Mark Galli: Why this Anglican sees opportunity in the midst of crisis (AMiA)

from Stand Firm by Matt Kennedy 

Mark Galli nails it:

I think it critical in such times that we say what a thing is–only the truth will set us free. And this thing that happened has a name: schism. All the AMIA bishops who have resigned are schismatics.

This is a hard sentence to write and to read, because these are otherwise godly men, whose leadership we have admired. Some we call friends and colleagues. But there is no other word to describe what they’ve done other than the word schism.

This is troubling, first, because it contradicts Jesus’ expressed prayer for the unity of the church. Second, it threatens to make a lie of AMIA’s posture when we first left the Episcopal Church. Some accused us of schism at the time, and we responded in one of two ways: (1) It is not schism if the church we departed had lost its Christian moorings. Or (2) if it is schism, then it is one of the rare exceptions in which schism is the lesser evil. In either case, we held aloft a couple of theological ideals that were motivating us: The authority of Scripture and sexual/moral integrity. We did not leave on a point of personal inspiration.

Chuck Murphy has not tried to justify his departure from Rwanda on any biblical or theological grounds whatsoever. The only ground, as noted, is a matter of personal spiritual experience: as he put it, “the Lord’s present word to me.”

In that little acknowledgement, he and those who followed him have joined the many examples in church history, who because of a point of personal inspiration separated from the church universal. Who comes to mind are the Montanists, the many apocalyptic sects of the Middle Ages and the Reformation, and the many sects of our times. We call these people schismatics...more

Mark Galli is senior managing editor of Christianity Today.