A church past its prime

It was a lovely ceremony. Lots of hugging and crying, all the old friends who hadn't seen each other in ages along for the party. And even television cameras there as well. Which is why, truth be told, a lot of the people came along in the first place. A wonderful day out, and the catering was, darling, absolutely first class.

I refer to the ordination as bishop in the United States of an obscure homosexual clergyman in an obscure place in an obscure denomination. The name of the man isn't even that important. His religious affiliation is Episcopalian, a group so small that regular churchgoers within it constitute perhaps 3% or less of the country's population. Even its official membership, typically a larger number than genuine support, is less than 10% of the country.

All this is a shame. Because there are still some superb men and women in this group, and they struggle and digress because of the childish whims of a vocal minority.

The great Martin Luther campaigned against the selling of indulgences by the corrupt Roman church in the 16th century.

Five hundred years later, we have to witness the self-indulgences of this WASP church.

I say WASP (in North America, at least), because it is mainly a middle-class, Anglo-Saxon faction that is so obsessed with homosexuality. They are an ethnic church, and are moribund.

Yet the Anglican Church is actually growing like a spiritual fire in Africa and Asia, where even in relatively small African states there are more active Anglicans than in all of North America!

The only real growth in Canada, Britain and the United States is in the evangelical or semi-orthodox wings, where issues such as faith, poverty, homelessness, the Bible and other such terribly dull subjects are considered more significant than sexual aspirations.

The growing churches are also tolerant. Don't be fooled here. The great fetish of the modern age, tolerance, is seldom to be found in liberal theological circles. Proclaiming support for homosexuality has nothing to do with tolerating others.

A long-term gay activist in Britain accused the Archbishop of Nigeria of being a bigot. Nice.

A privileged white radical accuses a black man in the middle of Africa, leading 17 million Christians who are under constant threat, of being a bigot because he dares to believe the Bible rather than modern political fashions.

The same accusations - and worse - were thrown at African church leaders by assorted white North American liberal churchmen the last time the Anglican Church voted as a body that homosexual behaviour was sinful. Terms such as "primitive" and "superstitious" were used to describe these fine, brave and sophisticated people of colour who remain faithful to God. (Oh, for the days when these black fellows knew their place!)

The typical Anglican today is a black, evangelical woman in Africa. She spends in a year what the new gay bishop likely spent on his ordination party.

Then we have the great evangelical intellectuals within the Anglican Church in Britain. Men such as John Stott, Michael Green and N.T. Wright. Genuine thinkers, unlike that liberal clergyman Bishop John Spong, who seems willing to say almost anything as long as there is a camera present.

Look, the Anglican Communion is a glorious evolution of thought and deed, a noble coming together of Christian ideas and ideals. As it throws off its dead skin there is bound to be pain. The skin was comfortable, and still looks pretty from some angles. But at a closer look it is stained and past its prime.

I remember asking the liberal editor of an Anglican newspaper to simply break bread with me, have lunch, perhaps build bridges. I thought that was what Christians were supposed to do. He didn't return my call. So I called again. He turned me down, said he didn't trust me.

Did he? Don't know. But I do know that the good old Anglicans have a sparkling future once they jettison the anchor of pomposity and elitism, one that is rooted to moral relativism and sound-bite liberalism.

It still has money, head offices and some church newspapers. But it can't last. Then - golly, I might even join 'em.

The Consecration of Gene Robinson
4 November 2003

On November 2, the commemoration of the Faithful Departed, commonly called "All Souls Day", the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Reverend Frank Tracy Griswold, against the pleas of Primates from around the world, bishops priests, deacons and laity in the Episcopal Church and Ecumenical partners around the world, consecrated the Reverend Canon Vicky Gene Robinson as a bishop.

It has been clear in the history of Christianity that a Bishop is consecrated for the entire Church and not just for one Diocese. It is also clear that the Episcopal Church has considered itself to be a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which is a part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. That is, the Episcopal Church has never claimed to have its own Orders of Ministry, but rather continues that which has been entrusted to her throughout the centuries. Deacons, Priests, and Bishops in the Anglican Communion have been accepted throughout the Communion from each Province until November 2.

As we await the responses of Primates throughout the Communion we do so with the knowledge that on the Feast of Blessed Richard Hooker the Elizabethan Theologian, November 3, we may very well witness the beginning of the unraveling of the Communion as we discover that the universality of our Bishops will end. That is, the Bishop Coadjutor will be able only to function in very few places in the United States.

All of this was inevitable following the actions of General Convention, but many around the world had thought that a desire for the unity of the Church would have caused at least the postponement of the consecration. Indeed, the Primates were very clear in their mid-October statement that proceeding with this consecration would force the Primates to render a decision about the American Province. We face the possibility of being expelled from the Anglican Communion.

No matter what one may think of today's event, the reality is that the Episcopal Church as we have known her will never be the same. As we process the reactions of Christians throughout the world, let us commit ourselves to a period of Prayer and Fasting. I shall follow this communications with specifics of what I will be asking of each of us during this most difficult time.

In Christ,
The Right Reverend Keith L. Ackerman
Bishop of Quincy

http://www.forwardinfaith.com/artman/publish/03-11-04-quincy.shtml

The muddled way of an inclusive church

I saw Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson and his gay partner on "The Today Show" Tuesday morning. Frankly, I was shocked.

How long has host and interviewer Matt Lauer been losing his hair?

Seeing the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the worldwide Anglican communion, taking a risky lead on a controversial social issue barely raises an eyebrow.

Elevation of Robinson as history's first openly gay leader of any major Christian faith fits a pattern for the church from civil rights to environmental protection to the role of women in religion.

Worried about the importation of exotic animals? I am sure the Episcopal Church has a position. A weakness, however — seemingly by design — is an inability to express a coherent, consistent sense of its own religious values.

Via media — a middle way — is the intellectual and theological tradition that supposedly binds 77 million Anglicans around the globe. A middle way in this case means acknowledgment and inclusion of lesbians and gays as full, contributing members in all phases of church life.

Certainly, it's a path between the homophobic rage of those despicable folks holding signs saying "God hates Fags" and decades of denial and repression by the Catholic Church over predatory priests trying to date the boys' choir.

Essentially, the greater church knows Bishop Robinson through those who know him best, the people of New Hampshire who chose him as their leader.

I do not believe Bishop Robinson's sexuality negates his consecration or trumps his ordination and the authority to baptize, marry, bury, pray for healing or offer communion in the name of God.

I cannot cite a single biblical reference or codified position of the Anglican Church to illustrate or sustain that view. Beyond arguing that times change and the Bible is an occasionally fusty document, neither, apparently, can any church leader.

Sadly, the notion of leadership is something of a misnomer. The Episcopal Church hierarchy has a flair for skipping and fuzzing over theology en route to a political position. Church leaders end up desperately short of followers. Membership has been declining for decades, down to 2.3 million in the United States, about the size of a robust cult.

Dazed and confused, Episcopalians too often walk away in silent frustration. Some, I suspect, return to their church roots. Many have seen the Episcopal Church as a welcoming halfway house from conservative traditions or for lapsed Catholics splitting the difference with their Protestant spouses.

Others leave only to stay at home on Sunday, self exiles from a community of faith that is more likely to dismay and baffle than offend them.

I worry about the future of the church. Certainly not the church with a capital C, the one built on a foundation of rock. It's the pebbles, sand and gravel in my own denomination that cause concern.

The destructive fallout from Bishop Robinson's appointment is not the visible anger and tumult, but a quiet conclusion for many that the church is irrelevant, self-absorbed and out of touch.

As an Episcopalian, I may sniff at, and silently envy, those suburban mega-churches that pack in thousands every Sunday with user-friendly sermons on, oh, how to survive a tax audit: "WWJD, What Would Jesus Deduct?" I don't want to recline in theater-style seating watching a bouncing ball lead me through the verses of an Amy Grant song.

Green-tea spirituality that passes Jesus off as a nice man in a merlot turtleneck has zero appeal. Spare me the painfully hip: "God and Sexuality: Get in touch with your G-spot."

Here is the problem: The Episcopal Church is not good at "us against them," culture wars or absolutes. The liturgy, homilies and musical tradition can nurture a direct connection to God, but fewer people notice or care to find out.

For a church already terrible at marketing, Bishop Robinson will be hell on retention and recruiting — in large part because of the church's inability to explain itself.

In all candor, there is a wisp of selfish arrogance to some of the bishop's remarks I find infinitely more distracting than any tensions between his holy vows and his living arrangements.

A great noise will rise in the Anglican Communion over Bishop Robinson. A lot of it will sound theological but is grounded in worries about pensions and real estate.

Keep this family feud in perspective. The message not to be lost is simple: The door is open, and the table is set for all.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com

The message not to be lost is simple: The door is open, and the table is set for all.

True, the Book states that the table is indeed set, but the door?

Revelation 3:14-22
14. "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation.
15. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
16. So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
17. You say, `I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
18. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
20. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
21. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

The parable of the woman caught in adultery has been used to excuse the homosexual sin, but I can gaurentee you that there will STILL be those with stones at the ready for the Reverend V. Gene

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