can no longer be called gumbo according to this experienced gumbo taster, but there is always somebody out there who will try to peddle it as gumbo, and there will always be innocent consumers who will believe it to be gumbo and be willing to swear up and down that it is the best gumbo they have ever tasted. Such is the stuff that heresies are made of and have there being.
oops… “their being”
Sent this to our rector/priest, now on vacation; he in turn has sent it to his huge mailing list.
Our Bishop +Bill Atwood speaks wisely and well.
Amen, Luke.
+Bill Atwood is one of my favorite bishops in the ACNA, and he almost always speaks not only wisely and well, but clearly and boldly too. He’s right on about how peculiarly vulnerable Anglicanism is to allowing the integrity of the Christian faith and life to be gravely compromised.
But he’s also right to call attention to the fact that we North Americans are being very slow to wake up to the alarming nature of ISIS/ISIL, and very slow to learn about and engage seriously with Islam as a major global rival (and threat) to Christianity.
David Handy+