It's time to let Episcopalians go on their own

From DelawareOnline:

Posted Thursday, September 27, 2007

OPINION

Rhonda B. Graham

Contrary to the vibrant history of unity movements in modern-day Christianity, too many forget -- or refuse to accept -- that it is biblical to part company.

This is what the Episcopal Church in America needs to consider, even had bishops from Third World dioceses not raided their corps to assume authority over disaffected conservative members.

On Tuesday, the American bishops rejected demands by leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion -- of which the church is a member -- to roll back their liberal stance on homosexuality. The decision is reverberating with more talk of fracture within the communion and the Episcopal Church itself.

It's erroneous to entirely blame the current friction over ordination of gays and lesbians and blessing ceremonies that resemble marriage.

Backtrack to 1979 when church leadership updated the Book of Common Prayer, the fourth one since its first edition of 1790. The rage over alterations like combining three baptism rites into one, de-emphasizing the Ten Commandments and rearranging the Lord's Prayer widened the divide in the pews that had begun three years earlier when women were permitted ordination.

But when the denomination decided in 2003 to ordain its first gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who was living in a committed relationship, conservatives said enough is enough. They became rankled even more when Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected leader of the American wing last year.

African, and to a lesser extent Southeast Asian and Latin American, prelates raced to appoint American bishops and assume jurisdiction over congregations that wanted to leave as a result.

The heads, or primates, of Anglican provinces outside the United States have taken under their wings 200 to 250 of the more than 7,000 congregations in the Episcopal Church.

Robinson's consecration was the tipping point for both sides. It was an affront to many loyalists' idea of "ecclesiastical union." They were willing to live with church rules that barred ordination to gays and lesbians who were not celibate. They were willing to let congregations that disagreed to ordain homosexuals.

Gays and lesbian saw the consecration as a turning point in acceptance of their loyalty to church and spiritual worthiness to assume leadership roles.

But the bishops' move this week rejects the idea of a parallel structure for both sides to co-exist. They say it would compromise church autonomy.

You bet. At stake is control of millions of dollars in property held "in trust" by local congregations in a denomination that has seen its membership rolls steadily decline.

But what good is autonomy that is consistently ignored and challenged by both sides, which cite their varied interpretations of Holy Scriptures as their primary motivator?

The New York Times notes that several months ago, a sizable number of bishops would have argued for unity of the communion at almost any cost. Several bishops said that far fewer would do so now.

Parting may be sweet sorrow, but there are divides that make it necessary to disassemble rickety bridges. This best characterizes the relationship of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

A public unity that hides the fissures over hard-core beliefs that cut to the heart of principles that both sides hold dear is doomed.

The apostle Paul's row with Mark ended when the two bitterly disagreed over a missionary trip. They later embraced, although neither side ceded their original point of view.

The apostle and disciple understood what the modern Episcopal Church refuses to acknowledge: Unity with such serious division is not communion. It's hypocrisy.