Time to Choose
by Chris Sugden, Evangelicals Now, December
On November 3rd, The Bishop of Pittsburgh, Robert Duncan, told those at his Diocesan Convention who really preferred that all the current conflict in the Episcopal Church go away that it was time to choose between the culture of province of The Episcopal Church: “theologically innovative, at the edge of mainstream Christianity, secularly attuned, declining, canonically fundamentalist, and ready to sue or depose to obtain its way” and “the culture of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh: Scripturally centered, critiquing the secular agenda, among the fastest (and few) growing dioceses of the Episcopal Church (relative to population decline), focused on congregational mission, allowing vast freedoms in the form and manner of ministry.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury had written a week earlier to another Windsor compliant Bishop, John Howe of Florida that “Any Diocese compliant with Windsor remains clearly in communion with Canterbury and the mainstream of the Communion, whatever may be the longer-term result for others in The Episcopal Church. The organ of union with the wider Church is the Bishop and the Diocese rather than the Provincial structure as such.”
Bishop Duncan is taking Archbishop Williams at his word calling for a choice between a culture of Windsor compliance in a diocese and The Episcopal Church.
However Presiding Bishop Schori has written to Bishop Duncan to say “If your course does not change, I shall regrettably be compelled to see that appropriate canonical steps are promptly taken to consider whether you have abandoned the Communion of this Church – by actions and substantive statements, however they may be phrased – and whether you have committed canonical offences that warrant disciplinary action.”
If Presiding Bishop Schori removes Bishop Duncan from Pittsburgh, Bishop Duncan will be in the same position as Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Brazil has been for three years. Bishop Cavalcanti was deposed by the Province of Brazil because he would not recognize the consecration of Gene Robinson.
So what will the Archbishop of Canterbury do?
Currently the Bishops of the Episcopal Church have been invited by Archbishop Williams to the Lambeth Conference. Bishop Cavalcanti has not. If Bishop Duncan is deposed, will he be disinvited? If he is not disinvited, will Bishop Cavalcanti be invited?
The Lambeth Design Committee is meeting again. Almost 500 bishops we are told have registered for the conference. Others, mainly orthodox bishops for example in Nigeria, Kenya and Sydney Diocese,are still to finalise their response. The dilemma is this
On the one side the argument is that the contribution of the orthodox stalwarts of Nigeria and Uganda and others will be greatly missed, not only in the discussion of the Covenant, but in the important interactions of fellowship.
On the other side of the argument is the point that Lambeth is not about what can happen all the time in many different ways in Christian fellowship. It is supposed to be a council of bishops. But given the deliberate flouting of the resolutions of Lambeth 1998, i.e. 1.10, and the subsequent failure to take any consequent disciplinary action despite constant warnings, Lambeth is now a dead letter. In fact Archbishop Williams recognises it to be such by reducing its status for 2008. So since it is a dead letter in terms of teaching and discipline, since the bishops will be probably exposed to campaigning by gay lobbyists both within and without the conference, since they regard the teaching by the TEC as unitarian and heterodox, why would they come for fellowship with them?
As long as people diverge from primary allegiance to the truth of the Scripture, the bedrock of Christian faith, we can expect there to be continuing contradictions and fudges and inconsistencies. Bishop Duncan says clearly that it is time to choose between faithfulness to the message or the continuance of the institution without any discipline.
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