News Analysis
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
10/14/2008
The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori told a Columbus Dispatch newspaper reporter that she thinks the worst of the crisis in the denomination is over. She also predicted that openly gay bishops will be elected in the future, despite an agreement among bishops not to consent to such elections for the time being.
Ironically, this is the first time Mrs. Jefferts Schori has ever admitted that there is a crisis in the church, having told the church and press on numerous occasions that only a handful of people have left the church, and that the vast majority of people will stay.
In Virginia Beach in 2007, she said in an interview that congregations had "gotten a lot of attention and been very noisy," but accounted for less than 1 percent of the country's total number of parishes, which she put at 7,500.
"The Episcopal Church is alive and well," she later told a group of Episcopal Communicators.
If that is the case, why is she now talking about a "crisis?" Is she finally admitting that the recent defections indicate a much bigger problem than she ever anticipated?
Did she figure on the national and international outrage at the deposition of Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, despite the silence of the Archbishop of Canterbury?
While obtaining an honorary doctorate at Bexley Hall Seminary in Columbus, Jefferts Schori spoke of her grief about the Pittsburgh Diocese's decision to leave because of disagreements with the church over biblical teachings about homosexuality and salvation. "That's just profoundly sad," she said.
"Arguing about fine details of theology isn't the main reason for our existence." The focus instead should be on service and evangelism, she said. This is utter theological nonsense. The biblical teaching on homosexuality -- all seven passages - is explicit in its condemnation of this behavior, with St. Paul declaring that such persons who indulge in it "will not inherit the kingdom." (AIDS will ultimately end your "existence".)
If you think playing Russian roulette with your soul is a "fine detail", you might want to think twice and reconsider Pascal's wager. And if "salvation" is no big deal, and clearly Mrs. Jefferts Schori doesn't think so, playing it down as secondary or an issue of little consequence in favor of what she calls "service and evangelism" begs the question as to what her definition of "mission" and "evangelism" is.
Her idea of "mission" has nothing to do with the Great Commission. It is pushing social justice issues of human amelioration concentrating on this worldly salvation that ignores the fact that God has made us for Himself, to live with Him in permanent fellowship regardless of whether you are white or black, rich or poor. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, "...the chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."
It is the height of hubris and arrogance to believe that MDG's will solve the whole world's problems. Even if they did, would we not see a repeat of the avarice and greed that afflicts Western economies repeated elsewhere? She totally ignores the profound and deep spiritual crisis afflicting the West and treats the deep chasm in the souls of millions of men and women, as well as the spiritual hungers people have, as though they simply don't exist or, if they do, they are of totally secondary importance.
She recently said that "we need to be examining the fact that our brothers and sisters, Anglican and not, in places like Africa and Asia don't have enough to eat. Their children don't have the opportunity to go to school. AIDS and tuberculosis and malaria are rampant in many parts of this world and people with those diseases don't have access to adequate health care. That's where our focus needs to be."
Now it is ironic that it is in these very same countries where all these problems are rampant, that the Christian Faith is growing by leaps and bounds with millions coming to Christ each month DESPITE poverty and disease. At the same time, affluent Western countries (including Mrs. Jefferts Schori's own USA) are declining spiritually largely because of rampant materialism and where moral relativism (which includes sodomy) is rife.
Church attendance is dropping off by the millions in the West. In England where everyone eats every day less than a million out of 60 million people attend church. Millions of Evangelicals are dropping out of churches in America, according to religion writer Julia Duin, because they are unable to find spiritual sustenance for their souls.
And what of evangelism? It is certainly not Biblical evangelism she has in mind. She has said on more than one occasion that she would never try to convert a Muslim to Christ. Jesus is not "the way" but "a way" of reaching the Father. It should never be thrust down the throats of anyone who has an alternative theological or religious position.
"For Christians, we say that our route to God is through Jesus. That doesn't mean that a Hindu doesn't experience God except through Jesus. It says that Hindus and people of other faith traditions approach God through their own cultural contexts," says Schori.
Is it bigotry or obedience to tell someone about Jesus? She says we should "listen" to the stories of others.
"We must learn new words and ways to tell our story" to "reach the unchurched" in this postmodern culture. That said, Jefferts Schori begs the question: What exactly is "our story?" Moreover, it raises the question: Might some "new words" that we use to reach the unchurched actually undermine "our story?"
What is "our story" if it is not the Good News of Jesus' life, death and resurrection? "Listening" for listening sake, ends up in the pooling of ignorance.
I have a story about how I came to Christ. My wife has her story. We had different pathways. No two followers of Christ share the same personal testimony, but we share the same Gospel story, the same Good News of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We share a common story, but ultimately it is His story not mine or ours. It is God's redemptive story brought to us in Jesus of Nazareth.
Mrs. Jefferts Schori doesn't seem to comprehend that. She is clearly embarrassed by the exclusivity of the Christian story.
BUT now she must face the exclusivity of the orthodox Anglican story in North America. She doesn't like it one little bit because it says her "inclusive" story doesn't include them. Because they want to leave, she is angry and frustrated and fights back by misusing the canons and letting loose her legal pit bull David Booth Beers on anyone who won't play in her ecclesiastical sandbox.
Her worst fears are now being realized. Her inclusive theology, having excluded orthodox and faithful believers, has resulted in wholesale departures from The Episcopal Church. Before the year is out, or soon into a new one, a North American Anglican Province will become a reality. It will open its arms to include as many as 500 parishes, at least 200 of them from four TEC dioceses, with dozens more from AMiA, CANA, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, unaffiliated and many from the Continuing Churches.
To prevent this from happening, she is spending millions of dollars litigating against these dioceses and parishes. This is at a time when giving is down and the Episcopal Church is contracting with aging and dying members, double- digit congregations, and diminishing incomes as most of the large evangelical parishes have already left TEC.
She may not care that there won't be much of a remnant Anglo-Catholicism in TEC by the end of the year, but it is has been the large orthodox (evangelical) parishes in most dioceses that have been paying the diocesan bills. Those days are gone.
And what of the current crisis in the financial markets? Does she think this won't affect parish incomes which in turn will affect diocesan coffers and therefore giving to the national church. The first to suffer will be the 0.7% to her much ballyhooed Millennium Development Goals. VOL learned this week that prominent parishes in wealthy suburbs of Diocese of New Jersey have huge deficits with no sign that things will suddenly be reversed.
Jefferts Schori says the worst is over. If she thinks so, she is deluding herself.
The more homogenital sex is played up, the worse things are becoming in TEC. Sin, sex and salvation is on the minds of many moderate bishops these days. The days of overwhelming support for her agenda are wearing thin in a number of quarters.
The Rt. Rev. D. Bruce MacPherson of Western Louisiana said in his diocesan address recently that the Episcopal Church is out of control.
His is a new voice raised in anguish at the state of affairs in TEC. He blasted the recent depositions of Bishop Bob Duncan, Bill Cox and John-David Schofield. "It is my fear that should a correction not be forthcoming, we are going to see more dioceses seeking refuge through realignment. San Joaquin has done this, and as of this past weekend, the Diocese of Pittsburgh has also, and sadly there are others anticipating this action in the not too distant future.
The solution is not in continuing to dismantle the Church, but at present this is what is happening as a result of the direction The Episcopal Church is being led, and through the continuing changes being wrought by General Convention. We simply cannot ignore that which has been handed down to us, or in the words of Jude, I "appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." [Jude 3]
No other dioceses have expressed a desire to leave, Jefferts Schori said. "I think we're well past the worst of the crisis," she said. Really. The Pittsburgh Diocese was the second in the United States to leave the church, after the Diocese of San Joaquin in Fresno, Calif. Next month, dioceses in Fort Worth, Texas, and Quincy, Ill., will vote to leave the Episcopal Church. Individual churches, including several in Ohio, have also decided to break from the denomination.
Part of the church's mission is to fight oppression in all its forms, starting with racism, said, Jefferts Schori, while apologizing for the Episcopal Church's role in perpetuating and profiting from slavery. What about the oppression going on right now towards any and all orthodox Episcopalians who feel totally oppressed by revisionist bishops?
Ask any orthodox, faithful priest in a liberal/revisionist diocese what his existence is like and he will tell you in no uncertain terms. Just ask the Rev. Don Armstrong in the Diocese of Colorado, or the Rev. Ron Gauss in the Diocese of Connecticut what oppression is all about and they will give you an earful.
Ask Fr. David L. Moyer what it has been like for nearly a decade under the oppressive heel of Bishop Charles E. Bennison in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Now, the worm has turned and it is Bennison who faces a civil trial next week for his treatment of Fr. Moyer. Jefferts Schori and David Booth Beers may dislike Charles Bennison, their hatred of orthodox priests is even greater. Beers has agreed to be a witness for Bennison in the Moyer trial.
It isn't a pretty picture. Orthodox parish priests have made their parishes grow preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now they face eviction with their properties torn from them because they won't buy the pansexual gospel of bishops like O'Neill, Smith and Bennison.
It's on the street that you hear the real stories, not in high pulpits listening to the Presiding Bishop talk of her lofty goals to save humanity with MDGs while local parish priests and some bishops face eviction, loss of salary, pension, and medical benefits.
Members of the old Soviet Politburo lived like princes while the people lived like dogs under the heel and tyranny of communism. When the people rise up in TEC, they are put down for their views. Their theology is not wanted.
In the end this truth will stand sure, "He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts; He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree." Luke 1:51-52. Mrs. Jefferts Schori should take note.
END
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