Posted on 07/17/2005 7:29:15 AM PDT by sionnsar
Has the Episcopal left finally gone too far? It must be emphasized that this letter to Connecticut's Episcopal Obergruppenfuhrer Andrew Smith from a San Antonio, Texas rector consists only of words, of which there have been far too many for far too long. But I can't recall too many conservative Anglican words quite this strident:
The Rt. Rev. Andrew D. Smith, Bishop
The Diocese of Connecticut
Dear Bishop Smith,
Your actions this past week are an insult to everyone who values the diversity that makes up the Episcopal Church, and a shameless misuse of ecclesiastical authority. Your raid on the office of St. John’s Episcopal Church (Bristol), the way you forcibly removing their website from the internet, and your inhibition of the Rev. Mark Hansen were obvious attempts to bully some faithful churchmen who happen to be more theologically conservative than you. You misused the canon that was written for a very different purpose: for deposing clergy who have abandoned this church for the Roman Catholic Church. You disregarded the Windsor Report and the provisions it makes for a Panel of Reference: "This oversight must be sufficient to provide a credible degree of security on the part of the alienated community, so that they do not feel at the mercy of a potential hostile leadership" (paragraph 151).
Bishop, what you have done is wrong. Liberalism, once a moniker for open-mindedness and respect for differences, has become a party label for the most intolerant worldview and a club to silence everyone who disagrees. Your actions and the Gestapo tactics you used constitute the next embarrassing chapter in the ongoing realignment, it exemplifies the graceless intolerant attitude of some of our bishops, and it reinforces and deepens the divisions in our church.
I hope every fair-minded bishop, whether liberal or conservative, will have the courage to confront you and such a blatant misuse of power. For the sake of diversity and toleration, and for the biblical faith that defines us as Anglicans and Episcopalians, I hope they will confront you.
Chuck Collins
Rector, Christ Episcopal Church
510 Belknap Pl.
San Antonio, TX 78212
Kendall Harmon rhetorically wonders why the Episcopal left has been silent:
Locks forced open. No advance warning of such a hostile and dramatic action. Computers seized. A website taken down. DOES ANYONE ON THIS BLOG HAVE ANY DOUBT THAT IF THIS HAPPENED IN A REASSERTING ("CONSERVATIVE") DIOCESE, the airwaves of the reappraisers ("liberals") would be on fire about this? You bet they would. Issues of due process, Christian grace, canon law, civil law, and all kinds of other basic questions would be raised and fast. AND LOUDLY.
But with almost no exception what we hear is utter silence.
AND THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING
Once again, I must emphasize that Collins' letter consists only of words, of which we have had more than enough in this controversy, and that we have not yet had actions to match them. But thus far, I know of no statements of support for Smith(if you find any, apart from the Anglican leftist fever swamps like the Crewser, let me know either by e-mail or in the comments). Is it possible that even some on the Episcopal left, at least one of whom apparently gets on quite well with her diocese's few conservatives, think that Smith has made a terrible mistake and needs to back down? Resign, even?
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. It has now become clear Purple Mafia ECUSA Bishop Smith and friends have royally ticked off the wrong people, +Bob Duncan and Kendall Harmon for starters. Plus there has been a report that even the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury is on this.
In any case, +Smith’s actions combined with silence (or even support) from liberal Episcopalians may be pushing conservatives to go beyond playing by nice Anglican rules. Playing by the rules against people who submit to church authority only when it suits their ends has resulted in more outrage and persecution against the faithful. Liberals like +Smith won’t even listen to pleas from the Primates, including the Archbishop of Canterbury to lay off their attacks on the faith and on the faithful. Conservatives with any backbone have had enough of this.
So don’t be surprised if something big is about to happen, maybe even tomorrow, the first Sunday after the Purple Mafia takeover of St. John’s.
We’ll see.
"So don’t be surprised if something big is about to happen, maybe even tomorrow, the first Sunday after the Purple Mafia takeover of St. John’s."
Forgive me, but I will be terribly surprised if anything does happen. I've read the many articles on your ping list closely over the past several weeks (or is it months now). They make me mad.
I get madder and madder the more I read and the more I see faithful, simple orthodox catholic people, getting pushed around and pushed around and pushed around by an obviously evil set of leaders, who are obviously and flagrantly preaching strange doctrines which contradict not just, oh, 4000 years of Judaeo-Christian tradition, but the Bible itelf.
I see these people shoved out of their churches and complaining about it, rightly. But I see no shoving back. I see submission to a "rule of law" that has become quite lawless.
I open these articles and I get heartsick. Nobody will stand up to the evil and bar the door. If the "bishop" wants in, let him commit assault and battery to remove people from the door. If the STATE wants to get involved and actually have sherriffs come and physically remove people from a church...well...let them try. I think that were there to actually be defiance of the formal legal PAPERS presented to people who would not yield, that the "bishops" would have one hell of a time actually getting the agencies of the state to really use the police forces to PHYSICALLY remove the orthodox from their churches.
I keep waiting for Anglicans to get angry enough at the legalistic march of the Devil in a miter to simply break the formal law of the Church and say "WE excommunicate YOU, YOU are not a Bishop anymore, you damned sodomite! Get off sacred ground, you APOSTATE." And ignore ecclesial orders coming from these non-Bishops. And ignore mere court PAPERS. Let the "bishops" actually try to really get SHERRIFFS to bring force to the matter, and then watch how quickly the whole conservative faith community, not just Anglicans, join the orthodox Anglicans to cause the American legal system - which, please remember, is POLITICAL, with elected judges, elected prosecutors and elected sherriffs in many places - to have to choose between a narrow set of homosexual "bishops", on the one hand, and a much larger number of angry Christian voters, on the other.
I recall, way back at the beginning of Anglicanism, that Anglicans were perfectly willing to directly defy church authority, throw real Bishops out on their ears and actually SHOOT AT the Pope and his officials. And the worst that the old Catholic hierarchy ever did was the sin of simony. Ordaining open homosexuals, and tossing the orthodox out of churches for opposing obvious evil is a hell of a lot worse than anything that Martin Luther and the original Anglican Protestants were protesting.
The way Anglicanism became Anglican was through a direct defiance of ecclesial authority, then of Rome, on matters of much lesser spiritual importance than the American Episcopalian "bishops" are attempting to impose. Selling indulgences to build beautiful churches was a bad idea, no doubt about it. Creepy. Cheesy. Simony.
And the reaction was to expel the Roman Curia from the Anglican Church. For good or for ill, there was a time when Anglicans were willing to use literal physical force to drive BISHOPS they considered evil right out of the churches, and to take command of the Church by main force.
But look at what today's American "bishops" are doing.
Homosexual "bishops". Homosexual marriage blessings are clearly on the agenda. Forget the strange liturgical changes. Forget the priestesses. Let's go straight to Sodom.
Simony made Anglicans mad enough to expel real Bishops and create a new church hierarchy for themselves four hundred years ago
But even SODOMY does not seem to be enough to cause Anglicans today to simply disobey sodomite "bishops" and call them non-bishops, and to physically bar their entry into buildings in which they have no business being.
So, while you may hope that "something big" happens.
I expect that the big things that will happen will be more obedience.
Roman Bishops are not simoniacs anymore.
Episcopalian "bishops" are open sodomites.
For God's sake, if you're not going to resist authority no matter what, then just return to Rome and consider that the Romans eventually learnt their lesson. That yoke is easier to bear than this one, if for no other reason than those leaders will bore you and irritate you with their customs, but these will lead you straight into the mouth of Hell!
But what do I know?
I'm just an outsider who reads these articles and comes away upset that cancer is just devouring this church, and nobody will do what is necessary to stop it.
I agree with you. I am beginning to identify with the Prophet Amos.
But then, living in Eastern Canada, I spend a lot of my time shouting down the well and getting only echoes for my trouble. Still, if we keep shouting, at least they can't say they didn't know.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.