Editor’s note: Today we begin to publish online the Christmas issue of The Living Church, given to a symposium on “Jesus and the Unity of the Church” — a call for a renewed “ministry of reconciliation” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17,18) “across both real and apparent lines of division over matters of sexuality and order.” We will publish six responses in the days preceding Christmas.

The Episcopal Church — and, by extension, the Anglican Communion, as well as the wider body of Christians — needs “a movement among a critical mass of leaders, especially priests and bishops of the church, to place the teaching and preaching of basic Christian doctrines about the person and work of Christ at the center of their ministry,” suggest Leander Harding and Christopher Wells. If such a movement were to unfold in a visible, undeniable kind of a way, our disagreements would not immediately be dispelled; they would, however, be transfigured in Christ, marking the way to their resolution. Responding to Harding and Wells are six pairs of bishops, seminary deans, and other leaders of the Episcopal Church.

After more than 130 years of publishing a weekly magazine, the first issue of The Living Church in 2011 will mark a shift to publishing every other week, with an expanded palette of 32 color pages as the norm. We at TLC cannot think of a better way to have marked this transition, sounding a note of hope for the future, than to reflect on the proper centrality of the Lord Jesus for all that we are and do as Christians. We pray that the project may both encourage and challenge all sorts and conditions of folks who stumble across it to imagine how Episcopalians and Anglicans of various kinds may yet pull together again around “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” with a common understanding of what is, and is not, affirmed by those words.

By Leander S. Harding and Christopher Wells

The Episcopal Church remains divided, even after the separate formation of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA). The founders of ACNA — many individuals, including majority memberships of parishes and dioceses — could not accept the recent changes in the standards for ordination or the revision of the Church’s teaching about sexual morality, and therefore left the Episcopal Church. Other traditionalists, however, have felt called to remain as witnesses to the apostolic faith, even as we labor for a renewed and reconciled global Anglicanism as held out in the Anglican Covenant. “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others …. For the love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor. 5:11,14).

In this context, “in Christ,” what might a “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:17,18) withinthe Episcopal Church look like? Is it possible that we still have common work to do, across both real and apparent lines of division over matters of sexuality and order, that may bear truthful witness to the gospel of the Lord?

A number of leaders in the Episcopal Church express a desire to encourage the minority, reassuring us that our presence and voices are both welcome and necessary as the loyal opposition. But what would real encouragement look like? Granting that we cannot easily resolve our disagreements at present, is there nonetheless some gesture that might begin to restore a shared sense of identity and common purpose?

The character of the debate over sexuality has left a significant number of Episcopalians with the uneasy feeling that many in the leadership of our church do not believe that Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God, knowing and serving whom is a matter of supreme importance for all people everywhere. This may well be unfair, a reaction based on stereotypes built up in the heat of polemics. The impression of a disagreement about an issue as fundamental as the identity of the Lord must, however, be addressed and corrected if trust is to be restored.

The Episcopal Church needs a movement among a critical mass of leaders, especially priests and bishops of the church, to place the teaching and preaching of basic Christian doctrines about the person and work of Christ at the center of their ministry. This could take the form of line-by-line exposition of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. Perhaps the House of Bishops could undertake together a study of “the scandal of particularity”: that through the Incarnation, atoning death, and glorious resurrection of the Son of God, the Father has provided the point of unity and reconciliation — salvation — for the warring children of the world. As a result of this common study the bishops could direct a teaching to the church on Jesus Christ today, Lord of the Church and Lord of the world. When St. Paul undertook such a curriculum in the context of ancient Rome, he reported that it was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks but to the Church, both Jew and Greek, the power of God and the wisdom of God (see 1 Cor. 1:23,24).

Such a movement would per force refocus the life of our church on that which is truly central, and help to frame a way forward in Christ with respect to our continued disagreements. The center of the Church is not the midpoint between extremes but the Incarnation, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, the Messiah of God. A renewed consensus about the person and work of the Lord might not immediately dispel our disagreements which are grave, wounding the body of the Church. It would, however, properly locate those disagreements, and mark the way to their resolution.

The Rev. Dr. Leander S. Harding teaches pastoral theology at Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Dr. Christopher Wells is executive director of The Living Church Foundation.


Hat tip: Leander Harding