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Two Opposing Views of Anglicanism now Dominate the Anglican Communion One will win; the other will lose. Archbishop Welby faces his kairos moment
News Analysis
By David W. Virtue DD
www.virtueonline.org
August 28, 2013
Two distinct views of the Anglican Communion emerged this week that are worth contemplating because one of them will dominate the Anglican Communion and the other will not.Archbishop Justin Welby's recent doomsday warning that a feuding church is "on the edge of a precipice" is indeed true. The archbishop issued a dramatic warning that the worldwide Anglican Church is tottering on the brink of complete disintegration amid bitter disputes between liberals and traditionalists.
In his most stark comments yet about divisions over issues such as homosexuality, Welby said the Church is coming perilously close to plunging into a "ravine of intolerance". He likened the collective behavior of the church to a "drunk man" staggering ever closer to the edge of a cliff. He added that many of the issues, which different factions in the church are fighting over, are simply "incomprehensible" to people outside it. He even drew parallels between the crisis afflicting the 77 million-strong network of Anglican churches and the atmosphere during the English Civil War.
The Archbishop of Canterbury needs to be reminded of how we got where we are and how it could be resolved.
First. He inherited the whirlwind from his predecessor Archbishop Rowan Williams who saw the writing on the wall and fled to academia nine years before he had to. That should have been a tip of the hat. Most journalists with half a brain knew this was not going to be an easy ride and may not end well. If Welby had taken the trouble to read a number of orthodox Anglican blogs that have been writing about these issues for years, he would have been forewarned and therefore forearmed.
Second. Evangelicals (he is one himself) and Anglo-Catholics did not start this pansexual war; they only want to preserve what they have received. It was begun first by revisionist Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster, BC by his act of blessing same sex unions in 2002 in defiance of the 1998 Lambeth 1:10 resolution. By doing so, he began an historic voyage of spiritual destruction from the faith delivered once to the saints into a world of sexual behaviors proscribed by Scripture. Ingham was aided and abetted by bishops like John Shelby Spong, Walter Righter, Frank Griswold, Tom Shaw and many more. There was no push back; they proceeded without interference and spread their cancerous sexual doctrines maintaining, over time, that Scripture (by a sexual sleight of hand) supported them or that God had changed His mind. Nobody dared oppose them. There were no inhibitions or depositions. They would come later -- not to them, but to orthodox bishops who opposed them.
This is how it is done. The takeover begins inauspiciously enough. First, they infiltrate solidly grounded orthodox parishes. Over time, they cajole people into believing that sexual inclusivity, especially sodomy, is acceptable because some poor sod dies of AIDS and his parents believe the church should change its thinking and teaching to accommodate him. Before you know it, the parish priest has a case of misplaced compassion and it is all over. The orthodox are made to feel homophobic for not demonstrating enough pain, for not being inclusive and showing enough diversity. In time, the liberals win. The parish abandons historic teaching on sex and marriage while the orthodox leave. The parish then begins to wither and die. It is all done, of course, with the blessing and nod of the now liberal bishop.
Third. Global South Anglican leaders repeatedly warned Rowan Williams that the actions of North American bishops were communion-breaking acts. They alerted him persistently of the consequences if he continued to prevaricate and do nothing. Gene Robinson's consecration as an openly gay bishop was the final straw. Unable to concede that the Bible is definitive, Williams waffled and waffled. Failing to resolved anything he conceded defeat and left office his tail between his legs. Hardly a commentator had a good word to say for him. The Archbishop of Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh ripped him one saying that when Williams came into office, things were good. By the time he left, the communion was in shambles. Prior to this Williams got an earful from Frank Griswold at Dromantine, Ireland for not challenging the Global South over homosexuality. To make their point a third of the bishops stayed away from Lambeth 2008 while a third of the primates failed to show up in Dublin a couple of years later. What about these last two historical acts does Welby not understand?
Fourth. The vast majority of Global South leaders in Africa, Asia and Latin America were won to Christ by British missionaries who had both a clear fix on the gospel and an equally clear fix on sexuality. No compromise. None. These missionaries won thousands to Christ. The seeds they planted won millions more to Christ. Today Africa is the biggest, fastest growing corner of the Anglican globe. By contrast, Western pan-Anglicanism is aging and dying with not a prayer of winning Millenials for Christ. Most rectors and nearly all the bishops, except a small handful, wouldn't know how to lead anyone to Christ if their own lives depended on it. They are too ashamed of the gospel; do not believe in the total exclusivity of the "One Way" to heaven, or the unique Sonship and deity of Christ and the unique salvation he offers. They would sooner sit down over lunch and chat up Muslims about the need for more interfaith talks, while Muslims in countries where they have never been stifle religious dissent, harass and persecute minority Christians and torch their churches. Has there been a serious Muslim Mullah in America who has raised his voice against the rampant killing and destruction of Christians, say in Egypt or Syria?
Fifth. Welby is a self-professed evangelical who got converted following the untimely death of his daughter. He got involved with Holy Trinity Brompton and became a big ALPHA fan. So why is he hesitating in calling the game as he sees it? He knows full well what Mrs. Jefferts Schori thinks -- if he doesn't, he shouldn't be archbishop. He knows what Gene Robinson and Mary Glasspool do in bed. Does he think that is holy living? He has talked with ACNA Archbishop Bob Duncan. He knows full well why Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz visited him and told him not to recognize the Anglican Church in North America. Welby knows he has more in common with Archbishop Donald Harvey and his successor Charlie Masters as the leader of the Anglican Network in Canada than he does with Fred Hiltz, so why all the agony? Welby said the Church had to steer a course between, on one hand, compromising so much that it abandoned its "core beliefs" and, on the other, becoming so intolerant that it fractured completely.
So the first part of that sentence is true. The church cannot abandon its core beliefs. But the Episcopal Church has already done that. Where's the new news there? The Episcopal Church has abandoned core doctrine over salvation, Jesus himself (Jefferts Schori called him "our mother Jesus"), and says the resurrection of Jesus is spiritual, not actual and physical. How much more blasphemy does he need to know about? Added to this, Jefferts Schori has denied the necessity for personal salvation, a totally core doctrine for ALL Christians in whatever denomination they are in. How much more evidence does he need. And who exactly is being intolerant? TEC's homosexuals are totally intolerant of anyone who opposes their behavior. Why in God's name have 100,000 or more Episcopalians departed TEC? With each passing general convention, homosexuals and lesbians have become more strident, more demanding and more remorselessly hateful of orthodox Episcopalians. They even have their own Eucharist to push sodomy down the throats of everyone. Intolerance, dear Archbishop, lies squarely on the other side of the ecclesiastical ledger.
Sixth. The orthodox did not leave The Episcopal Church or the Anglican Church of Canada; the church left THEM. When they protested, they were called out for being uninclusive and lacking diversity by sodomites like Louie Crew (USA) and Colin Coward (UK) and on the lesbian side by Susan Russell and Mary Glasspool...to name just a few. Then most of the seminaries turned (as has TEC's one university - Sewanee) and the next generation of pro-gay pansexualists was born. Does Welby honestly think that the lesbian president of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass who is married to another woman is going to produce spiritual fruit for purpose. Following Robinson's consecration Episcopal churches began to empty faster than a blocked sewer pipe being reamed out by a motorized plumbing snake. Today, more than 37% of all parishes cannot afford a full time priest. Over the next five years, that will reach 50%. It will all be downhill from there.
Seventh. The whole pansexual revolution was begun by one man - Louie Crew -- and morphed into the misnamed organization known as Integrity. Then, with a small number (less than 2 percent of the church) of people, they set about changing the whole discussion on sexuality in consort with a handful of closeted pro-homosexual and homosexual bishops. The gay PR campaign has been the most brilliant study in ecclesiastical politics since the Civil Rights movement even though neither has anything in common with the other.
Eighth. Why was ACNA formed if it wasn't initially in reaction to TEC's theological and spiritual waywardness? Is this some ecclesiastical mirage that Welby thinks will just disappear one day because Fred Hiltz would like it to or when Archbishop Duncan retires? In fiction, perhaps, but not in reality.
Nine. What about all the tens of millions of dollars spent on lawyers to litigate all the property disputes. Why won't Welby whip up a little spiritual frenzy and cite St. Paul about not taking brothers to court and "being defrauded" instead? Why doesn't he have something to say, being evangelical and all, about his fellow evangelical and Anglo Catholic priests who have been tossed out of their parishes, lost their salaries and pensions while members of their congregation who, fed up, drifted to independent evangelical churches, the Orthodox and Roman churches or simply dropped out altogether? And what is he really doing about preserving his Anglo-Catholic wing in the Church of England over their refusal to have a woman bishop. Are they history? Many think so.
Ten. Welby says he plans to visit all the provinces over time. So far he has made forays into Guatemala, Mexico and the Middle East. These are not major players. They receive (money) more than they give and their congregations are small and, in the case of the Middle East, under persecution. So what will he say when he meets TEC's Jefferts Schori? Will he publicly lament about the divisions in the church without addressing who it was who created the divisions? Will he shout even louder about the need for reconciliation when all that does is make Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics roll their eyes and say what the blazes doesn't he understand?
Eleven. Will he make a cameo appearance at GAFCON II in Nairobi in October after first signing The Jerusalem Declaration. After all, these really are his peeps, not the liberals he is floundering about with and trying to make nice with talk of reconciliation.
Twelve: "We struggle with each other at a time when the Anglican Communion's great vocation as bridge builder is more needed than ever," said Welby. Answer. Anglican liberals are building bridges to nowhere. Conservatives are winning millions to Christ. They have a bridge and it's not too far and the end is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. And Welby must know that.
Thirteen. Welby needs to know that secretly the liberal pansexual West despises him and his "simplistic" ALPHA evangelicalism. They see it as fundamentalist, anti-scientific, simplistic and not in tune with post-modernism and the Millennial Generation who are more attuned to "spirituality" talk and more concerned with the latest in tech toys and instant communication.
Fourteen. This past week half a dozen (Episcopal) Communion Partner bishops raced across the Atlantic and sat down and prayed with Welby and then issued a statement that said, "It is our vocation as Communion Partners to navigate this narrow path between two dangerous extremes as we pursue the mission of the Church "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ." Say what. If one "dangerous extreme" is Jefferts Schori and the liberal and revisionist HOB, that's true. But who is the other "dangerous extreme" - ACNA? FCA/GAFCON? It was Bishop Greg Brewer (one of the six) when he was a TEC priest who led the worship at GAFCON I in Jerusalem. Now he is saying they are a "dangerous extreme"?
The worldwide Anglican Church is already split de facto if not de jure. The liberal provinces in North America and Europe have already made their bed. They won't be moved out of it, short of a Holy Spirit revival that is not on the horizon. No one is going to rescind Gene Robinson's papers or depose the lesbian Glasspool. Not going to happen.
This is Welby's kairos moment. Will he step up to the plate and declare those provinces out of communion because THEY do not hold fast to the Apostolic faith and teaching? Will he not invite them to future primatial gatherings or the next Lambeth Conference? Will Welby say, equally as boldly, that he stands with orthodox (read Evangelical) archbishops in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Sydney?
If he does not, then he could lose the communion. GAFCON II could be just the decisive kairos moment for the vast majority of Anglicans who are faithful believers. It is Welby's to lose...it is also his to win.
"It is a dangerous place, a narrow path we walk as Anglicans at present," he said in Mexico. But it is the narrow pathway that leads to eternal life by way of the cross. Just ask John Bunyan.
END
