Stronger Measures Needed

Commentary by Robin G. Jordan

While requesting the North American churches to voluntarily withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council for three years is the closest that the primates can come to suspending the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada, it is obvious from the reaction in the North American churches that it is not going to work. A number of church leaders are urging their respective churches not to withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council. Some church leaders are publicly stating that they expect the move to expel the North American churches from the Anglican Communion to loose momentum over the space of three years. There will be a lot of talk but nothing will happen. If the request for the withdrawal of the North American churches from the Anglican Consultative Council was intended to awaken these churches, it is not having that effect. Drawing upon their experience with the opposition to gay ordination, the confirmation and consecration of Gene Robinson, and the blessing of gay couples, the liberal leaders of Episcopal Church are not expecting anything to happen. They have become accustomed to endless debate and wrangling over these issues and seeing the homosexual agenda moving ahead despite loud objections from opponents of that agenda. Indeed liberal church leaders and gay activists have used this debate and wrangling to advance the gay cause. The Episcopal Church is as somnolent as it was before the Primates’ Meeting.

The primates need to turn up the heat and request that the North American churches also withdraw from the Primates’ Meeting. They also need to call for a moratorium upon the ordination of sexually active gays and the resignation of gay clergy who are not celibate.The Archbishop of Canterbury needs to state in public that the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada will not be invited to the Lambeth Conference if they do not comply with these requests. If their bishops do appear at the Lambeth Conference, they will not be seated. They will have no voice or vote in its proceedings. This will send a message to the North American churches that the primates are serious. These steps may not repair the damaged relationship between the North American churches and the global South provinces but they will keep the global South provinces in the Anglican Communion.

Only strong measures will make clear to the North American churches that if they wish to continue to pursue their present course, they will not be able to do so as constituent members of the Anglican Communion. Only strong measures will precipitate the kind of crisis in the North American churches that can lead to a change in leadership and direction. It is “tough love” but at this stage nothing else is going to work. Only strong measures may awaken those complacent Episcopalians who have allowed the liberal wing to take control of the Episcopal Church (USA). Such measure will force Episcopalians to choose between the heresy of radical inclusivisim and the orthodoxy of Biblical Anglicanism. They will not be able to go on pretending that because they are unaffected at the local level, what happens in the larger church does not matter. It may prompt them to challenge the claims of liberal bishops and clergy that the ordination of sexually active gay clergy, the actions of the 2003 General Convention and the subsequent consecration of Gene Robinson have not hurt the Episcopal Church and even have benefited the church. For example, one rector claimed that his church had doubled in size since the consecration. Such anecdotal claims do not reflect the true state of the denomination. They are intended to minimize, or play down, the harm done, point a finger of blame elsewhere, and to allay fears. Ecumenical relations with the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church have been seriously damaged. 22 of Anglican Communion’s 33 provinces have declared the 2003 General Convention’s actions and Robinson’s consecration have caused a state of broken or impaired communion between the Episcopal Church and themselves. Across the country the Episcopal Church has been slowly hemorrhaging members, giving has dropped dramatically in some dioceses, and a number of clergy and congregations have left the church. One of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas’ largest churches is reported in today’s news as considering leaving the diocese and the Episcopal Church. Only strong measures may turn the Episcopal Church back from its current path to self-destruction.