US Church drops gay bishops ban - tatty bye, Mrs Schori!

The Episcopal Church in the United States is heading for a divorce from the Anglican communion. Hell-bent on creating new dogmas and doctrines to fit in with the fleeting chances of this world, the bishops of this church have decided to drop the ban on bishops living in homosexual relationships. Archbishop Rowan Williams, trying to keep communion with Canterbury alive, says, "I regret the fact that there is no will to observe the moratorium in such a significant part of the church in North America." There was fat chance of such observation lasting.

Ever since Mrs.Schori took over, the Episcopal Church has become a libertine's haven where those in charge spend every waking hour trying to root out traditional belief and adherence to biblical teaching. A knock at the door, a rude letter, a shifty telephone call - all ways to keep the new morality bouncing along.

So it looks like the Episcopal Church will drift away from Anglicanism to run a sect offering an a la carte menu of beliefs with a kind of doctrine of the day to attract new believers. Sad, but there it is. No use getting too worked up about it. There are worse things in the world to be bothering about.

American Church moves on

What ever else Katharine Jefferts Schori has done since she left the Roman Catholic Church with her mother and father and went into the Episcopal Church, she has been a one woman crusader for demolishing catholicity and erecting a new vision at odds with tradition.

Mrs. Schori is pretty good at dismissing those she thinks are out to wreck her mission. She has been pivotal in trampling on consciences, acting in an authoritarian way and denouncing those she diasagrees with. Her actions tempt me to think of "there will come a day when those who think they do God's will....", but that may be off the mark.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the "hundreds of conservative Episcopal congregations in North America, who reject liberal biblical views of others in the denomination, and have formed a breakaway church Wednesday that threatens to further divide a global Anglican body already torn by the ordination of an openly gay bishop." All this is very sad.

One bit caught my attention. The Rev. Charles Robertson, advisor to the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop, said in a statement."We reiterate what has been true of Anglicanism for centuries -- that there is room within the Episcopal Church for people with different views, and we regret that some have felt the need to depart from the diversity of our common life in Christ." For those not in the Episcopal Church, this statement should be seen as something in need of a trip to the confessional!

Charles Robertson knows in his heart that this is not true. The current leadership want only those that will accept the new ways, so it is disingenuous to say that "people with different views" have room. They only get to have the key to the door if they accept all the innovations or will not seek alternative episcopal oversight.

It could have been a whole lot different. If you seek to maintain the faith, you get pilloried. Only those with revisionist mindset will feel at home in the present-day Episcopal Church.

Anglican woes

The Anglican Communion is probably at an impasse that has taken it to the wall of schism. Whether we want to break it down, like the walls of Jericho, I do not know. All I do know is that via media is seemingly no longer possible without some kind of realignment.

The Episcopal Church in the USA thinks that going over the boundaries and then claiming new territury of thinking is OK. They think the church is a democracy. In a limited way it should be such as individual church ordering, but the Faith itself is not open to democratic whims. It is surely a received truth or it is nothing.

In many ways, the hierachy of the Episcopal Church can be seen as revisionists. They are papalbly opposed to anything other than their interpretation of the Faith. Anything or anyone else must either kow-tow or be marginalised. It is interesting that the media in general succumbs to the blandishments of the liberal thinkers rather than engage with the traditionalists. In many ways the traditionalists have truth on their side. The Latin word traho means I hand down. In Christian terms it means handing down the faith as received. It does not mean adding new doctrines to suit the World's ways. Within that Tradition should be tolerance, understanding, and compassion.

Katherine Jefferts Schori is the former Roman Catholic now leading the Episcopal Church. She has ongoing issues with traditional Catholic teaching. Her vehemence against it colours her beliefs, to such an extent that she issues dictacts and denouncements of those Episcopalians (still in the church that is) who feel uncomfortable with the new ideas. Mrs.Schori wants traditionalists to accept her as the Presiding Bishop. If, in conscience they can't, she wishes them gone. OK for those that turn a blind eye in the hope of being left alone, but the new ascendency demands new loyalties. This is half the problem with regards to Anglican unity.

Traditionalists are often accused of wanting to have a church-within-a-church. The accusers don't seem to see that a ruddy great cuckoo has landed in the nest and is kicking out the original chicks!

I don't want to see schism, but I can't go along with all the wants and desires of the liberals. We have impaired communion at best. Full communion is there only in name. Fractured communion has happened. If the Anglican Communion is to survive it must create structures across the world that can accommodate as many diverse opinions as to what Anglicanism is. Otherwise there will be two parallel communions. Not a disaster, but neither would it be helpful to the cause of unity.