News Analysis
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
10/9/2008
There are now four distinct groups of North American Episcopalians/Anglicans.
The first group is those who are deeply committed to The Episcopal Church, come hell or high water. These are institutionalists, life-long Episcopalians often with deep family roots going back several generations. Nothing will move them. Whatever it is they believe in (and it may not be very much), for them the Episcopal Church is THEIR church and they will not be moved from it regardless of anything that might issue forth from 815 2^nd Avenue, NY or whatever sexual preference a bishop might choose.
They are Episcopalians to the end. They will live and die Episcopalians. They will be buried in the church graveyard either with a full headstone or simply in a columbarium. Many, if not most, do not have much of an inkling about what is going on in the Episcopal Church because their diocesan newspapers do not tell them anything. If they do, it will be the bishop’s spin on Lambeth, Robinson, GAFCON or an Anglican Church near them that is not like them.
The bishop will usually write something in a local newspaper, a "From the Bishop" in his diocesan newspaper or at a church forum saying in effect that such and such an Anglican church is not recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury as authentically Anglican and should be ignored. These Episcopalians are happy to oblige.
If scandal erupts, it is localized and the bishop moves swiftly to limit damage control. If the problem IS the bishop himself, as in say Bishop Charles Bennison (PA) or Michael Garrison (WNY), then things can get messy, especially if the local press picks up the story and runs with it.
Nonetheless, these Episcopalians will not be moved. They usually have a certain nostalgia for the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, but have settled happily for the 1979 Prayer Book…a concession they can live with as it is does not upset the status quo. They are generous and give when asked to by their rector. They will live and die Episcopalians even if, God forbid, Jack Spong should announce that he, after all, is god and demands to be worshipped. His heresies and 12 Theses are largely unknown to them. Even if they were to find out about them, they would not be moved to leave The Episcopal Church. They say things like "not in my church" and then move on.They may have a nodding acquaintance with Mrs. Jefferts Schori’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but such information will not touch their lives. They may write out a larger check and then go home to watch the news.
The second group is those who have interloped into the Episcopal Church with an agenda alien to the historic church, the gospel and Holy Scripture. They have captured the reigns of ecclesiastical power with a pansexual agenda. Over the course of the last 40 years they have deftly maneuvered and manipulated committees and executive counsels, and promoted pansexuality first to the clergy and then to the bishops. Seminaries were then co-opted so that the next generation of clergy, fearful of being called fundamentalist, homophobic, uninclusive and lacking diversity, quickly rolled over, allowing the "new thing" coming out of the pulpits to dumb down the next three generations of lay Episcopalians. This second group was led primarily by Dr. Louie Crew with his formation of the homosexual organization Integrity leading ultimately to a plethora of sexualities under the banner of LGBT. It has been a brilliant and masterful takeover. It is now almost complete.
The third group is comprised of those who have "seen the light" and no longer believe in the 10-watt light bulbs running The Episcopal Church. Many of these folks began reading VirtueOnline when it was Virtuosity back in the mid-nineties. The theological and moral stench was too much for them so they began a slow exodus from TEC.
The first to go and reorganize was the Anglican Mission in America, now the Anglican Missions in the Americas, back in the year 2,000. This was three years before the Gene Robinson putsch. The issues then were more theological surrounding the authority of Scripture and holy living (sodomy was swinging but not in full swing). The failure of the church to uphold certain basic doctrines – the failure of Resolution B001 – encapsulated the light in the theological loafers of most bishops and House of Deputies appartik.
These flee-ers were all mostly Episcopalians though their base has widened as a mission outreach to 130 million unchurched Americans. Later CANA, (Nigeria), Uganda and Kenya began Anglican plants on U.S. soil. To date, two dioceses have left The Episcopal Church. Two more plan to do so. Nearly 500 parishes will have departed TEC by the end of the year. The loss of individual Episcopalians remains constant at about 1,000 a week. (This week St. Bartholomew’s in Western New York departed with a thousand members, a case in point.)
By the end of this year it seems almost certain that a new North American Anglican Province will be formed drawing together all the disparate evangelical and Anglo-Catholic groups under one ecclesiastical umbrella with Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan as its archbishop or Primate. The GAFCON Anglican Primates will recognize it, but not necessarily will the Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi (Uganda) has said he will welcome Archbishop Duncan with open arms…he has long ones as he is very tall.
The forth group of Episcopalians is orthodox stayers who are sleeping badly at night over what is happening to the Episcopal Church. Here is a sample of their writings: "We write as an informal group of Episcopalians who share a desire to remain active and loyal members of the Episcopal Church. Most of us find ourselves profoundly at odds with several controversial decisions made by our leaders (General Convention, the Presiding Bishop and Church Center staff, Executive Council, among others) over the past several years. We are alarmed that they seem to represent a consistent trend away from theological, ethical, and pastoral norms that we understand as essential to Anglican faith and practice. Others among us are more open to the reconfiguration of some of these traditional boundaries, yet are concerned that the manner in which this process has been pursued has needlessly alienated many within our own church, raised substantive issues of mutual accountability between Anglican provinces, and increased the awkwardness in our relations with many ecumenical partners, both locally and globally.
"We are deeply saddened by the steady stream of departures from the Episcopal Church that this ongoing crisis has provoked, especially as it has moved beyond individuals to include parochial and diocesan structures. We are not, as a matter of conscience, inclined to join them in their decision to leave. Moreover, we have varying degrees of disagreement with their perception of the necessity or advisability of doing so. Nonetheless, we are not without significant empathy for their position, and hold many of them as cherished friends and co-laborers in the work of the gospel. It is our desire to do whatever may be within our power to prevent the fences that have recently been erected between Anglicans (seen as protective fences by those who have erected them) from evolving into permanent walls, and, should it please God, to facilitate the conditions under which they might be removed.
"At the same time, even amidst our deep uneasiness, we can confidently affirm that the Episcopal Church has not—in a formal and official and corporately univocal way—abandoned the inheritance of faith and practice that underlies Catholic and Anglican Christianity. We rejoice in the orthodoxy of our Book of Common Prayer (1979), in both its liturgical and catechetical texts, as well as the creedal documents that it includes. We recognize it as articulating the faith and teaching of the Episcopal Church, despite the statements and actions of some leaders that are reasonably construed as departing from it.
"Moreover, we are cognizant of our obligation under the vows of our common baptism to assume the good faith and honorable intentions of fellow Episcopalians with whom we may have deep differences on contested questions. We find it important as a matter of principle to avoid demonizing or anathematizing those whom we disagree, even as we remain forthright in the articulation of our disagreement. We rejoice in any opportunity to make common cause with those whom we may perceive as adversaries (never enemies) in acts of gospel witness and service that transcend our differences.
"In these days of great difficulty—indeed, crisis—within both the Episcopal Church and the entire Anglican Communion, we find it worth observing that many who would only recently have been considered "moderately conservative" in the Episcopal ecclesio-political spectrum now, as a result of rapidly shifting dynamics, occupy the veritable "right-wing fringe" of the Episcopal Church. A number of us feel mounting pressure to distance ourselves from the public image of the very church of which we are devoted members.
"This is not an indefinitely sustainable situation. It seems "meet and right," on a number of levels, to seek some measure of structural relief as would decrease that pressure and allow us to live and move and have our being as Episcopalians. If the new "conservative fringe" is to remain securely connected to the institutional whole, some accommodation to their perceived need for insulation from many of the actions of that institutional whole, and the utterances of its leaders, would be immensely helpful."
Now some of these folk can be described as crossover types (not to be confused with transgendered) whose views represent the "majority party". They want to find a language to create and preserve a secure place within the structures of the Episcopal Church for those who hold traditional perspectives that do not reflect those currently held by the leadership, perhaps even including resolutions—legislative and otherwise—for consideration by the 76th General Convention next July.
Whatever counter proposals they propose, they have no real standing at General Convention and when rites for same sex blessings are finally passed at GC2009, David Booth Beers and Jefferts Schori make their final grab for all Episcopal properties and feelers are put out that the next sexual frontier is the full inclusion of transgendered folk. Then a point of order will be declared that speakers at microphones must identify what gender they are before speaking as this could cause confusion among the House of Deputies with some swing (switch hitter) votes going in the wrong direction. God help us all if that should happen.
Orthodox stayers are on precarious ground. This has been more than broadly hinted at by the new Bishop of South Carolina, Mark Lawrence.
Several things now seem clear. Never again will a bishop, whose views on women’s ordination and pansexuality which are not in line with 815, obtain consents to be a bishop of an Episcopal diocese. South Carolina was the last one.
In time, the remnant orthodox will either be driven out or for the sake of their consciences leave.
A new North American Anglican Province will look extremely attractive to many fence sitters and the undecided especially if it is recognized with Archbishop Duncan being seated with the other primates of the Anglican Communion.
Tens of thousands of loyal Episcopalians will no longer be able to ignore the elephant in the sacristy – a new Anglican province. They may not like it, but it will be a done deal. Groups like the Windsor bishops, those looking for a Covenant to save them, the Anglican Communion Institute (ACI) deep thinkers, Dr. Poon’s Global South blog, the Anglican Consultative Council et al will be made largely irrelevant. They will be talking to themselves. The orthodox will no longer listen to anything they have to say. The Episcopal Church’s leadership will now, and far into the future, be in the hands of revisionists.
With each passing month, The Anglican Communion grows more divided. There is a growing momentum that the GAFCON primates themselves may no longer tolerate the innovations of Western pan-Anglican liberalism. This will be bad news for Dr. Rowan Williams.
For the Anglican Communion, the future looks less and less hopeful, but it is equally clear that a new day is dawning. A new vital biblically-based Anglicanism is emerging which will not be put down nor go away.
END
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