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September
19, 2007
Column #1,360
Episcopal Church: Likely To Split
by Mike McManus
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, personally met with America's
Episcopal Bishops this week in a last ditch effort to keep the Episcopal Church
in the worldwide Anglican Communion. While the results are not known at this
writing, the odds look grim.
A Windsor Commission appointed by Williams asked the Episcopal Church to do
three things: stop electing and consecrating non-celibate gay priests as
bishops, discontinue performing same-gender marital blessings and offer a
sincere expression of regret for "tearing the fabric" of the Communion by
consecrating V. Gene Robinson, an active gay, as Bishop of New Hampshire
.
The General Convention of the Episcopal Church met last year and refused to take
a stand on same-sex blessings now performed by hundreds of churches and refused
to express regret for Robinson's ordination. It did urge dioceses "to exercise
restraint" in consecrating bishops whose "manner of life presents a challenge to
the wider church." Yet an active lesbian is currently being considered as Bishop
of Chicago.
The Anglican Communion gave the Episcopal Church until September 30 to reverse
course, and Williams made a case in person. Reversal is so unlikely that four
conservative Episcopal dioceses have planned meetings within weeks to vote to
leave the Episcopal Church.
That is an unprecedented step. Even the Civil War, which split the Presbyterians
for a century, did not separate Episcopalians. Nor is leaving the Episcopal
Church easy. Each diocese has to vote twice, a year apart, to exit. San Joaquin
Diocese, based in Fresno, with 53 parishes and 10,700 members has already voted
to leave and will vote again in December.
Other dioceses expected to vote within weeks are: Fort Worth, with 56 parishes
and 19,000 members; Pittsburgh with 70 parishes; and 20,000 members and Quincy,
IL with 21 parishes and 2,800 members. Other conservative dioceses are pondering
the step: Springfield, IL, 40 parishes, 6,300 people; Orlando where 18 parishes
are about to exit; and Albany, NY with 124 churches and 20,000 members.
Orthodox dioceses are also concerned that the denomination has abandoned its
commitment to Scripture. Quincy Bishop Keith Ackerman notes, for example, that
when a resolution was proposed at the General Convention on the "uniqueness of
Christ," it did not even get out of the committee because it was "too
controversial."
Ackerman criticizes the denomination's Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts
Schori, who declares, "There are a variety of ways to God." Yet Jesus said, "I
am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me" (John 14:6). Ackerman adds, "I cannot understand how this is different from
the heresies for which people gave their lives over the centuries. To this day,
people are being killed for their Christian faith, standing up for things the
Episcopalians are shy about defending - about the nature of Christ and
sexuality."
Not only is the Episcopal Church likely to split apart - but so is the 72
million member Anglican Communion. Its bishops voted 526-70 to uphold
traditional marriage and to oppose same-sex marriage. Most of those bishops are
from Africa and Asia as are most Anglicans.
Although the Communion is based in England, of Britain's 60 million people, only
24 million are baptized and 1.25 million attend services weekly. In Nigeria
there are 18.5 million Anglicans, and 95 percent attend weekly. They are
orthodox on faith and sexual issues.
By contrast, Archbishop Williams will lead a "secret" gathering of British
homosexual, lesbian and bi-sexual clergy, celebrate a service of Holy Communion
and give a talk on "Present Realities and Future Possibilities for Lesbians and
Gay Men in the Church," reports David Virtue, on his conservative Anglican
website, Virtueonline.org.
That will infuriate "Global South" Anglicans of color, while white Anglicans in
Britain, North America and Australia, will approve. The Global South may
secede. As Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria puts it, "We do not need to go
through Canterbury to get to Jesus."
However, the split is not as racial as it might appear. Scores of orthodox
Episcopal churches who have left the denomination, have asked Nigeria's Akinola
- plus similar leaders of Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda - for protection and
support. In fact, Africans recently named 18 white U.S."missionary bishops"
whose task seems to be to gather up the orthodox Episcopal Churches who want
out.
They will be competing with already established spinoffs such as the Reformed
Episcopal Church and the newer Anglican Church in America which has 120
churches.
However, many of these leaders will meet in Pittsburgh next week to consider
creating an Anglican Church of North America.
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