May 02, 2007
That's My Church - Da Bishop! Division
Dear Friends:The Episcopal Church is in the midst of a challenging time. As in times past, we will get through it and emerge renewed in our faith and refocused on our mission and strengthened for service to our Lord. I regret, however, that there are impatient forces seeking to provoke conflict when humility, respect and patience are in order.
In the run up to this weekend you no doubt will read news accounts of the impending visit of the Archbishop of Nigeria the Most Rev. Peter Akinola to preside at a service of installation of the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns. This weekend’s ceremony will provide false comfort to those who seek certainty in an uncertain world. But in truth, it will serve only to inflame the differences we have been struggling with. When there is so much that brings us together as brothers and sisters in Christ, in a Church that has always celebrated and respected a wide variety of opinions, it is painful to see our shared ministry and faith overshadowed by our differences.
We are fortunate in the Diocese of Virginia, however, to be able to give witness to the things that unite us despite the challenges we face from those now non-Episcopal congregations which seek to divide us. Later this month we will consecrate the Very Rev. Shannon Sherwood Johnston as our Bishop Coadjutor. When I retire he will become the 13th Bishop of Virginia, marking the continuity of our heritage in this our 400th year as the Church in Virginia. In June some 1,500 people will gather at Jamestowne Island to celebrate our heritage in a commemorative Eucharist under a ship’s sail, just as our church ancestors did in 1607. And this summer hundreds of young
people will spend time at Shrine Mont at our summer camps and hundreds more young people and adults will be commissioned and sent forth as missionaries of the Gospel to live out their baptismal covenant in service to others here and around the world. All of this at a time when there are those who seek to diminish the work that we do.The disagreements within The Episcopal Church are ours to resolve. As reaffirmed at the recent House of Bishops meeting, the Episcopal Church is a self-governing, autonomous and undivided church that cannot accept intervention in the governance of our Church by foreign prelates.
The Church of Nigeria, like The Episcopal Church, is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion with clearly defined boundaries. Bonds of affection in the Anglican Communion hold that provincial boundaries are not crossed by bishops without expressed invitation. Bishop Akinola’s effort to establish the Church of Nigeria within the boundaries of The Episcopal Church through something called the Convocation of Anglicans of North America (CANA) has occurred without any invitation or authorization whatsoever and violates centuries of established Anglican heritage. As the Archbishop of Canterbury has made clear, CANA is not a branch of the Anglican Communion and does not have his encouragement. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori also has expressed her concerns over the visit by Bishop Akinola without invitation, a violation of a centuries old practice and decorum.
Our Diocese is committed to meet the needs of all Episcopalians, especially the congregations abandoned by their vestries and clergy. I ask you to continue to pray for them and for our Church, for the Anglican Communion, for the Primates, for those who suffer oppression, for the poor, the needy and for all who seek the redeeming love of Christ. We thank God for 400 years of the Church in Virginia and we remain committed to its faithful mission.
Faithfully,
–(The Rt. Rev.) Peter James Lee is Bishop of Virginia
So, in other words:
1. "Impatient" agitation is good sometimes, but not so good other times. (The PB will let you know when.)
2. Centuries of established Anglican heritage, conversely, are not so good sometimes, but good other times. (Again, the PB will let you know when.)
3. Differences of opinion are welcome within TEC. But disagreement is hurtful and divisive. Don't like what we're doing? Get over yourselves and get back in line.
4. TEC belongs in the Anglican House, but we don't really owe it anything. And if we want to put our feet on the furniture, watch tee vee all night, use up all the hot water or get drunk and set fire to the cat, there's not a damn thing anybody else can do about it.
5. The core mission of CANA is to track down faithful Episcopalians in the street, beat them, steal their wallets and leave them lying in puddles of filth. Really!
6. Archbishop Akinola may mean well, but he's really NQOKD, if you know what we mean. Best stay away from him. (And, of course, Martyn Minns has got his kooties now. Just saying.)
7. False comfort is bad, m'kay? Oh, did I mention that we're having a 400th Anniversary ceremony? And that I'm going to have a successor? And that the kids are going to summer camp again this year? Yessiree, we're doing just fine. Smiles, everybody! Smiles!
Feh.
Sounds like a state's rights and massive resistance argument to me.
Posted by: Steve the LLamabutcher at May 2, 2007 03:26 PMHonestly, the smug self-righteousness in the first couple of quoted paragraphs riled me enough to cause me to stop reading. I'm already fed up with the heretical TEC leadership; that just adds fuel to my ire.
Bah!
Posted by: jen at May 2, 2007 04:09 PMOne more thing (see? IRE!) Martin Minns is one of the most honorable and faithful Christians in the area and to attempt to impeach his credibility drive me nuts.
Bah!
(I'm OK, really. Just frustrated by the whole thing because I really believe that the TEC is dead wrong and doing a great disservice to the entire Christian church with their abandonment of Biblical truth.)
Posted by: jen at May 2, 2007 04:12 PMThis guy, Peter Akinola, doesn't strike me as a very nice man. Maybe that is because I find some of the things he says completely insulting. http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=20653
He is saying that our current understanding of the innate nature of sexual orientation is not important. The last time a cleric said our understanding of science wasn't important the Pope was having Galileo put under house arrest for saying that the earth revolves around the sun. (And no, it isn't a choice. Let me know if you want to have that debate.)
Next he will be saying that "women should remain quiet in church" means that we should just shut up and stay barefoot and pregnant.
I wish you all the joy of each other.
Posted by: Zendo Deb at May 2, 2007 08:27 PMZD,
This is not meant unkindly.
Akinola's letter isn't very sympathetic, to be sure. But it is not inconsistent with what Christianity has believed for the last two thousand years. What KJS is advancing is, and the the Episcopal's church's actions are splitting her church from the broader Anglican church, which believes that Akinola is, despite his lack of tact, correct.
One can certainly argue that Christianity is out of step with the modern world. Of course it is. One can also argue that one is driven by nature to behave a certain way; that is by no means inconsistent with Christianity, because Christianity believes we are all beings who are innately flawed. All of us. I routinely say, think, and do things I know to be wrong, and fail to do things I know are right. But I am not going to demand that the Church make me a bishop, either, or enshrine my particular predilections as perfectly OK when the Bible, and two thousand years of tradition, says otherwise. To do so is to say that Scripture does not matter. One might as well say that Christ does not matter. If I examine my life and find my life inconsistent with Christianity, I do not demand that Christianity change; I ask Christ to change me; where I do not change, I confess it as sin. Admission that we are sinners is something like a first principle of Christianity, for if we are all, deep down, innately perfect or humanly perfectible, we would have no need of Christ, and his death on the Cross is meaningless.
There are religions that believe this. Some of them are old and venerable, and worthy of respect. But none of them are Christianity, and certainly none of them are Anglican, which believes, not only in scripture, but in the first four ecumenical councils of the Catholic church.
The problem is not, therefore, homosexuality per se, which is a part and parcel of the human condition. A man can be both gay and a bishop, as undoubtedly many have been. The problem is when a man, in this case Bishop Robinson, says that his homosexuality is approved by the Church, and when he then lives in scandal -- which, for any traditional Christian, means out of wedlock. The problem here is not homosexuality. The problem here is simple propagation of heresy.
My mother has met Archbishop Akinola several times. She has heard him preach and recieved communion from him. She is a 3rd generation Episcopalian who prefers the '28 prayerbook. She speaks very highly of the Archbishop.
Archbishop Akinola does not suffer fools well and he shouldn't because fools have a way of casting themselves into Hell.
Robbo, I suspect the timing of the announcement of the Lov Guv, Jim McGreevey meeting all the standards for GenSem seminarian was done for Akinola's benefit. To keep up the persecution of gays line, the libs are hoping Akinola will comment on it so they can point and say, "See, see, he's the bad guy. He's the hate-filled one."
The Luv Guv was recently ordered by a court to keep his 5 year-old daughter out of the bed he shares with his lover and remove a life size photo of a naked man from the wall of his bedroom for her innocence's sake (a life sized naked photo was once thought to be pornograpghy). In his book he wrote of his adultery with his male lover, who he had put on the State's payroll though the guy was completly unqualified, on the night his wife was in the hospital with their newborn daughter. And then's there's lots more scandal associated with his style of governance. Yet McGreevey, who has never repented for any of his abuse of position as husband or governor, is considered by GenSem as a good candidate for the priesthood.
Posted by: Mrs. Peperium at May 3, 2007 08:04 AMWell said, Colossus. I wish I had been that articulate. *sigh*
Posted by: jen at May 3, 2007 08:06 PM
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