Anglican: September 2007 Archives
My Friend, and former Episcopal priest, Taylor Marshal makes some good comments about bishop Jeffrey Steenson --actually they are comments about the commentators. Bishop Steenson, if you didn't know, is stepping down from his post, leaving the episcopate, and leaving the episcopal church to go to Rome. Such moves are not unusual in Christendom, but when a bishop does it, it can be quite shocking.
There are a lot of conservative Anglicans who are angry over his declaration to depart. They feel deserted, and they have a point. If all the conservatives would have stayed back when The Episcopal Church (ECUSA) changed their prayer book, then they might have had more influence today, but some left. Then when ECUSA decided to throw out 2000 years of scripture and tradition for a new reason many more conservatives left (yours truly include).
Taylor is right about compromise. Everyone compromises to one degree or another. Although ECUSA is filled with beauty and tradition, she is also filled with a lot of dung. ECUSA happens to be the champion of compromise it's just a matter of how much smell you can tolerate.
Many conservative churches hire non-believers for their choirs. Churches which allege to support "one man+one women" allow divorce, even among the clergy. Even that golden glimmer of Anglican hope in Plano Texas has a rector who is divorced and remarried. According to scripture he is disqualified from the priesthood, but, hey, he's such a nice guy!
A huge compromise that most Christians -- even the self righteous evangelicals protestants -- support is contraception. No one wants to have children. Apparently children are a curse, especially for women. I could write a lot on this subject but my point is: I actually met ONE Episcopal priest who knew this compromise-- just one --It was a day of great encouragement for this father of eight (happened to be between Christmas Eve services). I was sad when that priest left the Episcopal church and went to Rome.
When spiritual leaders "change", when they step away from their post, weather they commit some awful sin or decide to convert to something else, people feel hurt. Lay people are entitled to be wishy washy, we can go from here to there, but our ministers are supposed to be solid. So blame the lay people :) A portion of our faith is placed in the leader (even if it's not supposed to be). When the shepherd leaves the flock the flock gets confused. The sheep don't know what's happing, or why. Maybe the shepherd is actually trying to lead his flock to greener pastures, or maybe he has decided that he would rather join the wolves.
The following was originally submitted as a post to the Episcopal Apostacy Yahoo group back in 03 or 04. Unfortunately it never got posted--probably because it was too controversial. I later put this up on what was the beginning of an early blog.
Just this past week, the bishops of the Episcopal church essentially decided to drop kick the rest of the Anglican Communion, but what's really cool is that it looks like the Arch Bishop of Canterbury, will support them. This means that, if all goes right, many bishops in the "global south" (the black and brown members of the Anglican communion who happen to be in the majority) will separate from the "See of Canterbury".
For sporting fans this should be massively interesting to watch. The whole communion will be torn to shreds! In my world, this is a good thing. I mean, come on, If you are going to call yourself a church--a religion, an ancient religion, a Christian religion, shouldn't you keep to your long standing beliefs? OK, maybe not.
Anyway, what I wrote back then is quiet interesting, and since I'm going to delete the original file from my web site, here it is anew.
From Circa 2003...............
The Problem is ... The more I consider what is happening in the Anglican communion, the more that I realize the liberals are right. The church has chosen her direction. The "Anglican" communion allows for: infanticide, birth control, women's ordination, and homosexuality. This is the way it is. No, not all bishops in every place go along with these--or other tenants--but this IS the way it is.
The argument that they have changed what the church has "always" taught is preverbal bull. Many things previously taught have been changed, and accepted. Heresy has even been openly tolerated with no discipline (e.g. Spong). The Anglican church is ultimately a democracy; majority rules; and the majority ruled.
The problem is that the conservatives want to be "Anglican". They don't want start a new thing. And the reason they don't want to start a new thing?...
No, it's not apostolic succession. It's not the rich history. It is property. Too many congregations are unwilling to give up their lovely church building, their history, their plot of land, their address. But the time has come. If all the members of a Mormon ward wanted to become Baptist, they would need to leave the building. Likewise, the conservatives need to make a decision.
If they really want to be a witness to the world then they should declare that they are no longer Anglican (not just Episcopalian), that the "Anglican Communion" has demonstrated it's apostasy. They should turn in the keys to the church, and walk away. Move down the street to a gym, seek guidance from godly bishops, who likewise walk away, leave the property, pensions, vestments, and yes even the columbium's that may be there. Leave their history and start anew.
If this were to happen then the world would see that these schismatics really believe what they say, so much so, that they would give up everything for their faith.
I don't believe this will happen.
