Do Unto TEC-ists As You Would To The Moonies

Via VirtueOnline:

by Julian Mann
May 24, 2010

Mrs Jefferts Schori has expressed confidence that TEC's promotion of Mr Robinson and now Ms Glasspool is gaining acceptance in the wider Anglican Church. http://tinyurl.com/27jl7zu> That is of course the revisionist strategy in a nutshell. Push out the boundaries of what is acceptable and wait for the visible Church to get used to it.

But, if I may speak personally as a parish plodder in another part of the Anglican Communion (England), I hope I would treat Mrs Schori, or any other member of TEC who shares her worldview, in the same way as I would treat an adherent of another religion. TEC-ism is a religion and in a free and democratic society its adherents should be allowed to practise their faith, under the rule of civilised law. But TEC-ism is not Christianity.

If a TEC-ist visited Sheffield and was in need of the practical assistance of a Good Samaritan, my Christian duty would be to offer it, as one should to any person made in the image of God. But I would certainly not knowingly take Holy Communion with a card-carrying TEC-ist any more than I would take Holy Communion with a Moonie.

The fact that the flag-waving Moonie may once have been confirmed or even ordained according to the rights of the Anglican Church should not make any difference.

It is unwise to be cocky in advance of a challenge one has not previously faced. I do not know how I would react under pressure from the institutional Church locally to take Holy Communion with a visiting TEC-ist at what would be effectively an inter-faith service. I pray that I would do the right thing and be given the grace and strength to endure the consequences.

It is absolutely inappropriate to take the holy symbols of Christ's 'full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world' with or from a person who has publicly, flagrantly and persistently denied the truth of Christ's Gospel and is openly advocating an alternative worldview to Christianity.

The sacrament of the Lord's Supper is Christ's, not mine. I am not free to put a desire to meet the expectations of fellow clergy in the institutional Church above loyalty to Christ. That would in fact be idolatry.


---Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire, UK. His weblog is Cranmer's Curate.