Looking forward to the February Primates Meeting

Commentary by Robin G. Jordan


Will implementation of the recommendations of the Windsor Report restore communion between the Episcopal Church USA and those Anglican provinces that have recognized the existence of a state of broken or impaired communion between the ECUSA and themselves? The Windsor Report’s recommendations unfortunately address only surface issues. They do not deal with the apostasy and heresy of the ECUSA’s clergy and lay leaders. The ECUSA is simply asked to express regret for having consecrated a non-celibate homosexual as a bishop and to adopt a moratorium, a temporary halt, to its consecration of non-celibate homosexuals as bishops. The ECUSA is also asked to adopt a moratorium – again a temporary halt – to its blessing of homosexual unions. The Lambeth Commission on Communion proposed the development of a "Communion covenant" to which all members churches of the Anglican Communion would be asked to subscribe but does not make any specific recommendations regarding the content of this covenant or what kind of disciplinary actions should be taken in the event a province declines to subscribe to the covenant. Each province would be left to determine how the covenant would be enforced within its jurisdiction. The Commission did not deal with the strong possibility that a province like the ECUSA might subscribe to the covenant but would redefine what the covenant means and in practice ignore it. The "Communion covenant" offers too much wiggle room.

All of these proposals would, if implemented, establish the kind of loose association of national churches along the lines of how the ECUSA’s leaders redefine "communion." They would not restore the kind of communion between the ECUSA and the other Anglican provinces that the ECUSA has broken with its theological and moral innovations. The only common bond member churches of the Anglican Communion would have is a common heritage as daughter churches of the Church of England and recognition by the See of Canterbury. They would no longer have a common faith and order.

To truly heal the divisions which have caused the rent in the fabric of the Anglican Communion, the ECUSA must turn from its present direction and return to orthodox Christianity. The ECUSA’s House of Bishops, however, has shown no inclination to lead the ECUSA back to Christian orthodoxy. This is evident from the outcome of the Salt Lake meeting. Instead the Presiding Bishop of the ECUSA has appointed a commission to prepare a theological rationale for its ordination of non-celibate homosexuals as deacons and priests, its consecration of a non-celibate homosexual as a bishop, and its blessing of homosexual unions. He will use this rationale to defend the actions of the ECUSA’s General Convention at the Primates Meeting in February.

Implementation of the Windsor Report’s recommendations would leave believers unequally yoked to unbelievers. A believer is someone who believes in Jesus Christ through the witness of the apostles, through "their word" in the words of our Lord. Many Episcopalians have been taught by their clergy to question and reject the apostolic witness. Instead of the Biblical message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, the Episcopal clergy preach "another gospel," a gospel of radical inclusion, a gospel of cheap grace. As Claire Whitehall observes in her article, "Rendering Us Incapable: Returning the Church to the Gospel of Grace" in Encompass [January 2005] , "this is grace without discipleship and without the recognition of Jesus Christ as God incarnate." The boundaries between an increasingly secularized church and a more "religious" world are blurred. The church and the world are barely distinguishable from each other. The ECUSA has become a church of unbelievers. Many of its lay people are unbelieving as are many of its clergy. Believers in the ECUSA form an increasingly marginalized minority.

Tougher measures are called for than those which the Windsor Report proposes. The Anglican Primates must ask themselves, do they want to maintain any kind of communion with an apostate, heretical church? Continued recognition of the ECUSA as a member church of the Anglican Communion gives legitimacy to its claim that its Biblical, theological, and moral revisionism is a form of Anglicanism. It places the gospel of radical inclusion on par with the Gospel of grace. Do they really want to do that?

The proposals that Bishop John Rodgers of the Anglican Mission in America outlines in his open letter to the Anglican Primates, posted in yesterday’s edition of Anglicans Ablaze, offer a blue print for establishing an Anglican province in the United States that has a historical orthodox understanding of Biblical Christianity. This province would replace the ECUSA. These proposals recognize that there can be no real fellowship between the Anglican Communion and an apostate, heretical church.

In adopting its present direction the ECUSA has in effect dissolved any partnership between itself and the Anglican Communion. As Archbishop of Nigeria Peter Akinola has pointed out, two cannot walk together unless they agree. The ECUSA has not only charted a different course for itself but is seeking to influence other provinces to adopt the same course. While the ECUSA may not be dissuaded from its present course, it should not be allowed to draw others along with it. The survival of orthodox Christianity in the Anglican Communion is at stake.

The Primates Meeting in February will be a turning point in the history of the Anglican Communion. Whatever happens, it will affect the Anglican Communion for years to come. The Anglican Primates may choose to take strong disciplinary action against the ECUSA. Or they may defer to another day the unpleasant task of ejecting the ECUSA from the Anglican family of churches, opening the door wider to the pernicious revisionism that is infecting the ECUSA and corrupting everyone who it touches.

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will give wisdom and foresight to the Primates that they will see both the short-term and long-term ramifications of the Windsor Report’s recommendations, and will make the preservation of orthodox Christianity in the Anglican Communion the main priority of their meeting.