Schori to Akinola: Clueless in NYC

The correspondence between the Presiding Bishop and the Primate of Nigeria has received a good deal of scrutiny and comment on the blogs. Presiding Bishop Schori's appeal to ancient practice has been rightly rebuked, criticized and ridiculed. As Archbishop Akinola has pointed out, ancient practice was never intended to protect heretics. In the primates' communique from Tanzania it was pointedly said that border crossings are not the moral equivalents of the sins of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States (pecusa). Further, as Warner Elert states in his seminal work, Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Four Centuries, "How heresy affects church fellowship is a problem for the whole church" (p. 70). Archbishop Akinola's visit to Virginia is in the name of the Anglican Province of Nigeria for the purpose of restoring a remnant of North American Anglicanism to full communion with the entire Anglican Communion.

Elert further states, "the unity of the church is guaranteed by the unity of the bishops" (p. 139). The bishops of pecusa have broken the unity of the Anglican Communion by their heretical acts. Before the consecration of an actively gay man pecusa was told that doing so would tear the fabric of the Anglican Communion. The House of Bishops in agreement with the House of Deputies at General Convention consented to the consecration and thereby consented to the tearing of the fabric of the Communion. The result is that the majority of the Communion have declared themselves to be either out of communion or in impaired communion with pecusa.

This is why Schori's appeal to ancient practice is so disengenuous. It is ancient practice that pecusa has dispensed with as you would with a worn towel. Pecusa has dismissed the concerns of other provinces of the Anglican Communion on the grounds of different cultural realities. Pecusa has shown her utter contempt for the Anglican Communion by her refusal to abide by the teachings of the Communion. As Elert says, "doctrine is the point which at which the unity of the church is most grievously wounded and therefore the point at which also the wounds must again be healed" (p. 143).

The Presiding Bishop talks about reconciliation but by her other words and actions she makes clear that reconciliation can only happen by the rest of the Anglican Communion dropping their objections to the unilateral actions of pecusa. Elert is clear on the right response to this kind of stand: "There is one ground for the denial of church fellowship about which there was never anywhere a difference of opinion in the early church, not even between East and West. Heterodoxy breaks the fellowship ipso facto" (ibid.).

Pecusa has broken the fellowship of the Anglican Communion ipso facto. The orthodox in pecusa want to remain in full communion with the entire Anglican Communion. Akinola's visit to Virginia is part of restoring communion to those in pecusa who continue to believe and proclaim the catholic and apostolic faith.