A longer response to Jeff Murph

In a recent essay posted at Three Rivers Episcopal, a priest in the Diocese of Pittsburgh raised again the dictum of Virginia Bishop Peter Lee. Bishop Lee’s dictum that when faced with the choices of heresy and schism we should choose heresy has been much discussed over the last four years or so. The fact that the apostolic church never chose to live with either does not dissuade those who hold firmly or tentatively to Lee’s construction. As the early church understood, living with heresy is a form of schism. Heresy divides. As theologian Thomas Oden says,

Unity eludes us when we dodge the truth. Orthodoxy requires the clear
rejection of every half-truth. It requires a discerning critical spirit. It
can flourish only through constant vigilance precisely at those points
where faith is being falsely charged or distorted or intimidated. It
listens for points where scripture is being superficially quoted, where
false teachers “feigning faith” offer “something like a deadly drug
with honeyed wine.” [The Rebirth of Orthodoxy, p. 130]

The quotation marks above are to indicate that Oden is quoting from Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, writing to another church in the late first century or early second century. The early church didn’t choose heresy to avoid schism; the early church confronted heresy and drew boundaries around the true faith. It declared false teachers, that is, heretics, outside the bounds of the church. The early church prevented heresy from dividing the church by putting heresy and heretics outside the church.

The orthodox who remain in pecusa do so alongside heresy. They do so in some cases on the basis of a theology that has an appearance of Biblical authenticity. However, when we look at the New Testament we see that Jesus led a renewal movement within Judaism that was not well-received by the religious authorities and was forced outside the religious mainstream of Israel. We see that the apostolic church flourished apart from Judaism as it declared the Good News of God’s grace through His Son Jesus Christ. At those junctures when heresy arose in the apostolic church, heresy was removed from the church by removing false teachers and reaffirming the true faith.

Do we see the removal of false teachers in pecusa? Hardly - it is the false teachers who are in charge. It is the false teachers who are persecuting those who stand in the mainstream of traditional and contemporary Anglicanism. Bishop Lee promotes false teaching by suggesting that the church should choose heresy in order to avoid division. The unity that exists in pecusa between the orthodox and the innovators is a false unity - it is a fiction. We cannot have genuine unity with God and unity with each other in God’s Church while we are joined with those who promote false teachings, what the Apostle Paul called "another gospel."

In the Nicene Creed, we say that we believe in the "one holy catholic and apostolic church." These four attributes are the marks of the true church. The true church is one in unity of faith and practice. There is no real unity within pecusa because the diversity of beliefs, even on core doctrines, prevents real unity. Second, pecusa cannot be holy while promoting and blessing behavior that Scripture clearly marks as unholy.

Third, pecusa has abandoned the catholic faith, even within the Anglican Communion, as well as with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. pecusa has chosen liberal sectarianism over the faith of the universal church. Fourth, pecusa has sacrificed apostolic truth in its embrace of cultural norms. If any of this is not clear, then you haven’t been paying attention during the last four years.

Inasmuch as pecusa departs from the marks of the true church she moves in the direction of schism and apostasy from Christ's Church. Since 2003, when the General Convention of pecusa spurned the entreaties of the Anglican instruments of unity and abandoned adherence to the teachings of the Anglican Communion, pecusa has been in schism. How orthodox men and women can in good conscience remain in an apostate church is beyond my understanding. Why it’s not plain to them that the inside strategy has failed is a mystery.

One possibility that Fr. Murph doesn't even consider is that the Holy Spirit is working through his bishop and the other bishops of the realignment to reform His Church. My suggestion to Fr. Murph is that he go back and read about Athanasius and see how that godly bishop acted in his time for the true faith. Godly unity can only happen in a church that is committed to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic faith. When a church loses its way as pecusa has, and as much of the church did in the time of Athanasius, God raises up godly men to steer the church back into the deeper waters of the orthodox faith. I happen to believe that God has raised up Bishop Duncan in the Diocese of Pittsburgh for just this task.