Posted on 07/15/2005 8:04:10 AM PDT by 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
Right there bother.
Hey, a great solution for you. Don't convert.
Sounds like an agnostic or a Christian before the leap of faith..,
Great idea! I'll start casually dropping that word into comversations beginning right now.
When I get that "vapant" expression from people, I'll make up some definition that sounds really cool. We'll start spreading it around.
(I hope I didn't just make up a new word...YIKES!)
Thusly, the Admin Moderator has joined us on our Wordquest!
Long live vapantity and daneliness!
THE MOTTO OF THE WORDQUESTERS....
Behold, stout cleric, let thine eyes rest upon the scroll posted above. Join us, thy noble warrior, in our Wordquest?
So we became part of the legislative structure early on to try and make a difference. But it was exhausting work--difficult to hold on to orthodoxy and fight for it. We kept losing resolution after resolution. Via Media kept slamming us right and left, that middle way that Anglicans are so attached to (not the least, the 3-legged stool--Scripture, Reason, and Tradition, good ol' Hooker). In the middle of one convention, I thought what insanity this was that we voted on what is Truth. It was our 16-year-old son who looked at us and said, "Via Media doesn't work. Either Truth is or it isn't." (This was after a parish meeting to discuss the Windsor Report where the self-congratulations abounded...whatever you believe is your truth, and what I believe is my truth...let's all embrace each other because that is the true gospel...how can we turn away from each other at the Lord's table?)
Out of the mouths of babes. How could we stay after that? We couldn't go back to our Southern Baptist roots, didn't particularly want to go to a breakaway Anglican church 50 miles away that was dwindling. What's an Anglo-Catholic to do but to go down the same path trod by Newman himself.
Rev 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Yes the foundation and center of the church standing on the outside asking for entrance.
You know what was maddening? On matters of theology, a lot of clergy that I knew would just shrug (then clueless lay people would just play along). But oh, boy, on matters of canon, you can bet these same people could cite article, canon and section down to a subpoint with a fervor that was breathtaking.
vapant: adj. trivial, unimportant, self-centered, self-absorbed.
Now it is time for an end this vapant chit chat being promoted by you on this thread and get to back to the subject of a once noble Church being destroyed by modern PCism.
If Christianity is the common thread here, perhaps a bit of generousity, humility and restraint wouldn't hurt. I'm not a moderator and have no wish to be one but the tone of many remarks to one another is getting just plain rude. Remember, there are sins besides those of the flesh. Anger and pride are among them.
Many (not all) in the Republican party leadership seem to be content with not rocking the boat.
Don't be delusional concerning the virtues of the Constitution party. They're just as human as the Republican party. Remember the last election when the Constiution party (and Buchancan) ran against Bush--not Kerry. It was despicable and I will never support them again.
Okay, but you have to promise to stop impugning the character of fine, upstanding Freeperettes.
Agreed, but if you look at my reply #41,
Jeff, why don't you concentrate on something more important to your, IMO, vapant life, like playing cat and mouse bedding Xena
My main criticism was of jmc and I should have put the word trying after the word mouse in the above passage.
And one must admit that jmc, you, and Xena have thrown innuendo to others and amongst yoursleves.
That said, I'm now done with the trivial sidetrack on this thread.
Oh. I thought it meant I had sex with a lot of chicks. Shoot.
When you're as hot as the two of us, it's hard not to.
Reality check, little man.
YOU were the one who dragged me into this.
I was nowhere near this damn thread until you began defaming me.
Then I'm sinning right now, because I am still VERY DAMN angry at Dane for insinuating that I am sleeping with someone to whom I am not engaged.
And I shall continue to sin until he apologizes for the aspersion.
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