One of the characteristics of the Church in western nations since the 1960s has been the new way of calling for, and implementing, claimed reform and/or renewal of the Church.
In the past reformations looked to the past – the age of the Bible, of Jesus, of the apostles, of the Fathers etc. – and sought to change and renew the present by restoring what had been in place and was authorized by either clear biblical or patristic teaching. Historians of course will tell us to what extent their project was valid, their methods appropriate and their results justifiable. But the point is that all serious attempts at reformation or renewal did look back to the Scriptures and often to (assumed) pure tradition. This is true for example of the Protestant Reformation, Vatican II and the early Liturgical Movement of the 20th century.
In recent times, in the liberal Churches there has begun the process of introducing an innovation and then claiming that whether it is God’s perfect will or not can only be ascertained through allowing the innovation space and opportunity and then testing it and discerning what is its use and value. The open process of receiving and testing these innovations has been called, by Anglicans especially, “the doctrine of reception”. (But it is not the only doctrine of reception. In the old Anglican text-books “reception” is the receiving of the teaching or dogma of a council by the dioceses and parishes, the clergy and people so that it is a doctrine that has the consensus of the whole Church. And in the ecumenical movement “reception” is that process of one denomination receiving from outside itself, e.g., from an ecumenical consultation, a doctrine or practice.)
The three obvious examples of this modern method of reformation forwards (rather than backwards) in the ECUSA are the ordination of women; the blessing of marriages that are part of serial monogamy, and the blessing of same-sex couples (with the ordaining of persons in such). In none of these cases can any full appeal be made to Holy Scripture and sacred tradition. Any use of the Bible to justify these things is according to types of exegesis and interpretation that were unknown in earlier times and which to earlier times would be seen as wholly misguided.
The ordination of women has been said to be necessary for the Church in order for the Church to exhibit that humanity before God is female and male; but no such practice has ever existed before in any obvious way in the long history of the Church. Nevertheless it was introduced under pressure from the women’s movement and then it was said from within the churches that the Church was in the process of receiving it through testing and discernment (which open process appeared to many to be a cloak to cover its rapid advance which continues). It is clearly a case of Reformation forwards and is being very successful!
The marriage of divorcees in churches is said to be necessary to be loving and kind to all and to face a real pastoral emergency and need. Yet again there are no precedents in the Western Church for this; but, it was introduced and has been widely practiced on the basis that time will show that it was good and right. It is clearly a case of Reformation forwards and is being very successful, as the large proportion of remarried persons in ordained ministry and in the membership of so-called “orthodox” churches reveals.
And the same method is being used for the blessing or “marriage” of “gay couples” in the churches. There are no precedents for this; but, these people are said to be in FAITHFUL partnerships and God, it is claimed, loves faithfulness between couples; therefore they deserve God’s blessing and they should have it. Time will show, it is argued, that this is good and right. Again this is Reformation forwards! And it is already the majority view in the ECUSA.
Reformation forwards as a method seems to work in a modern secular culture where the innovation being brought in is regarded as good and wholesome by much of the surrounding society and is to the personal benefit of those who profit from it.
THEREFORE, as I have repeatedly said, the renewal of the ECUSA, or of dioceses within it, is much more than repudiating same-sex blessings and bishops who approve such and are in such. Renewal involves a change of a mindset, a change in the way we read and use the Bible, profound changes in our liturgy, doctrine and discipline. It includes recovering a proper understanding of “Reformation backwards” as guided by the Holy Ghost.
(I owe the expression “Reformation Forwards” to my learned friend, Louis Tarsitano of Savannah, Georgia.)
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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