ECUSA , the Pioneer & Innovator, & her General Convention, 2003

The PECUSA (more recently the ECUSA) has been a pioneer and innovator within the Anglican Family in a variety of ways since the eighteenth century. Since the 1950s she has greatly increased her pioneering! And the Anglican Churches of the North/West seem to be following in her footsteps, howbeit slowly and less confidently.

Consider:

She became an independent Church, outside the British Isles & Empire, with her own Polity, Bishops, Prayer Book, Ordinal and Articles of Religion in the eighteenth century, but remained in communion with the Church from which she separated.

In her Prayer Book of 1789 she not only revised the BCP 1662 to reflect conditions in the new U.S.A., but also to take account of doctrinal considerations and the latitudinarianism of the day (e.g., her Communion Office took from Scottish Rites; she omitted one of the Three Creeds of the Church of England and she revised the marriage service).

In her Polity, through her General Convention, she involved laity directly with Bishops and Clergy in her internal government.

In missionary work she established dioceses in other countries and passed on to the new churches the Threefold Ministry and her liturgical worship.

She produced the famous Statement of the Principles by which Anglican Churches are to approach ecumenical relations with other Churches - the Chicago Quadrilateral (1886) which became the Lambeth Quadrilateral when accepted by the Lambeth Conference of Bishops (1888)

Much American thinking, inside and outside the Churches of the USA, in the early days of the Republic, were conditioned by natural rights (life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness) and these easily were made part of traditional Christian Theism. Further, they fitted harmoniously into the latitudinarian theology and churchmanship of most of the late 18th and early 19th century leadership, clerical and lay.

From natural to civil & human rights

In the 20th century, talk no longer was of natural rights but rather of civil and human rights and these came into play especially after World War II and the famous United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948). The PECUSA (now calling herself the ECUSA) pioneered the absorption of civil and human rights by church action, teaching, polity, worship and canon law in the second half of the 2oth century. This was made possible because not only were a few Episcopalians closely involved in the changing American culture (as members of the new middle class in education, government etc.) but also because of the Church's inheritance of latitudinarian teaching.

In many ways the innovations that began in the 1950s and were accelerated in the late 1960s follow a pattern of development. For once the principles of civil rights and human rights are accepted, it is very difficult to discriminate between one set of rights and another, for they all have the same foundation - the individual human being as a person of dignity & worth (but worth judged by varying standards, from the secular norms of the day to traditional doctrines of man made in the image of God). Looking back it is difficult to find fault in principle with much of the civil rights claimed and gained - e.g., rights to vote, to attend school, to attend church, to sit on a bus and so on.

But with the human rights the evaluation of them is more difficult and complex for some of them, claimed on the basis that a human being not only has worth but is also autonomous, clearly are at odds with received Christian teaching and in some cases clear Biblical teaching. Here are some of the rights that have been absorbed by the Church/churches that are at odds with received doctrine as that was known in the 1950s:

• The right for a man or woman to marry again in church after a divorce



• The right to use contraceptives in marriage so as not to have children



• The right of a woman to be ordained presbyter and bishop



• The right of a "gay" person to live in a "faithful partnership" with another "gay" person



• The right to suicide and to Christian burial afterwards



• The right of a divorced person to be ordained priest or bishop and the right of a divorced priest or bishop to continue to serve after divorce



• The right of a "gay" person to be ordained priest and bishop



• The right of a church to make a mandated teaching any of the above so that office holders must accept it



• The right of a church to change official doctrine & liturgy " canon law in order to reflect its absorption of human rights' principles



• The right of a church to change the received language of prayer and doctrine in order to accommodate the sensitivities of feminists and "gays".

And so on.

Now the absorption of human rights into the life of the ECUSA did not occur in a vacuum of course. Society and culture were changing and the seminaries of the Church where priests were trained were paying less attention to the Bible and traditional doctrine and more to psychology and psychotherapy. Further, the emphasis in doctrine (as clearly reflected in the 1979 Prayer Book and its An Outline of the Faith) was on "doing theology from below" rather than "doing theology from above", that is, theology tended to start from the human being rather than from God in his self-revelation. Clergy were trained to be managers and therapists/counsellors and to seek peace and justice in society - not to save people from an evil generation into the ark of forgiveness, eternal life and grace of the heavenly kingdom of God.

Bearing all this in mind - and more - it is wholly to be expected that the General Convention of 2003 will continue to legislate that which are innovations, based on "secular" human rights and on a theology which begins from the human being (as she or he is seen through modern eyes). Specific examples will be in the approval of new liturgies and in specific sexual partnerships.

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The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)