The Episcopal Church Self-Destructs over Homosexuality

VirtueonLine ^ | 7/15/05 | Allan Dobras

[Dane]

The Episcopal Church Self-Destructs over Homosexuality

Episcopalians Defend the Consecration of a "Gay" Bishop

By Allan Dobras

The Episcopal Church has been flirting with a disastrous schism for the last thirty-five years, and now a formal breakup seems inevitable following an unapologetic June 17–22, 2005, appearance before the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in Nottingham, England. The purpose of the meeting was to hear the church's defense of its consecration of "gay" Bishop V. Gene Robinson.

Over the years, the denomination continued to hang together as it blundered through several divisive issues while causing its rolls to plummet by about 1.3 million congregants, or nearly 40 percent of its membership. Remarkably, the church had managed to survive clergymen like Bishop John S. Spong, who institutionalized heretical teachings in the denomination, the failed heresy trial of Rt. Reverend Walter Righter, who opened the church to the ordination of homosexual deacons, and the church's persistent embroilment in leftist politics.

Now, ramifications from the consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson are sending shockwaves through the Anglican community, and the denomination is on the brink of imploding. The June 2003 election of Rt. Reverend Robinson to the office of bishop was the final straw for the traditionalist-minded American Anglican Council (AAC) and a number of conservative prelates-primarily from Africa-who put pressure on the Worldwide Anglican Communion to respond to what they thought to be contrary to church doctrine.

As a result, in October of 2003, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, established a commission to look at life in the Anglican Communion in the light of recent events-at the time, the imminent consecration of the Reverend Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and the decision to authorize a service for use in connection with same-sex unions in the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada.

The commission was tasked by the archbishop to "offer advice on finding a way through the situation which currently threatens to divide the Communion." After studying the matter for several months, the commission issued its final report (The Windsor Report) on October 28, 2004, which called upon the Episcopal Church (USA) to:

* Express its regret that the proper constraints of the bonds of affection were breached in the events surrounding the election and consecration of a bishop for the See of New Hampshire. * Pending such expression of regret, those who took part as consecrators of Gene Robinson should be invited to consider in all conscience whether they should withdraw from representative functions in the Anglican Communion. * Effect a moratorium on the election and consent to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same-gender union until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges.

The commission also called for a moratorium of Rites of Blessing of same-sex unions and recommended that bishops who have authorized such rites in the United States and Canada be invited to express regret that the proper constraints of the bonds of affection were breached by such authorization.

Conservative primates of the Anglican Communion gathered in February 2005 at Newry, in Northern Ireland, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury to consider the recommendations of the Windsor Report. The primates endorsed the report and encouraged the Anglican Consultative Council to "organize a hearing at its meeting in Nottingham, England, in June 2005 at which representatives of the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada, invited for that specific purpose, may have an opportunity to set out the thinking behind the recent actions of their Provinces."

The Episcopal Church (USA) Responds

During the week of June 20, 2005, representatives of the Episcopal Church (USA) met with the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham, England, and presented their response to the Windsor Report in a 135-page document titled "To Set Our Hope On Christ," which was long on superlatives, but devoid of either regret or repentance. In substance, the response was little more than a repeat of the unsubstantiated junk science claims that homosexuality is inborn and unchangeable and the discredited revisionist theology that denies the validity of the biblical record concerning homosexuality.

In a hopelessly convoluted reply to the specific recommendations of the Windsor Report, the American church dismissed the call to express "regret" for their actions or to respect a "moratorium" on the consecration of any additional clergy involved in a same-sex relationship:

* At the present time part of the Church believes that it recognizes members of same-sex affection who are living Christ-like lives of generous self-donation, costly witness, and courageous acts of discipleship in conformity with the pattern Christ establishes for us. And this part of the Church is calling the rest to "come and see" if this isn't in fact the work of the Holy Spirit. . . . "We believe that God takes our differences, which the world would wickedly harden into divisions, and embraces them by the power of Christ and the Spirit within those blessed differences-in-relation of the Divine Persons . . . " * "The experience of the Church as it is lived in different places has something to contribute to the discernment of the mind of Christ for the Church. No one culture, no one period of history has a monopoly of insight into the truth of the Gospel. . . . We wish most deeply to express our loving concern for the good of the whole Church, especially for those Anglicans worldwide who are living in faithful, committed same-sex partnerships, and also for those Anglicans worldwide who do not see how such relationships can be open to God's blessing."

The Canadian Primate, Archbishop Hutchison, expressed regret over strained relationships that its actions have caused and agreed to a moratorium on dioceses authorizing same-sex blessings rites until the General Synod considers the matter.

On June 22, 2005, the Anglican Consultative Council, citing the standard of Christian teaching on matters of human sexuality expressed in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10, endorsed the Primates' request that "in order to recognize the integrity of all parties, the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada voluntarily withdraw their members from the Anglican Consultative Council for the period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference."

Thus, the Episcopal Church (USA), like a person addicted to hard drugs, cannot give up its romance with homosexuality and instead acquiesced to the relatively mild and inconsequential censure implicit in the ACC request for "voluntary withdrawal" from the council.

The American Anglican Council Calls the EC (USA) Response "Blasphemous."

The reaction from the American Anglican Council (AAC) to the EC (USA) presentation was swift and blunt, calling their defense "shameless" and declaring it was "blasphemous to suggest that the Holy Spirit would lead any Christian to accept or embrace doctrine or behavior contradicted throughout the body of Scripture."

The AAC dismissed out of hand a claim by the church's emissaries that "God designed and created a percentage of the population to be gay." In a sharply worded rebuttal, the ACC said, "It is not established that same-sex attraction is innate [and] God cannot be understood as having created what His revealed Word defines as sinful."

In its concluding statement, the AAC ridiculed their call for "unity in disagreement," and saw only a church in deep distress: "The logical conclusion of [their] argument is that unity is more important than truth. . . . The Episcopal Church is fractured and bleeding; punitive actions against the orthodox abound; and trust has been broken over and over. Additionally, data provided by the Episcopal Church itself demonstrates a church in disarray with a significant number of churches and individuals leaving ECUSA and dioceses experiencing serious budgetary shortfalls. It is most unfortunate that many other bishops representing a radically different view were not included in this ECUSA team."

The EC (USA), having weathered many storms in the past that left it intact but drove its membership into mass exodus, appears to have finally reached the end of the road, and a major breakup of the denomination seems inevitable.

--Al Dobras is a freelance writer on religious and cultural issues and an electronics engineer. He lives in Springfield, Virginia

[Dane]

The last comment/reply from the link provided to this editorial left me dumbfounded,

Indeed, Jim.

Even atheists are people of faith - believing fervently (with no proof) that there is no God...

JMO, Anglicism is dead, Jim.

[EagleUSA]

It is just the liberal Midas touch -- everything they touch, or everything that touches them, turn to s***! It has become an unquestionable reality.

[joesnuffy]

The big inning for the 'Great Falling Away'

[Monterrosa-24]

Theology of Liberation, Relativism, and the "celebration" of homosexuality have subverted most of the major churches to some degree. My conservative parents would have been shocked to learn what was being taught in my Methodist Sunday School classes in the early 70s.

[concerned about politics]

The Episcopal Church Self-Destructs over Homosexuality

The Apostate Church of Abomination?
I'm shocked.(s)

[Nov3]

This is getting sadder by the day. It is painful watching a Church being destroyed by the wanton sodomites from inside. I pray the pope purges our church.

[ppaul]

“We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does
not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its
highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires..."
-- Pope Benedict XVI

[bella1]

Beginning? I'd say we are well past the beginning.

[GVnana]

The Anglican Communion should just expel the EC rebels and get it over with. As long as they dally with this, the EC is empowered.

[TSchmereL]

I can't figure out which Episcopal Church Council believes what or even what the average Episcopal believes.

What confusing groups they are!

[TSchmereL]

With a title like "Primate" it sounds like they are from the Planet of the Apes.

[FormerLib]

"...members of same-sex affection who are living Christ-like lives..."

Looks like the Mother of All Oxymorons right there!

[Mulch]

I thought I was the first one to coin that phrase. So true. So true.

[jackbenimble]

Anglicism is dead

Anglicism is doing fine and is one of the fastest growing religions in the third world. Anglicism may even survive in America in some of the splinter traditional continuing churches. I believe these are growing fast. But the Episcopagen Church is dying. I refused to trade in Christianity for paganism so I quit my local Episcopal Church. It is sort of like the Republican Party; the leadership is far more liberal than the base. I am about to quit the GOP for almost the same reason I quit the Episcopagans. I refuse to become a globalist socialist.

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping.

For your edification. All actual God's truth believing Episcopalians, please turn out the lights before you shut the door after you.

Note this statement by the fools:

"We believe that God takes our differences, which the world would wickedly harden into divisions..."

They have gone psychotic. That's what happens when lies are embraced as truth, and truth is rejected as a lie. The result is nothing more or less than psychological and spiritual irreversible sickness. To believe in or promote lies as truth is bad enough in one's personal life, but to do it in the name of God is the worst of the worst.

Freepmail me if you want on/off this pinglist.

[knak]

At the present time part of the Church believes that it recognizes members of same-sex affection who are living Christ-like lives

WTF? I'm sorry but I was raised in the Episcopal church and it sure as hell wasn't like this then. I do not attend it anymore. My mother still does at a small, very small chirch in Texas but they are planning to break away from it too. I think she said they are planning to rename the church the American Anglican Church?

[wideawake]

We believe that God takes our differences, which the world would wickedly harden into divisions, and embraces them by the power of Christ and the Spirit within those blessed differences-in-relation of the Divine Persons

In other words they compare sodomy with the relationship between the Persons of the Trinitarian Godhead.

Whoever believes this and doesn't retract it is surely damned.

[r9etb]

Although there's good info here, it would have been much a better article had Mr. Dobras been a bit less inflammatory in his rhetoric, and a bit more analytical in his assessment of the ECUSA's response.

Let's look at the ones he cites:

* At the present time part of the Church believes that it recognizes members of same-sex affection who are living Christ-like lives of generous self-donation, costly witness, and courageous acts of discipleship in conformity with the pattern Christ establishes for us.

* And this part of the Church is calling the rest to "come and see" if this isn't in fact the work of the Holy Spirit. . . . "We believe that God takes our differences, which the world would wickedly harden into divisions, and embraces them by the power of Christ and the Spirit within those blessed differences-in-relation of the Divine Persons . . . "

* "The experience of the Church as it is lived in different places has something to contribute to the discernment of the mind of Christ for the Church. No one culture, no one period of history has a monopoly of insight into the truth of the Gospel. . . .

* We wish most deeply to express our loving concern for the good of the whole Church, especially for those Anglicans worldwide who are living in faithful, committed same-sex partnerships, and also for those Anglicans worldwide who do not see how such relationships can be open to God's blessing."

Now, in much the same sense as what the serpent said in the Garden, there is some superficial attractiveness, and some truth, to what's being said here -- that's why things have gotten as far as they have. We know, of course, that below the superficial appearance, the whole truth is different.

The orthodox side needs to be more clear about why it's not really attractive, and it's got to be less shy about saying so in a manner that is reasonable and attractive -- not, as Mr. Dobras has unfortunately done, in a way that allows the other side to call us "mean." (Which accusation unfortunately carries a lot of weight these days.)

One good assessment of the various arguments is found HERE.

[Zero Sum]

Here is our Catechism. Hope it helps.

Of particular interest is this:

Q. What is Holy Matrimony?

A. Holy Matrimony is Christian marriage, in which the woman and man enter into a life-long union, make their vows before God and the Church, and receive the grace and blessing of God to help them fulfill their vows.

Sadly, few people take it seriously anymore.

[newcthem]

This is another church that literally is going to hell in a handbasket.
I used to be a Methodist when it was still a Christian relegion. Now they are pro homo, pro islam, pro-any-other perversion.