Does Opting for "Local Option" Equate to Opting out of Life in Communion?
by Michael Watson
http://www.stayinanglican.com/stayin_anglican/2010/06/does-opting-for-local-option-.html
June 2010
In this piece I want to critique two articles appearing in the March 2010 issue of News From the Hill, a newsletter of Virginia Theological Seminary. They are companion articles written by two prominent figures in the Diocese of Texas - the Honorable James A. Baker III, former Secretary of State and a member of St. Martin's, Houston, and the Reverend Dr. Russell J. Levenson, rector of St. Martin's. Secretary Baker's article, "Finding Our Way Forward," appears on page 6 of the issue and may be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/yeyplzn. Dr. Levenson's article, "A Time for Self-Restraint: Reclaiming the Middle Way" appears on page 8 of the issue and may be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/ydp5z36. The articles deal with the crisis in The Episcopal Church related to issues that include human sexuality. They propose solutions that can be characterized generally as involving "agreeing to disagree" and implementing local option down to the parish level.
In late March, the Baker and Levenson articles were picked up in the Anglican blogosphere. On the blogs, the two articles drew criticism, in large part based on the belief they exhibited naïveté about the leadership of the national Church. Some commenters were skeptical that agreement on a local option approach would even be within the realm of possibility. I want here to consider these two articles from a different point of view. Putting aside any prediction about whether the dominant forces within the national organization of The Episcopal Church would be receptive to local option, I will argue that both articles fail to consider the basic Anglican doctrine that while some things are adiaphora (things that don't make a difference), others aren't. Further, I will observe that in the case of the issues involved here, the Anglican Communion has some time ago decided that positions now being taken by The Episcopal Church contravene the acceptable limits of diversity. From a Communion point of view, these are not issues as to which an "agreement to disagree" is appropriate. Although avenues for further discussion can and should remain open and reexamination of that determination is not foreclosed, that is where matters stand. I hope to be able to express my disagreement in a respectful way, especially since the persons with whom I am disagreeing are the rector and a distinguished member of the parish I attend.
Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org
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