(Introductory comment from P.T.: The Bishop sees the problems facing the ECUSA as those that relate to sexual relations between people of the same sex. He does not say whether such can be right or wrong but states that now is not the time for individual dioceses and provinces of the Anglican Communion to press ahead with experiments in this area of human life. For him, as for many in the West, the proposals of the recent Windsor Report provide guidelines for staying together in communion, even if it be strained and stretched communion. He speaks very much as a Bishop of the “West” or “North” and may be said to represent the general view of the leadership of the Church of England. He seems oblivious that the new doctrine and practice of sexual relations is intimately connected with novel doctrines of God, Christ, salvation, and so on and that the problem is not solved simply by ceasing to bless “gay couples” or ordain “gay” persons.)
As I look at the Anglican Communion at present I see its life threatened by two intersecting fault lines, each with its own totem. The first is the issue of same sex relations, with its focusing in Lambeth 1.10. The second is the nature and future of Communion, with its focus being the Windsor Report and the Windsor/Dromantine process. Looking around me I see those who not only stand firmly by Lambeth 1.10, but also see it as the litmus test of orthodoxy, and who are further opposed to, or have given up on, Windsor and all that it stands for. Probably nothing that happens is going to satisfy them. Similarly there are those who are so certain that Lambeth 1.10 was wrong that they in effect see both Windsor and the Communion as a price that it is simply to great to pay. Then there will be those (probably the majority) who while holding a variety of views on the issue of sexuality would nevertheless to varying degrees also be committed to Windsor and its outworking in the Communion’s life. That would certainly be where to a very large extent, the English bishops will be found.
(Comment. The “majority” of which he speaks is I think in the West not in the Communion as a whole. The real majority in the world appeasr to see Lambeth 1.10 [resolution of human sexuality of 1998] as the litmus test.)
On Lambeth 1.10 a wide spread of views will be found in our own House although, as our own most recent report ‘Some Issues in Human Sexuality’ makes clear, the great majority of us see the matter as being multifaceted and complex, not capable of a quick resolution, dealing as it does with issues not only of justice and moral choice, but also of the relationship between intimacy, sexuality and community, the connections between sexual behaviour and both human identity and human fulfilment, and the way in which, as part of our missiological imperative, we are to critique these things in a society where sex and choice together make for such a dominant and formative force; and of all these to be held within a coherent exegetical framework. So despite the range of opinions there is an almost total intention to stand together, and with the rest of the Communion, in taking no precipitate action, as the listening and engagement go on. I suppose one of the major challenges for the Episcopal Church now has to do with whether there are enough of you to stand on broadly the same ground, holding a range of opinions on the issue of Lambeth 1.10 but firm in carrying forward the Windsor vision of a strengthened and enabling communion life. This, I believe, is the key question rather than questions (unhelpful questions I think) about whether the Episcopal Church will either be pushed out of Communion or consciously walk away.
(Comment. The new doctrine of unity in the West is “stand together despite a wide range of opinions on God and human beings as sexual creatures -- views which may be freely held but not put into practice as yet if they arte outside the received norms.”)
Let’s be clear: On the one hand no one can force another Province or Diocese either to go or remain. We are not that kind of Church. Yet equally, no Diocese or Province can enforce its own continued membership simply or largely on its own terms. There has to be engagement. There is no communion without a shared vision of life in communion (at least that is how I understand Windsor). So it does seem to me, as I listen to those other parts of the Communion that I know best, that any further consecration of those in a same sex relationship; any authorisation of any person to undertake same sex blessings; any stated intention not to seriously engage with The Windsor Report – will be read very widely as a declaration not to stay with the Communion as it is, or as the Windsor Report has articulated a vision, particularly in sections A and B, of how it wishes to be. Having said that, I do believe that I have heard in this house this week, by and large, a desire for shared life in communion and ongoing engagement with others in just what this must involve.
(Comment. This would most probably represent the position of the Bishops of the C of E and the English Archbishops. If the Americans and Canadians cannot act reasonably and restrain themselves for the public good, then they have effectively placed themselves apart from the rest. The sin is not to have acted contrary to God’s will as such but of being hasty, impatient and thoughtless about others.)
May I make the further comment that what I find missing in most discussion of the North American problem – even by those who call themselves “the orthodox” and the innovators “the revisionists” – is the recognition that the innovation of same-sex stuff in recent years is intimately and inextricably related to earlier innovations enthusiastically introduced by the Episcopal Church from 1960 onwards.
In my essay, Episcopal Innovations 1960-2004, printed as a booklet and available as such, or as a document from a web site, I have sought to show that these innovations, of which the latest is the same-sex stuff, are definite attempts to set aside God’s order for creation and God’s law for the new covenant. They go with a changed doctrine of God, creation, grace, salvation and anthropology. I believe that until this larger picture is understood and faced any repentance or regret or changes by and within ECUSA will be, as it were, skin deep only. Without right diagnosis how can there be right cure. Regrettably the diagnosis also applies to much of the “West” in the Anglican Communion of Churches, and not merely to north America.
Download the 64 page booklet from www.episcopalian.org/pbs1928 or buy a copy from www.anglicanmarketplace.com For multiple copies at reduced price call 1 800 727 1928.
Also please visit www.anglicansatprayer.org and place all these problems before the Throne of Grace.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford)
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