FORWARD IN FAITH LEADER CALLS FOR CLEANSING, RENEWAL AND REFORM OF ECUSA

to be published on Virtuosity ^ | 8 October 2003 | David Virtue

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FORWARD IN FAITH LEADER CALLS FOR CLEANSING, RENEWAL AND REFORM OF ECUSA

By David W. Virtue

DALLAS, TX-The leader of the Episcopal Church's Anglo-Catholics yesterday called for full cooperation with Evangelical and Charismatic wings of the ECUSA, to achieve the goal of cleansing the Church and working towards renewal and reform.

The Rev. Dr. David L. Moyer, president of Forward in Faith/North America, said that his members were here at the invitation of the American Anglican Council and that he would "enthusiastically work with leaders of the Episcopal Church and the larger Anglican Communion in light of the latest crisis that has come upon our part of the Church."

"This is the largest gathering of traditionalist priests, over 150, meeting together since 1989 when the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA) was founded," he told Virtuosity.

"This Conference occurs primarily as a result of the election and the approval of the Episcopal Church of the Reverend Canon Vicky Gene Robinson to be consecrated as the Bishop of New Hampshire," he said.

Fr. Moyer told VIRTUOSITY that for many here, the election and approval of Gene Robinson was the trigger for concerted action to say "enough is enough."

"For all of us here, we see this to be a willful departure from the Church, an act of open rebellion to scriptural teachings and the mind of the Anglican Communion, and a cause of schism in the Body of Christ."

"Forward in Faith has predicted for over three decades that the Episcopal Church's advancement of this anti-Christian position, and whatever it next deems to be wise, would be inevitable as a result of the Episcopal Church's approval of the ordination of women to the priesthood in 1976."

Moyer said the first has led to the second because of the dismissal of scriptural and Catholic Faith and Order, as well as its refusal to listen to the concerns of the larger Church. "The ordination of women in our theological judgment took ECUSA out of the Catholic fold of the Church. This recent aberration (and its tacit approval for same-sex blessings) has taken ECUSA out of the Christian church. There has been a steady erosion of true religion and virtue for decades."

"We are here to work with other leaders for the cleansing of the Church, and its renewal and reform. But we know that this cannot become a reality without addressing the many issues that have been part and parcel of the dominant agenda of moral relativism and biblical revisionism that has plagued the Episcopal Church for far too many years.

"We come here with a spirit of repentance for those things we have done and for those things that we have left undone that have aided and abetted the accumulated crisis; and for what has resulted in greater disunity in the Body of Christ, ecumenical damage, missionary obstacles, and the regretful departure of unnumbered clergy and laity to other churches, or to no church at all.

"We seek theological resolution for the divisions amongst us in regard to Holy Orders. It is a very serious thing to be divided on the question of sacramental validity and the assurance of sacramental grace. It must be conceded that members of FIFNA are not of one mind as to how to live out the reality of impaired communion, but all agree as to the obstacle and impediment it is for the church's life and witness."

Moyer said that the critical question here in Dallas and beyond is how we move forward as Anglican Christians when our convictions as members of FIFNA are secure as to what the Church Catholic can or cannot do with its ordained ministries, We believe that we have a mandate to be faithful stewards of the historic Faith, Practice, and Order of the Church Biblical, Apostolic, and Catholic, and we resist efforts to deviate from it."

The Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman (Quincy) told Virtuosity; "Here we are 14 years later and we see that some of the players have changed but the commitment to orthodoxy remains. I am encouraged to see brothers and sisters who are now on the pilgrimage way to come by a common commitment to the historical faith as revealed in Holy Scripture."

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