How I See It

Many of us close to the events have suffered through a long period of grief with The Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA (PECUSA), but its name and identity have been changed. It is now simply The Episcopal Church (TEC). Grief bears with it a terrible sense of helplessness and some anger and you are seeing some of that anger coming out in a variety of reactions at this period of time. However we don’t want to end up like the gunslinger who started shooting before he got his gun out of the holster.

What is going on in the Anglican Communion is an old problem, “The Church has never been surprised…by the fact that again and again men come to it who think the thoughts of the old world…but the Church is naturally in tumult when these children of the world that has passed away lay claim to the Church, to the new, for themselves. They want the new and only know the old. And thus they deny Christ the Lord.”1 The new Fundamentalists proclaiming the word of God to us in these days are the leaders of The Episcopal Church and they are bluntly saying the following: Jesus is not the unique Son of God, nor is he the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Holy Scripture is not a sufficient or reliable guide to faith. They are saying that homosexuals, lesbians, and other alternative life styles are godly and worthy of ordination to both priesthood and the episcopacy and that no-one has the right to deny them being called to be your parish priest or bishop on the grounds of their sexual orientation. They are saying that same sex marriages are blessed by God and that no priest or bishop will have the right to deny them marriages in any of our churches. This revisionist theology is not a matter of opinions or mere intellectual discussion, but rather a matter of eternal salvation. Jesus says, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:5,6 ESV).

Both the Presiding Bishop elect (in several interviews) and two successive General Conventions have made their positions clear. The new Presiding Bishop elect will have eight years in which she will be able to make this abundantly clear, whether or not you like it. In the dioceses that agree with this new theology of TEC, conservative churches are not, even at this point, at liberty to call conservative priests, for the simple reason that many TEC bishops will not accept conservative clergy in their dioceses. Mission churches are in a more difficult position and must accept whomever the diocesan bishop appoints as their priest regardless of sexual orientation, whether or not they are married or celibate. I have some personal knowledge of this in a specific parish in New Hampshire. In TEC missions and parishes the diocese will legislate what are the acceptable standards for holy matrimony.

There is in TEC no room for any who do not agree with the theology that TEC is proclaiming. PECUSA used to be known for its breadth and tolerance, but in TEC that breadth and tolerance has been replaced by a new inflexible, harsh and judgmental liberalism that is proclaiming that they alone have the true word of God, and that those who disagree will not be tolerated. There are moves already in several dioceses to try to force clergy into taking a loyalty oath to their revisionist bishop and to TEC.

The Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA now only exists in the conservatives who are being driven out, and TEC bishops all over the country are trying to seize their property. This is being hotly contested in a number of legal battles. One thing seriously at issue is the question whether TEC has any longer the rights of PECUSA in light of the fact that the leaders of TEC have renounced the faith of both PECUSA and the Anglican Communion. TEC will no longer be in communion with Canterbury or 90% of the Anglican Communion (not just the Global South). The last General Convention made that certain, and the Primates of the Anglican Communion are speaking out on that issue. The Archbishop of Canterbury has already proposed a new structure in which faithful PECUSA Churches will be “Constituent Churches” and TEC will become “Churches in Association.” Churches in association have no voice or vote and their presence at Anglican meetings including Lambeth and will be in the same positions as guests from any other denominational group.

What is going on in the Anglican Communion is a New Anglican Reformation, not a replay of some theoretical Puritan movement that is saying, "Come out from amongst them and be clean." We are seeing the beginning of a new re-formation in which the majority of the Anglican Communion is saying to The Episcopal Church, repent and return to the faith of your fathers in PECUSA and the Anglican Communion. The “P” in PECUSA stands for Protestant and designates that as a denomination we are the direct heirs of the English Reformation. This new re-formation is not merely Anglican, it is at its heart Christian Formation at its historical best. This New Anglican Reformation is not formulated in negative theology, but in a clear and positive proclamation of the ancient gospel in our present time. This proclamation calls us to a new re-formation of our faith and practice.

Christian Formation, following the Incarnation, is rooted in a particular and specific human tradition. Christ Jesus was Incarnate in the ongoing history of the Hebrew people at a specific point in time, and his Incarnation, by choice, shared the culture of the Jews, not of the Romans or Greeks, and certainly not the culture of our contemporary Western humanism.

We are also are formed in that ongoing tradition and our identity as a branch of the family of God is rooted in the Anglican tradition which itself flows in direct line from the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone. That ongoing river of the Spirit flows through the Early Church, through the history of English Spirituality, through the English Reformation, down to the present time. By definition as Anglicans we are the children of the English Reformation and retain a unique balance between word and sacrament that is firmly rooted in the self-revelation of God in Holy Scripture. “Holy Scripture is the voice of God, and the Church is His echo” (John Donne ~ Sermons).

We have a careful and unique approach to the relationship of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason.

The foundation is God in Christ Jesus. Holy Scripture reveals the mind of God. The Catechism teaches that “We recognize truths to be taught by the Holy Spirit when they are in accord with the Scriptures” (BCP p. 853). Tradition helps us understand and apply Scripture, but must never go beyond it, as it is written, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2). Reason helps us understand Scripture and Tradition, but itself must be disciplined and corrected by both Scripture and Tradition. St. Anselm said, “I believe in order to understand.” For that reason we would carefully adhere to the ancient definition of Vincent of Lerins, “We hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.” This faith finds its _expression in our liturgy and in The Book of Common Prayer. Wherever you go in faithful Anglicanism you will recognize the family identity in both theology and worship. Part of that identity is that styles of worship vary, but the substance of the faith remains the same.

Christian Formation is necessarily for us an Anglican Reformation, or more specifically a New Anglican Reformation that carefully calls us back to the theology reflected in the Early Church, in the ongoing tradition of English Spirituality, and in the English Reformation. It breathes through those principles the breath of the Holy Spirit Himself. We are Biblical, Sacramental, and Growing in the Spirit, but that growth must not cut itself off from the roots of our faith.

Christian Formation is also the end goal of discipleship. We are to go into the world, baptize, and make disciples “teaching them to observe all things” that Jesus has commanded. The goal of discipleship “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12,13). The end goal of discipleship is “Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, … that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:27-28). It extends far beyond that, for in Christ “the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (Colossians 2:9).

What is going on is not a Puritan retreat from sinful humanity but a New Anglican Reformation that is calling people to their historic roots in faith and practice. One of the marks of PECUSA was an amazing breadth of tolerance for a variety of viewpoints. That tolerance is a generous gospel attitude that still exists in parishes like ours, but you will not find it in TEC. It no longer exists there. Instead you will have to carry it with you into the future as you embrace the New Anglican Reformation, and allow yourself to be re-formed in the image of Christ Jesus.

Where do we go from here? That indeed is the question. First, know who you are and to Whom you belong. As for me and my house, we come from a long and noble heritage. We are Anglican Christians whose faith was nurtured in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA and we will remain true to that faith even as TEC departs from the Anglican Communion. Second, we do not intend to react impulsively with fear, but with faith, prayer, and in an orderly fashion. The Archbishop of Canterbury has laid out a clear and workable option for the Anglican Communion in the establishment of a new covenant relationship of its active members. TEC is already making it clear that it will not submit to that covenant or the standards that the Anglican Communion has always held. We will continue to stand with the Anglican Communion and with the faithful members of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA (PECUSA), and with our bishop, whatever TEC does. On a practical level the process of the separation of TEC from the Anglican Communion, and the provision of a secure base for faithful Anglican members of PECUSA is going firmly forward. It is my personal opinion that the steps providing a clear alternative will become rapidly apparent.

Some of those steps will come in the responses of the people of our dioceses and in the responses of other dioceses. The actions of TEC have irrevocably torn the fabric of Anglicanism and I do not believe that it can be repaired and still maintain business as usual with those who are responsible for the actions of the last two General Conventions. Those actions have been accompanied by a number of bishops and dioceses of TEC, not only stating publicly their clear intention to break with Scripture and tradition, but already carrying out those intentions in several dioceses. Among those bishops and dioceses is the new Presiding Bishop elect. Over the years they have demonstrated that they believe that the way to create change is to do what they want to do and let theology and the Church catch up with them later, if it will. For them dialogue is a smoke screen that enables them to do what they wish. I believe that further dialogue is pointless and that the only course open before us is to allow TEC to go its own way, and in so doing take those steps that are needed to secure the identity of the remnant of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA and our continuing relationship with Canterbury and the larger Church.

¹ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall, translated by John C. Fletcher, (New York: Macmillan, 1959), 11.