Global South Anglican

Source: Citizen Link

by Pete Winn, associate editor

As the smoke clears from the recent general convention, traditional Episcopalians reel at the events of recent days.

Leaders of the Episcopal Church of the USA have adopted a resolution urging the church’s dioceses not to appoint bishops whose “manner of life” would “pose a challenge” to the Anglican Communion.

But The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, an orthodox conservative Episcopal theologian, said the statement approved by the church’s general convention in Columbus, Ohio, is weak and doesn’t come close to what the Worldwide Anglican Communion asked of the American church — that it “repent” for having consecrated a homosexual bishop in 2003 and pledge that it won’t elect any more gay bishops.

“They were also asked to deal with the problem of same-sex blessings,” Radner said, “and they chose not to deal with that at all, which is a problem.”

The statement may — or may not — keep the larger world church from distancing itself from the American branch of Anglicanism.

“It is not yet clear how far the resolutions passed this week and today represent the adoption by the Episcopal Church of all the proposals set out in the Windsor Report,” said The Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, titular head of the Anglican Communion, in a statement.

“The wider Communion will therefore need to reflect carefully on the significance of what has been decided before we respond more fully.”

What is now clear, however, is that the denomination is heading away from orthodox Christian belief at light speed, according to The Rev. Todd Wetzel, who heads Anglicans United, an evangelical group within the denomination.

Theological liberals, he said, have been working their way into top positions in the church for decades.

“This convention is the clear signal that their takeover is now complete,” Wetzel told CitizenLink.

Further evidence of that, he added, is that delegates to the church’s general convention also decided they wouldn’t even vote on a resolution saying Jesus Christ was the “only name by which any person may be saved.”

“The resolution about Jesus was ruled ‘out of order’ and ‘unnecessary,’ “ Wetzel said. “Basically, it was the feeling of the leadership in the church that because we say the Nicene Creed and the Apostle’s Creed regularly on Sunday mornings that there should be little doubt about the commitment of the church, at least in terms of its documents, to Jesus Christ as its Lord and Savior.”

But Wetzel said the leaders of the church were way too quick to dismiss the resolution.

“In fact, the commitment of the Episcopal Church to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is seriously in question,” he said, “and the resolution should have come to the floor for consideration.”

Even sadder, Wetzel added: “I think, if we are really honest, it might well have been voted down.”

But in what could be the most shocking event of the last week, the newly elected presiding bishop of the church, The Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, preached a sermon at the convention which referred to “Mother Jesus.”

“Actually, she said, ‘Our mother Jesus gives new birth to a new creation and we are his children,’ “ Wetzel noted.

Mother Jesus?

“It is fairly typical of her and her theological thinking,” he added, “but it is beyond the pale of Christianity by any standard that I can think of. It’s certainly not a biblical image.”

Wetzel said what is happening to the Episcopal Church should serve as a warning to all American churches.

“The Episcopal Church was once a proud, clear, mainline and very Christian denomination,” he noted. “But beginning in the ‘50s we began to slide into moral ambiguity, watering down the marriage canons; then came the Pike affair (the theological challenges made by an Episcopal bishop that bordered on heresy), and then women’s ordination, and then blessing same-sex unions, and then ordaining practicing homosexual males and a variety of other things.”

Radner, meanwhile, said this year’s general convention made it very clear where the American Episcopal bishops stand.

“It’s now very clear that the leadership of the Episcopal Church is incapable of acting in a way that will keep this church bound to its Anglican Communion identity,” he said.

A church split is all that’s left, according to both Radner and Wetzel. The fact is, many people who faithfully cling to orthodox Christian teachings are still in the pews.

What form the split will take is, as yet, unclear.

“I think it’s clear, though, that this isn’t just a question of people sitting around a table and coming to understand each other better,” he said. “We’re beyond that now.”