Source: The Prayer Book Society of the USA
Friday, May 26, 2006
Reflections from the Rev’d Dr Peter Toon, President of the Prayer Book Society
Before each General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, there appears what has for a long time been called “the Blue Book” (although in 2006 it has a green cover). The current one contains Reports of the Committees, Commissions, Agencies and Boards of the General Convention of the ECUSA, which is scheduled to meet in Columbus, Ohio, June 13-21, 2006. This year its title is: Come and Grow, 2006.
Since the last General Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, three years ago, there has been unceasing talk and debate both in the USA and abroad about two of the decisions of that Convention – the blessing of same-sex partnerships and the ordaining/consecrating of a man as bishop living in such a relation. Not a few people have left the Episcopal Church over the issue and various overseas bishops and archbishops have declared themselves out of Eucharistic communion with the ECUSA because of it. Further, an official report, The Windsor Report, was commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury to look into the whole business and amongst it recommendations is the expressing of regret by the Convention for its advance into innovative sexual doctrine and practice.
So it seems that the whole world is watching to see whether or not the Convention does express regret and commit itself to restrain itself when it comes to innovation in Christian doctrine, ethics and liturgy in the present and future.
Now back to the Blue Book.
If you look through its large 460 pages of small print you will find no reports, studies, reflections or resolutions that deal with same-sex stuff or with the suitability of persons in same-sex partnerships to be made priests or bishops of the church. It appears on first sight that the subject is not important to the ECUSA at this time, even if it has been front-page news for the secular and religious press in the USA and around the world – including Muslim lands.
However, what it does have is a one page statement (page 407) under the heading: “An Interim Report of the Special Commission of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.” The purpose of this Commission is to help the ECUSA respond to the Windsor Report and other documents from the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates Meeting. Known as the SCECAC it has produced a preliminary Report, which is available on line and which is intended to guide the framing of resolutions concerning the relation of the ECUSA to the Anglican Communion in general and the Windsor Report in particular. By ECUSA standards it is a conservative report and if followed will cause the Convention to vote to do what is necessary to stay on acceptable terms within the Anglican Communion.
So, without the same-sex stuff, does the Blue Book present to us a Church that is “orthodox”? This is a question worth asking, for a lot of Episcopalians in the USA and Anglicans abroad appear to hold that if the ECUSA does a U-turn on its innovative sexuality stuff and returns to its former position before this was implemented, then it will be “orthodox” again.
One does not need a Ph D in English and another in Theology to see that what is presented in the Reports is very much a liberal, progressive agenda of a very liberal mainline USA denomination – except perhaps with reference to the Pension Program of the ECUSA which apparently works according to the highest principles of capitalism to bring rewards for ECUSA retirees.
The “Anglican and International Peace with Justice Commission Report “ (pages 73ff.) is very much a statement of “left-wing” political theory and aims which are dressed in “God-language.” And it is a salutary reminder that the commitment in the “baptismal covenant” of the 1979 prayer book to “peace and justice” was originally intended and remains a commitment to radical politics to seek to bring the secularized kingdom of God on earth now.
The “Liturgy and Music Report” (pages 130ff) has a series of proposals for new liturgy – providing “Rites as Related to Stages in Human Development” (including prayer before a first teenage-date!) and “Prayer and a Rite for Remembering the Departed.” In these, one is at the boundaries of what has been presented over the centuries as Anglican Prayer in the Anglican Way, for the basic assumptions of the prayers are often outside biblical revelation, and further the methods of addressing Deity do not apparently assume that the Recipient is the Triune LORD God of biblical theology. One may observe that Laity, whose prayer-life has been molded by their habitual use of traditional Liturgy, can pray ex tempore in more meaningful, theologically acceptable and reverent ways than is found in the content and forms of language of many of these prayers.
The Report from the “Committee on the Status of Women” (pp.347ff) reveals very clearly the radical agenda of the Episcopal Church in terms, for example, of the hatred of biblical headship ( called “patriarchalism”), the total commitment to inclusive and expanded language in addressing Deity contrary to biblical revelation and holy tradition, justice for women in terms of “reproductive health,” and full rights for women in the leadership of the Church (there are, we are told, 1700 full time women priests now and many part-time but there are few in positions of leadership). “When we take seriously the elevation of women to the fullness of humanity in God’s image, we believe the world will be a more peaceful and just place…”
One major theme in various reports is the absolute centrality of the Baptismal Covenant (found as the center-piece in the 1979 prayer book baptismal service). This is seen as fundamental to all that the ECUSA does at the local, diocesan and national level in terms of worship, mission and justice in church and world. It commits the ECUSA to a radical agenda, which interprets the Christian religion very much in terms of a movement within this world to bring improvements in living conditions, opportunities and rights for people everywhere. It is an agenda informed by the various liberation movements since the 1960s and by the great emphasis in the West upon rights and self-fulfillment, and God is adopted, as it were, to lead this revolution.
Judged by what is in the Blue Book, and without any reference to the whole sexual agenda which is absent from it, it is most difficult to see the ECUSA as an orthodox Church, built upon the revealed Truth given in Scripture, following the tradition of doctrine within the classic Anglican Formularies, worshipping the LORD God as the Holy Trinity and in spirit and in truth, and serving His kingdom – his heavenly kingdom – in this present evil age and secularist culture. Its official formulary, the 1979 Prayer Book, is being constantly added to through texts in “Enriching our Worship” and these additions cause the basis of Episcopalianism to become more radical and serve to take the ECUSA more obviously away from orthodox Anglican Faith and Worship - and, of course, this is where the current leadership wish it to go, for they see themselves as prophets and ambassadors of a new, post-modern form of religion!
The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford)
31 May 2006 at 11:15 am
Another one of the apostate bishops sounds out….......when or when is the Anglican C going to learn about purging the leaven? Probably too late as it is…....
Bible supports homosexual partnerships, says bishop
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
(Filed: 28/05/2006)
One of the country’s most senior bishops has reignited the Church of England row over homosexuality by claiming that same-sex partnerships are supported by the Bible.
The Rt Rev Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, said that traditionalists in the Church needed to be “converted” to see that homosexual unions are confirmed by the scriptures.
Bishop Harries: ‘Gay partnerships are about faithfulness and stability’
He reaffirmed his controversial belief that an openly gay man should be allowed to be appointed a bishop.
His remarks have angered traditionalists and are set to rekindle the debate on homosexual “marriages” that has left the Church’s House of Bishops deeply divided following the introduction of the Civil Partnerships Act last year.
Bishop Harries said that the Church of England faced a split if the liberal and conservative factions did not come to an agreement on how to be more inclusive towards homosexuals. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Bishop Harries, who retires this week, expressed his regret that Canon Jeffrey John, now Dean of St Albans, had been forced to withdraw as Bishop of Reading after it emerged that he was in a long-term homosexual -relationship.
His decision to promote Canon John to bishop caused an outcry in 2003. But last night Bishop Harries stood by his action.
“I’d still like him to become a bishop,” he said. “He has all the gifts to be a bishop, but there is still a process of discernment going on. For there to be change, evangelicals have to be convinced that a permanent, faithful same-sex partnership is congruous with biblical truth.”
America became the first province of the worldwide Anglican Communion to promote an openly gay man to bishop, when Canon Gene Robinson was elected in New Hampshire in 2003, plunging the worldwide Church into a crisis that still engulfs it.
Bishop Harries said: “It’s difficult to have gay partnerships fully accepted by the Church, a Church in which evangelicals are a valued part, if they are so strongly opposed to it. There has to be a conversion to a new way to see that gay partnerships are not contrary to biblical truth. They are congruous with the deepest biblical truths, about faithfulness and stability.”
The House of Bishops last year issued pastoral advice on the Civil Partnerships Act, allowing clergy to enter into relationships on the condition that they assured their bishop that they would abstain from sex.
However, the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, has denounced the guidelines as “unbiblical” and unworkable. The bishop, who is a potential successor to Bishop Harries, said the policy had undermined Church teaching and unity.
Gay clergy have already defied the bishops’ statement by saying that they will not give assurances that they will be celibate. A number have registered their partnerships and had the relationship blessed in Church despite guidelines recommending that they not be offered formal services.
Reform, an influential evangelical group that represents more than 1,000 parishes, has written to bishops urging them to reconsider the guidelines.
Its chairman, the Rev David Banting, expressed dismay at Bishop Harries’s comments, arguing that the bishop was wrong to want them to be “converted” to his position.
“He thinks that he has the weight of culture and the weight of the majority of the Church in the West behind him, which convinces him that he’s right,” said Mr Banting.
“Same-sex partnerships are not congruous with the Bible,” he said, adding: “Sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage are not blessed by God.
“We need to be pastorally supportive of those who struggle in this area, but we shouldn’t be trying to change the teaching of the Church. No amount of calling black white will make black white.”
As the House of Bishops prepares to discuss the Anglican homosexual crisis at its meeting next week, liberals in the Church will be encouraged by the comments from so respected a figure.
The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, the chairman of Inclusive Church, a liberal group, said: “His comments will be received with joy by the majority of ordinary churchgoers. It is absolutely clear that the Church needs to have a more welcoming and loving attitude to gays.”
Bishop Harries, who was made a life peer last week, said that the Jeffrey John affair had made people think about the issue in way that they never had before.
“I knew that it would be divisive within the diocese of Oxford, but I thought that that could be contained within two years. I hadn’t realised the effect on the Anglican Communion and the pressure put on the archbishop as a result of that.”
Dr John, 53, is still in a relationship with another cleric, the Rev Grant Holmes, which he says is celibate. Dr John is the author of the controversial book Permanent, Faithful, Stable, which argues for overturning the Church’s ban on the ordination of practising homosexual clergy.
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31 May 2006 at 11:23 am
from the above: “these additions cause the basis of Episcopalianism to become more radical and serve to take the ECUSA more obviously away from orthodox Anglican Faith and Worship - and, of course, this is where the current leadership wish it to go, for they see themselves as prophets and ambassadors of a new, post-modern form of religion!” the General Convention represents all elements of the church in America. Neo-orthodox Anglicans forgot that in ECUSA your view point is the radical minority view that many of us call reactionary. The evangelical Anglican view point has been rejected by the majority of Episcopalians for over 50 years. The neo-orthodox Anglican view point is not the view point of the majority of faithful Episcopalians. We are after all Episcopalians not Anglicans.
Our 200 years as an independent church has taught us to stand on our own two feet in a ocean of the vigorous counter currents that would us have us sink to a lower level of discernment. We prefer to make progress in bringing Christ to this world by using the power of His grace given to us by our Baptism in Him. And the faith sealed and defined by our sworn Covenant with Him. The rest is non-essential.