Friends,
Below is the Statement signed by the 2,000 plus attendees at the American Anglican Congresss in Dallas on October 9 and then the response of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal church. Both statements look to the Primates' meeting in London on October 15-16 when the latest sexual innovations of the Episcopal Church will be central on the agenda for the 38 Leaders. The positive embrace of homosexual relations by the Episcopal Church is shocking to the leaders of many of the Asian and African Churches and there are calls to discipline the American Church and to recognize as in communion as the real Anglicans those who are against this latest sexual innovation.
It needs to be borne in mind that the concept of orthodoxy embraced by this Congress is lower than and different from both that of the Episcopal Church itself up to the 1960s and that which was declared often by Lambeth Conferences of Bishops from the 19th century up to the end of the 20th century. The Episcopal Church set aside in the 1970s with arrogance and self-will the classic Anglican Formularies (the historic Book of Common Prayer, Ordinal & Articles) and substituted a new Prayer Book of alternative services and a new Catechism and a new Ordinal, all of which clearly reflected the dilution of received orthodoxy in the radical 1960s and 1970s. It came to be founded not on rock but on shifting sand!
Apparently much of this Congress would be happy to go back a few months only and embrace the Episcopal Church before its General Convention of August 2003 -- a minority would perhaps want to go back perhaps a decade to the point before the ordination of women was made a mandatory belief for office holders. Further, the kind of worship most popular amongst those in this movement is what may be called "mainstream charismatic" and thus there is only a minimal interest in and use of basic and even less of classic and traditional liturgy - even liturgy from the 1979 prayer book that is "traditional".
In practice the doctrine of sexuality and marriage in this group is NOT the traditional Anglican one (e.g. as set out in the Preface of the BCP of 1662 and in the excellent Report on Marriage by the Lambeth Conference of 1948) but is rather the amended one developed after World War II in the USA which allows for divorce and remarriage as a right rather than divorce as a sin and re-marriage as a rare privilege. In others words, the union of two persons as one flesh which no man is to separate is now regarded as a very good thing to aim at, but not as an absolute command of the Lord Jesus to his disciples. Thus divorced and re-married clergy and laity amongst the "orthodox" are common and acceptable and there is no plan in place to seek to raise the level of the married state in this organization to that which was universally held until 50 or so years ago.
All this said, there is much enthusiasm, and a readiness amongst some attendees, to be prepared to pay the cost for standing against the will of the General Convention and against the canon law of the Episcopal Church.
May the LORD of the Church and the GOD of all grace guide the Archbishops, and especially the one who sits on Augustine's cathedra, in their deliberations and decisions. And may the same Majesty impose his own chastisement upon all Anglicans who err and stray from his ways.
USA | 10 OCTOBER 2003
Text of "Call to Action" issued by the American Anglican Council's "A Place to Stand" Conference in Texas
[American Anglican Council]
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
As Anglican Christians committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, under the authority of Holy Scripture, and members of God's one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church:
1 We proclaim our Lord's Great Commandment and His Great Commission to be our life's highest calling.
2 We repudiate the 74th General Convention's confirmation of a non-celibate homosexual to be a bishop of the Church, and its acceptance of same-sex blessings as part of our common life. These actions have broken fellowship with the larger body of Christ and have brought the Episcopal Church under God's judgment.
3 We repent of our part in the sins of the Episcopal Church, and we pray for all those who are being hurt and led astray by these actions.
4 We call the leadership of the Episcopal Church to repent of and reverse the unbiblical and schismatic actions of the General Convention.
5 We declare our commitment to the Lord's life-giving teaching about sexuality and marriage embraced by Christians throughout all ages, and as affirmed by the 1998 Lambeth Conference. We celebrate God's unconditional love for all people, and we proclaim God's transforming power for everyone seeking sexual purity and wholeness.
6 We redirect our financial resources, to the fullest extent possible, toward biblically orthodox mission and ministry, and away from those structures that support the unrighteous actions of the General Convention. We will support our partners in the Anglican Communion.
7 We appeal to the Primates of the Anglican Communion to intervene in the Episcopal Church to:
1 Discipline those bishops in the Episcopal Church who, by their actions, have departed from biblical faith and order;
2 Guide the realignment of Anglicanism in North America;
3 Encourage orthodox bishops as they extend episcopal oversight, pastoral care, and apostolic mission across current diocesan boundaries; and
4 Support isolated and beleaguered parishes and individuals in their life and witness as faithful Anglican Christians.
To the glory of God. Amen.
USA | 9 OCTOBER 2003
Presiding Bishop's statement on AAC meeting in Dallas
[Episcopal News Service] My initial response to the meeting of the American Anglican Council just ending is that, regardless of what has been said or concluded, those gathered in Dallas are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Baptism establishes an indissoluble bond between those who are baptized and the Risen Christ. So too baptism binds us together in such a way that we cannot say to one another "I have no need of you."
It therefore concerns me deeply when Christians use inflammatory rhetoric when speaking of one another or issue ultimatums. In such a climate, mutual pursuit of ways to build up rather than tear down is made more difficult, and the vast deposit of faith upon which we all agree is obscured. At the same time, we must acknowledge and respect our brothers and sisters who feel alienated by certain actions of the recent General Convention. We must take seriously their grief and anger and seek as best we can to stand with them.
I would like to add one further thought. I have just returned from giving a retreat to a group of Episcopalians engaged in social service ministries within the United States and Latin America. They are working to transform the world, sometimes person by person. This is the ministry of reconciliation to which all persons of faith are called, and it is the mission of the Episcopal Church today and the primary focus of most of its members. Division and splintering, while much in the news, are not the spirit which gives life to our church.
In a letter I sent last week to bishops of the Episcopal Church I expressed my hope that the reconciling energy of the divine compassion may flow through our church and our Anglican Communion and witness to a way of being that gives hope to a world so in need of love. This continues to be my hope.
The Most Revd Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
Episcopal Church, USA
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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