Comments on a piece written by Dr Eprhaim Radner

Dear Father Kim,

Thank you for circulating the clearly written piece by Dr Ephraim Radner on the theme that those going off to the Ang Con. Council in England from the ECUSA are most unlikely to represent the true position of the ECUSA, as stated in the official reports of her Conventions, Theological Commissions and the like.

To use the expression of Dr Radner’s friend, Philip Turner, it is the “practical theology” (or “the tradition of the [progressive] elders of the ECUSA ) rampant within the ECUSA, rather than its official agreements at Convention and elsewhere, which the group will represent. This “progressive, practical theology” justifies, blesses and commends “faithful” homosexual partnerships as the dynamic equivalent of holy matrimony -- and also justifies & teaches other immoral or erroneous things as well!.

I would invite Dr Radner and his readers to reflect further on what it means for the leaders and official representatives of a Church (ECUSA) to be so confident in and committed to their “practical theology, ” that they are not careful to explain what the actual official statements declare. It suggests, I think, that they are spiritually blinded by their agenda (and by the “god of this world”) and that for them in important ways the Zeitgeist is the Holy Ghost!

As Dr Radner probably knows, I hold the view that this habit within ECUSA of telling lies or half truths or covering up the truth in the name of innovation and progress (all of which is part of its ”practical theology”) received a very major platform and boost in the late 1970s when the ECUSA decided (against protests from devout and learned persons) to call its new “Book of Varied Services” by the name of “The Book of Common Prayer” and at the same time, and, most significantly, set aside the received Formularies of the Anglican Way that were printed in the previous official BCP, that of 1928. Had the ECUSA Gen. Conv. been humble of mind and in “fear and love of the LORD,” it would have done what the C of E and other provinces did -- retain its classic Formularies (BCP, Articles and Ordinal) and add a Book of Alternative Services under the doctrinal authority of the Formularies. As it was, by this act of piracy, the ECUSA since the 1970s has been living a lie, and good souls within the membership have been weeping and protesting, staying or leaving. Those who desire and seek to be godly and orthodox become a smaller remnant week by week, even as the progressives remain, get more power an use the financial resources of this old-line Church for their purposes.

I do not know whether the Lord Jesus Christ will visit this Church by the Holy Ghost to purify and revive it. Like Dr Radner I hope he will and if he does – watch out – we will all as Episcopalians and Anglicans get burned, even those of us who claim to be “orthodox.” We all have the cancerous disease and we all need to be cleansed and revived and set on a right course.

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford)
petertoon@msn.com