Anglican Mainstream

By David Virtue, Virtueonline

There are now two very distinct understandings of the Christian Faith at work both in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion, especially in the US and Canada, as well as in New Zealand, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. They can best be summed up as orthodox, faithful, biblical, evangelical, Anglo-Catholic on the one hand, and liberal, revisionist and/or progressive (a relatively new word) on the other.

The progressive view was echoed this week by George Pitcher, the new Religion Editor of London’s "Daily Telegraph", in an opinion piece where he argues that the Church of England isn’t dying…it just needs to evolve."This is not a charter for trendy, relevant vicars. But at the risk of summoning discredited spirits, there must be a third way. It’s part of the Church’s genius that it evolves contextually in our society while maintaining eternal constants. It needs to meet its new-millennial people where they are, rather than where they used to be. It needs to redevelop the pluralistic and tolerant voice that has been at the heart of Anglicanism at its best," he writes.

He describes as "knee jerk" those who call for disestablishment. "These people will see an apparently dying Church of England and renew calls for its disestablishment. What is the point, they ask, of having a national Church, with the Queen at its head, with Bishops Spiritual sitting in the legislature, when the institution is shrinking to little more than a minority cult, a weekend pastime for those too dysfunctional to take up Pilates?"

He goes on to explain that fewer than one million attend church on Sunday; that figure has fallen, but it’s still twice as many as attend all football matches on Saturday. About 1.7 million worshippers attend a church in any given month, an actual headcount (not an estimation) that has been unaltered since 2001.

Mr. Pitcher’s solution to a dying church is to redevelop a "pluralistic and tolerant voice".

Such writing is the stuff of fiction and ignores the elephant in the sanctuary, which is that if you don’t have a message of deep and profound change that is significantly different from what is found in the Times, The Telegraph or the Independent. Why then would one possibly want to get out of bed on Sunday morning and listen to some trendy vicar dish up the kind of wishy-washy sermons from the likes of the Rev. Nickie Henderson of the Modern *Church* People’s *Union* (MCU) and wannabee African bishop, who gives sleep-walking a good name!

Mr. Pitcher, in his Op-Ed piece, failed to mention the significant work of ALPHA and Christianity Explored, over the past few years, that is bringing people back to the basics of the "faith once delivered" and restoring some life to a dying institution. The kind of liberal "pluralist and tolerant" pabulum offered by Pitcher is precisely why the Church of England is dying, not growing.

Does Pitcher think for a moment that the incredible growth of the Anglican Church of Nigeria (from 18 million to 25 million in the last few years) has happened because bishops, priests and deacons dash out into Nigeria’s hinterland preaching pluralism and tolerance in the face of intransigent Islam and tribalism and hope to win souls for Christ with his message! Is it any wonder, then, that Brits, who are being served up Pitcher’s "gospel", are fleeing by the millions from Anglican pews, while African animists are embracing a gospel of redemption, love and hope?

The same is also true for the pabulum dished up in the US Episcopal Church (TEC), specifically in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, where a group, calling themselves Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh (PEP-boys), are doing everything they can to undermine the biblical gospel that Bishop Robert Duncan proclaims.

In TEC "progressive" is taken to mean those who see the church and its doctrines evolving from a simple biblical narrative, with its moral and theological imperatives, into an "enlightened" view of the faith, more in keeping with the times in which we live.

A good "enlightened" definition comes from the PEP/Via Media website, "Progressive Episcopalians are a theologically diverse expression of Anglicanism in America. PEP seeks both a church and a society that strive for justice and peace among all people, and that respect the dignity of every human being."

Two things should be noted about the words "theologically diverse". First, they are arguing that there is no absolute fixed body of truth that the church has held onto as an anchor for 2,000 years. Secondly, "diversity" allows an umbrella or tent of diverse theological opinion that covers everything from Cranmer, the creeds and the Book of Common Prayer, on the one hand, to the views of bishops like Jack Spong, Charles E. Bennison and V. Gene Robinson, on the other.

They see no innate contradiction that if you hold onto one set of beliefs it might just happen to cancel out the other set of beliefs. They believe that the big tent theory of Anglicanism can incorporate all shades of opinion and that the law of non-contradiction only applies if you build aeroplanes with one wing and a cabin full of happy, ignorant drunks.

Richard Turnbull, in his new book, "Anglican and Evangelical?" described the progressive mindset of the trinity of "scripture, reason and tradition" as the "determinative constituents of the (modern) Anglican tradition although both the basis and the implied equality are open to question. "This mantra has been described as ‘a train able to stop at every station and always add one more carriage. There is practically nothing it cannot accommodate."

The other implied, though not stated implication in the "progressive" mantra, is that orthodox folk are not interested in striving for the justice, respect and dignity of every human being. This is nonsense. William Wilberforce, the greatest single liberator of black slaves, was an Evangelical Anglican Christian who strove mightily for justice to end the trafficking of persons he believed were made in the image of God, regardless of race or color.

Some of the most serious mission organizations are endeavoring to rid the world of the scourge of sexual slavery of women and children and are evangelically based. An example is the U.S-based International Justice Mission, an evangelical Christian non-profit human rights organization that operates in countries all over the world to rescue victims suffering injustice and sexual oppression, but who cannot rely on local authorities for relief.

To argue that "progressive" Episcopalians have the corner on "justice and peace", and by implication orthodox folk do not, is to fly in the face of reality and truth. Five Talents, an Evangelical Anglican ministry to poor Third World Anglicans, has done more to provide economic opportunities for economically marginalized people than all the glib talk of Pittsburgh’s Progressive Episcopalians and limousine liberalism of the likes of the late NY Bishop Paul Moore.

Of course, when "progressive" Episcopalians talk about "justice", what they are really talking about is "justice" for pansexualists, called LGBT, who demand the right to practice their aberrant behavior and expect the church to roll over and endorse it. That is the sub-text of all the talk about progressive Christianity whether it is in England, Canada, the US or the South Pacific.

What is even worse, those Anglican provinces (usually African) who won’t play ball are then written off as regressive, fundamentalist, narrow, and exclusivist. The implication, which is really racist, is that when they catch up with the Western, post-modern Anglican world, they will get some sort of epiphanous Griswoldian Sufi "enlightenment" and come around to the views of the "enlightened" Gene Robinson and Jefferts Schori. The longer they yell and shout their relativistic sexual ethic, Episcopal Church pews will continue to empty!

Is it any wonder that GAFCON exists! The Africans are tired of being put down, first by Frank Griswold (at every Primates meeting), and now by Jefferts Schori and her sexual acolytes, Gene Robinson and other unnamed, same-sex "partnered" Episcopal bishops.

African Anglican bishops have had enough. Who can blame them, if they no longer look to Canterbury for spiritual solace or authority. They have been steadily insulted and put down, name-called and much worse. They are watching with alarm as the Church of England, TEC and the Canadian Anglican Church wings of Anglicanism wither and die and they ask themselves the question, "Who needs THEM?"

The Anglican Communion is in the first stages of divorce, says Southern Cone Primate Gregory Venables. If he is right, then it is the "progressives", not the orthodox, who are bringing it about.

When the final divorce papers are drawn up, written and delivered, what judge would not say to the progressives, "Ladies and gentlemen, you have no one to blame but yourselves."

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