The Dean of Fort Worth's Cathedral Writes his Parish

Dear Friends in Christ,

In the coming months, we are entering what could be a challenging time for our diocese and our parish. While I believe that great challenges can lead to great opportunities, everything we face must be grounded in prayer. As you are aware, the November 14th and 15th Convention will consider the second reading of changes to our constitution that would remove this diocese from under the umbrella of General Convention and into the Synod of the Province of the Southern Cone. This move is temporary, as there are many people in the United States and Canada working for the creation of a biblical and missionary province of the Anglican Communion in North America.

How did we get to this difficult time? Let me offer you some real-life illustrations. We live in a church that refused to discipline Bishop Pike who denied the doctrine of the Trinity. We live a church that refused to discipline Bishop Spong who denied the doctrine of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and other Creedal doctrines. We live in a church that refused to discipline Bishop Righter for ordaining a priest who was openly engaging in same-sex activities. We live in a church where the Executive Council joins the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice; then General Convention refuses to even discuss our continued membership. We live in a church that rejoices over the election of a bishop living in a sexual relationship outside of marriage. We live in a church where, on a weekly basis, clergy teach a different Gospel by denying the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and there is no discipline. However, we also live in a church that after General Convention 2009, if you sit on a vestry or committee and you complain about any of the things I’ve listed above, you can be brought before a provincial court, charged and removed from office, even as a lay member. Finally, we live in a church that has just deposed our good friend Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh for abandoning the Communion of this Church because he believes a diocese has the right to determine its future. What is wrong with the picture I have just shared? Well, this apparently is how the Episcopal House of Bishops “wages reconciliation.”

As our diocese prepares for convention, we are operating under the knowledge that any day, it is likely that our Bishop will be inhibited as well. He has asked all parishes in the diocese to go through the “40 days of discernment” before convention convenes. We will incorporate some of this program into our corporate life in October and November. Over the last six years, we have worked hard to communicate to all what is taking place across the Episcopal Church, discussing both the choices before us and the reasons for those choices.

At this time, I ask each member to keep our clergy, our parish, our diocese, our bishop, and the entire Episcopal Church in your prayers. I also offer you a thought. Regardless of how the vote turns out, on Sunday, November 16th, the day after Convention, we will continue to do what we have always done here. We will continue to teach what we have always taught. Same faith, same rector, same music, same prayer book, same familiar faces that you have come to know and love in the pews around you. Right now, we have Episcopalians, non-Episcopal Anglicans, and non-Anglicans who consider themselves members of St. Vincent’s, and this will not change on November 16th. No one can unmake you an Episcopalian, and at the same time we have never asked for membership cards of anyone who came to the altar. We never will, either. This altar does not belong to the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion, to me or to you. It belongs to Jesus Christ. And if we keep Jesus Christ first and each other next, then all the church politics, all the intimidation and threats of depositions and lawsuits, as stressful and distasteful as they are, pale in comparison to knowing and serving our Lord. There is nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And that is where our hope rests and the reason we can live in peace and charity with one another. In the face of all the change and upheaval in the American branch of the Anglican Communion, remember this: Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

To him be glory and honor forever.

Because He lives,

–(The Very Rev.) Ryan Reed is Dean of at St. Vincent’s Cathedral in Bedford, Texas