It is worthwhile in a calm and reflective mood to study the Resolutions produced in Special Conventions recently in conservative dioceses such as Pittsburgh & Fort Worth.
I offer the following observations as a call to self-examination and prayer as well as serious reflection & discussion.
While these Resolutions are very clear in their opposition to the innovation of the blessing of "gay" unions and of the consecration of "gay" bishops, and while they say they stand for the orthodox faith, there are some very important false assumptions & omissions (which the Church of yesterday, it if were consulted and had a vote, would certainly point out to these dioceses both very clearly and very firmly).
First of all, there is no sense in the Resolutions that being a part of the ECUSA and having shared in its common life for decades, even centuries, that these dioceses share the guilt, stain and cancer of the apostasy of the "national church". There is little or no sense of being causes of, and participants in, the growing apostasy, error and immorality, since all are part of the same ecclesial body and household (however dysfunctional it be). Where is the weeping for this long participation?
If the ECUSA as "national church" can be said to have no corporate memory beyond 1976, so likewise it appears can these dioceses. They appear to accept as good the major act of apostasy of 1976/79 when the classic Formularies of the Anglican Way were set aside and novel Formularies (the 1979 book of alternative services and it catechism) were put in their place. Only by the false decree of the General Convention is the 1979 prayer book "the book of common prayer" - for by literary and historical analysis it is a book of alternative services, which should stand alongside and under the authority of the classic Book of Common Prayer, Ordinal and Articles of Religion.
By agreeing to this massive change, by confirming its supposed correctness over the years since 1979 (and without reference to the Constitution of the PECUSA where the Prayer Book must be the classic BCP) and in words of these recent Resolutions -- as well as, apparently, by showing little or no remorse for their own share in the cancer within ECUSA -- the dioceses have simply, it would appear, prioritized the homosexual issue and not gone to the root and cause of the malady of ECUSA.
Why cannot both be dealt with for they hang together and are inextricably united! Why is their such attachment to the 1979 prayer book and such a widespread and open rejection of the classic Formularies in the evangelical/charismatic circles of the ECUSA? All the Continuing Anglican Churches and virtually all the newer non-ECUSA Anglican bodies accept the classic Formularies, even if they use modern liturgies. And of course such is the legal position of the Church of England & the Anglican Church of Canada.
If there is a public health emergency (with cases of a deadly disease here and there) we do not merely seek to help those afflicted; we also seek to get to the originating cause of the outbreak and emergency. What seems to be happening now is that evangelicals are seeking to deal enthusiastically with the local manifestations of the deadly disease but yet they are not keen on going to the source and not recognizing that their own (as it were) rejection of good health regulations is a major part of the emergency.
To say "we go back to the Bible" when we hold to false formularies (which help to fix how we read and receive the Bible's teaching) is not an answer or solution. It is an avoidance of the major crisis by denying its existence.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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