The California diocese voted to secede from the Episcopal Church (US). But the press, and the EC (US) both haven’t figured out why.
The media reports this as resulting from “years of disagreement over the church’s expanding support for gay and women’s rights.” These issues are just a symptom of a bigger problem which conservative Episcopalians will tell you. The real issue is the denomination’s departure from historic Christianity which include the idea that Scripture, not a bishop, is our final authority.
Episcopal forms of government have this problem. Churches having this form of government include the Roman Catholic Church and the United Methodist Church too. They place authority in the Bishop as the final arbitor of what Scripture teaches, or what the Church is to believe and do. The problems occur when the Bishop(s) begin to hold doctrines and practices that are not in harmony with Scripture. Protestants like me believe this is why the Reformation had to take place.
Conservative Episcopals are willing to submit to the the bishops as long as they are in harmony with Scripture where it speaks clearly. When it comes to homosexual activity and leadership, the Scriptures speak clearly. The Episcopal Church (US) has become improperly enculturated by rejecting those clear teachings in favor of the culture’s differing views on these matters.
The denomination sees the problem as the seceders ” unwillingness or inability to live within the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness.” See, the conservatives are the problem for not embracing a unity at all costs mentality. They can’t fathom the idea that sin (disobedience) may create a lack of unity if there is no repentance. These lower bishops and priests recognize that they too are accountable before God and can no longer remain in what is becoming an apostate body.
The ones I know grieve over the need to take such action. They waited, and prayed, for some time for repentance to take place. Some of us outside their communion thought they may have waited too long. But this is no light matter, so I can cut them some slack for moving so slowly.
The ecclesiastical battle may be over, but, sadly, the battle(s) for property will continue for some time. This same battle is being fought between the PC (USA) and those congregations that decided that their former denomination had also strayed from its theological moorings. The media will continue to paint the conservatives as moral fuddy duddies. There is a larger theological issue at stake, and at the root of the continual slide to the left. The denominations are painting them as schismatics who have the audacity to want to keep the buildings their congregations built and maintained. Some of them will have to begin again in rented facilities. As difficult as that may be… it is better than going down with the ship. If a congregation is unwilling to forsake their property for truth, they have to look to see where their treasure really lies- this kingdom or God’s?
May God have mercy on those who leave for the right reasons, and enable them to bear much fruit in the days to come. May He grant repentance to those who have compromised the truth to gain the approval of men.
Cavman Considers 
There are many Biblical injunctions which even conservative Christians ignore or regard as irrelevant, for these are tied historically to particular circumstances, times, places and understandings. The Reformation placed emphasis on Scripture, but also on human intellect, and many old modes of interpreting Scripture WERE altered or abolished because of it. God gave us his Word but He also gave us intellect.
Scripture can be seen not as just the “word” of God, but as a RECORD of the Word of God. The Word is living, active, and speaks to us clearly in the here and now even as it did in ancient times. We grow in faith and in intellect. At times our understanding of God and His will DOES seem to go against things that He has said to us in the past, via Scripture. Were this not so, Christians would still own slaves (condoned by Scripture), Christian men would not cut their hair of shave (read Leviticus) etc.
To give “the letter” superiority over “the spirit” is to miss the point. The latter CAN seemingly contradict the former because the former – though the “Word of God” – was written down by mortal men, replete with limitations of understanding and shaped by their environment. Luther knew this. So did others, and interpretations of Scripture and what God “intended” by Scripture HAVE changed, even within “traditional” Christian tradition. Sacred Scripture – when taken at face value – contradicts itself in places. Either the Author of All is schizophrenic, or human reason and understanding changes and grows. I’ll bet on the latter, and am thankful for my gifts of faith and intellect which allow me to interact with others in charity, kindness, and justice. All things promoted by Christ.
These 2 issues were not tied to any particular times, circumstances, places and understandings. Paul roots his arguments concerning male headship in the church in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy 2-3 in creation. One does not answer a cultural problem with an answer from creation. He roots the issue of male headship in the home, Ephesians 5, in redemption. He ties them both together in 1 Timothy by calling the church “God’s household”.
Regarding homosexual activity- many of the original audience were surrounded by all manner of sexual practices contrary to what the Scripture teaches. Rather than adjust moral standards since they were 1,400 years old, he affirmed them and explained the prevelance of such practices are flowing from people’s rejection and denial of God and Truth.
That many conservatives have blind spots, and don’t recognize their sin, does not justify ignoring them when they recognize other people’s blind spots. We conservatives need to address issues of gluttony, greed, serial monogamy etc. But that does not mean ignoring the rejection of other biblical truth until you get your whole act together.
Recognizing that one must have a solid hermeneutic to rightly understand the meaning of Scripture, one which uses our brains though sometimes we use our brains to develop wrong methods of interpretation- the Spirit and the Scriptures are not at odds with one another.
I believe in the dual authorship of Scripture. God used real people in real circumstances with real limitations. Yet, God also knows reality in its totality- so I do not think there are places were what God ‘intended’ have changed. Our understanding of the text may change. That can be based on good reasons, or bad reasons. In the instances mentioned in this controversy- they are bad reasons. They are rooted in wanting to fit in with culture inappropriately by rejecting some pretty clear teaching (regardless of how some try to muddy the waters).
Charity, kindness and justice all require truth. Love speaks the truth as tenderly and sternly as needed. It is no kindness to hide the truth from someone because it is seen as passe or intolerant. To be just is to make decisions based on truth. They cannot be isolated from one another as we interact with one another. Jesus had some really harsh things to say to those who violated the Scriptures to uphold the traditions of men.
Hey Hans, how is Franz?
Hey Cav, thanks for your bringing up this topic.
For the last few decades clearly, many Episcopal church members didn’t care when Scripture was being twisted and rationales were utilized to squirm and justify how they no longer cared about Scriptural Authority or Scripture’s Sufficiency.
They did not care when macro-evolution was being trumpeted as science, or how about when Pragmatism was be the MO to reach people, Experience trumping Doctrine / Truth; Evanglism being watered down to your experience / your testimony and not the historical witness to Christ in time and space.
Where many in the Episcopal church are drawing the line is Homosexuality. Now, after decades of sipping their wine by the fireplace, they cry “Foul!”.
But what will their reasoning be?
How can they employ the Scriptural admonitions and commandments when for the last 30 years they have been blowing off passages left and right in support of reinterpreting Scriptural teaching regarding Gender Roles, they have reinvented the person of Jesus and they’ve adopted a stance of standing in judgment over Scripture, rather than maintaining the historic stance of submission to the authority of God’s Word.
It takes something as sick and reprobate as homosexuality to get some people’s attention. For decades the ECUSA and PCUSA have chosen to define sin, unbelief, lack of faith as something with which OTHER PEOPLE struggle.
I sincerely have prayed for conservatives in liberal denominations, but I also must declare the “conservatives” in denominations in the ECUSA and PCUSA have themselves to blame as well. They should have said “Thus says the Lord” three decades ago! To wait to say so now, one wonders if they will even have an audience willing to contemplate such a notion. Reminiscient of Hosea in 730 BC their audience will likely reply with malice viewing the prophet as an alien, a mad man.