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The Episcopal Church USA 'Walks Apart' from The th Volume 1, Issue 18 19 July 2009 The Episcopal Church USA ‘Walks Apart’ from the Anglican Communion The Episcopal Church USA (TEC) concluded its triennial legislative General Convention on Friday, 17th July 2009, in Anaheim, California. During the ten-day meeting of their governing body, Deputies and Bishops passed two resolutions clearly signaling TEC’s desire to “walk apart” from the Anglican Communion. The Convention passed by a 2-1 margin resolutions permitting the election and consecration as Bishops of practicing homosexuals as well as the collection and development of rites for the blessing of same-sex unions. The Convention further permitted Bishops to authorize rites for the blessing of same-sex unions in their dioceses. Moreover, the Convention, when given an opportunity to uphold the uniqueness of Christ, defeated such a resolution. Many in the worldwide Anglican Communion, especially in the UK, who were in denial about the depth of apostasy by the Episcopal Church have acknowledged, with these resolutions, the departure of TEC from the historical and Biblical faith of Anglicanism and recognize that TEC has chosen to “walk apart” from the Anglican Communion. “In Windsor’s language, Bishop N.T. (Tom) Wright, the influential evangelical they have chosen to ‘walk Bishop of Durham, England, and principal author of the apart’.” Bishop N.T. Windsor Report – a report written in response to the Wright, Durham, England Primates request to address the torn fabric of the Anglican Communion after TEC’s consecration of a practicing homosexual as Bishop of New Hampshire – concluded in a 15th July (London) Times Editorial that these decisions mark “a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion.” Bishop Wright continued, “Both the bishops and deputies (lay and clergy) of TEC knew exactly what they were doing. They were telling the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other ‘instruments of communion’ that they were ignoring their plea for a moratorium on consecrating practising homosexuals as bishops. They were rejecting the two things the Archbishop of Canterbury has named as the pathway to the future — the Windsor Report (2004) and the proposed Covenant (whose aim is to provide a modus operandi for the Anglican Communion). They were formalising the schism they initiated six years ago when they consecrated as bishop a divorced man in an active same-sex relationship, against the Primates’ unanimous statement that this would ‘tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level’. In Windsor’s language, they have chosen to ‘walk apart’.” The conclusion to the 2004 Windsor Report stated, “There remains a very real danger that we will not choose to walk together. Should the call to halt and find ways of continuing in our present communion not be heeded, then we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart.” In 2003 TEC elected and consecrated as Bishop a divorced father living in a same-sex relationship. In many and various ways, Provinces within the Anglican Communion and the Instruments of Communion warned TEC against taking this action, saying it would “tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level.” The months following 2003 saw 22 of the 38 Provinces of the Anglican Communion declare themselves in broken or impaired communion with TEC. The Church of Uganda was one of the first Provinces in the Anglican Communion to understand TEC’s gross departure from the historic and Biblical faith of Anglicanism. Accordingly, the Church of Uganda declared in 2003, and reaffirmed in the Provincial Assemblies of 2004 and 2006, that it is in broken communion with TEC and will not receive funds from TEC or churches or dioceses that support the heretical decisions of TEC. The actions of TEC’s recently concluded General Convention justify the Church of Uganda’s decision six years ago, and their leadership last year in the GAFCON movement. TEC Denies the Uniqueness of Christ One of the resolutions put before the General Convention urged “Salvation is found TEC to follow the lead of the Church of England’s General in no one else [but Synod which, in February 2009, urged its House of Bishops to Jesus Christ of report back on “their understanding of the uniqueness of Christ Nazareth], for there in the United States multi-faith society, and offer examples and is no other name commendations of good practice in sharing the gospel of under heaven given salvation through Christ alone with people of other faiths and of to men by which we none.” must be saved.” (Acts 4.12) The resolution was presented to the Convention by the Evangelism Committee who urged the convention to reject the motion. The Evangelism Committee objected strongly to the resolution because they thought it was the language of proselytism and exclusivism, and they objected to any talk of Christianity superseding Judaism. “If you confess with your Thus, a resolution seeking to affirm the uniqueness of mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” Christ was defeated. and believe in your heart that God raised him from Furthermore, in her opening sermon of the Convention, the dead, you will be TEC’s Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori blamed saved. For it is with your the current crises in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican heart that you believe Communion on “the great Western heresy – that we can be and are justified, and it is saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right with your mouth that you relationship with God.” She went on to say, “That confess and are saved.” individualist focus is a form of idolatry.” (Romans 10.9-10) One evangelical Anglican leader commented, “Did I really hear what I think I heard? Did I just hear the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church dismiss as heresy the confession of millions upon millions of Christ followers…who are invited to make a personal confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour? How is it that a Church can dismiss the clear words of scripture (see e.g. Romans 10:9-10) as a mere “individualistic formula”? What audacity and pride drives a leader of a church to ignore the wealth of an over 2,000 years of uninterrupted tradition that holds that a person must confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour in order to be a Christian?” Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi was traveling at the time this article was written and was not available for comment. Provincial Secretary, Rev. Canon Aaron Mwesigye, said, “We continue to grieve for those in TEC who are subject to false teaching and pray for their repentance. In the meantime, we rejoice in our fellowship and communion with the new Anglican Church in North America and look forward to a bright future of mission and partnership with those faithful Anglicans.” .
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