Moments before they decided to align with an orthodox Anglican bishop in South America, members of Vancouver’s St. John’s Shaughnessy Church, one of the largest Anglican congregations in Canada, attended a Bible study session.
In the latest development in a controversy that has arisen within several different religions, the conservative Anglican congregation in Vancouver voted on Wednesday evening to request episcopal oversight by Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. If accepted, the Vancouver parish would, in effect, be cut off from the Anglican Church in Canada.
The rector, Rev. David Short, talked a lot about church unity that day, Lesley Bentley, a spokeswoman for St. John’s Shaughnessy, said yesterday in an interview.
Mr. Short spoke about the importance of church unity with Scripture and of a common understanding of Scripture, particularly around core values, Ms. Bentley recalled. “It was about the supremacy of the Bible and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.”
The newspaper article appears to indicate that for some five years those seeking holy orders from that parish have been refused by the diocese. I hear reports that the same is true in the Episcopal Church, that bishops are imposing a pro-gay litmus test for the ministry. This (1) seems manifestly unfair, and (2) encourages people to give up on the diocese and the association of dioceses called a national church to seek friendly bishops. One of the early AMiA parishes in North Carolina began when the rector, with whom I had attended seminary, came close to retirement and came to the conclusion that the bishop would not approve of an orthodox successor. Even back in the churchmanship controversies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when some bishops and dioceses were strongly of one party or the other there were frequently parishes in the diocese that were different and in many cases bishops were willing to treat candidates from those parishes with fairness and justice.
I can confirm the appearance of the article – the bishop of New Westminster made the climate such that folks like myself (a Regent College graduate and intern from St. John’s) would have to leave the diocese to serve in the Anglican Church.
But we should not be surprised, especially in Ingham’s case, since in his [i] Mansions of the Spirit [/i] he seems to indicate the need to eradicate the likes of St. John’s Shaughnessy, and those who hold to a more evangelical orthodoxy (or as J. I. Packer might say, Christianity), from the church, period. And he clearly defines those who need to go as those who hold to the uniqueness of Christ (his eternal divine nature), the call to make converts to the Christian faith from all nations of the world (otherwise known as evangelism), and who believe that salvation is limited to Christians (he is a Universalist). The so-called exclusivism of those who disagree with him is the problem with Christianity, according to Ingham’s book.
So at least he is acting in accordance with his beliefs – even if he appears from his book to be a closet “Hindu” (he describes what one might call a conversion experience in India), and is clearly a heretic by any historic definition of the word.
If only Ingham had sat under Packer and others at Regent….
As long as non-Christians lead the seminaries and teach in their classrooms, and with little or no prospects of a complete turn-around to core biblical Christianity, why stay in TEC or the ACC?
Staying under those conditions is dangerous to the spiritual health of a parish’s or diocese’s future generations. It is a monumental impediment to evangelism and church growth. It is a blemish on the church’s public image.
The place is in need of an extreme makeover that’s not going to happen. For St. John’s Shaughnessy, the time to move is now. Who can blame them?
w.w.
Many years ago a man who was wanted to attend the seminary in Penns went to the LA Bishop (it may have been Rusack) and was denied. He then went to San Joaquin and was sponsored by +JohnDavid. Nothing has changed – it’s just spread.
Back about the late 1990’s (not sure of the exact time) the bishop of michigan interfered with a parish priest selection insisting that we just had to make sure that a lesbian priest be installed in the parish. Needless to say, even back then, 40% of the parish left to another episcopal church. Interestingly this church had a female priest who was as Anglican as possible. My wife and I enjoyed a number of years in that parish until we left for a small city in West Michigan. I would call this my own Tale of Two Cities.