Will the Anglican Communion split?

[BenL]

I just got done teaching a class at our Episcopal Church about how the Anglican Communion will handle the controversy over the consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop of NH, and the Anglican Church of Canada's handling of rites for same-sex unions. We didn't talk a lot about the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality but more about the process by which the Communion will reconcile or split apart.

At the core of the debate was the question: Who has the authority to say that one person is right and another is wrong? Another question: Does one side have the right to demonize the other when advancing its own point of view? A related question: Does one side always have to be sacrificed in the name of orthodoxy, or can people who frame their faith differently live side by side?

The core of authority in Anglican churches rests in Scripture, but reason and tradition are invoked in the interpretation of Scripture. Evangelicals in Anglicanism (most are not Fundamentalists) look first to the Bible for answers to problems of faith. More progressive Anglicans (labels are dangerous, so be careful how you read them!) tend to see Scripture in a historical context and claim that it must be interpreted in light of current understandings. Anglican Evangelicals tend to see their progressive sisters and brothers as relativist and revisionist. Liberals tend to see conservatives as inflexible and behind the times.

Besides the theological arguments are the geopolitical ramifications. While there are plenty of Evangelicals in the United States and the United Kingdom, the church in the Third World is overwhelmingly conservative and evangelical. The division over homosexuality has been painted by some as a North/South divide. Like all generalities, this has flaws and inconsistencies. The church in South Africa, for instance, backs same-sex unions.

Despite the energy invested in this question, there are still people who are hungry and poor and marginalized both here in the US and in the Third World. There are still people who need to hear about God's love for them. I wonder sometimes if it displeases God when we get all tied in knots over institutional questions like these. Besides that, it still hurts to have someone who claims to be your brother or sister label you as sinful. Can't we work together to feed the hungry and comfort the broken -- and leave the judging to God?

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

BenL

[Pablo Rafael]

Ben,

Just a quick question about how things work in the Episcopal church. I read Bishop Shelby Spong's book Here I Stand. He seems to take a very liberal approach to scripture to the point pretty much of discounting everything in the Bible and having a faith based on personal philosophy. However, the Episcopal services I have gone to have seemed to be pretty solid Biblically and haven't offended my conservative beliefs about the Bible.

Is there really such a wide range of views in the Episcopal church? How does a church function if that is so? What hold it together? We in the Catholic church have some differences among church leaders and members, but it doesn't seems as great. Growing up in the Lutheran church there was 0% diversity, no alternate views allowed. How does the Episcopal church work? It is ironic that I consider myself generally quite conservative but believe that gay and lesbian individuals should have all the rights as heterosexuals. I'm on both sides of this issue, I guess.

Tu Amigo, Pablo

[BenL]

Ben,

Just a quick question about how things work in the Episcopal church. I read Bishop Shelby Spong's book Here I Stand. He seems to take a very liberal approach to scripture to the point pretty much of discounting everything in the Bible and having a faith based on personal philosophy. However, the Episcopal services I have gone to have seemed to be pretty solid Biblically and haven't offended my conservative beliefs about the Bible.

Is there really such a wide range of views in the Episcopal church? How does a church function if that is so? What hold it together? We in the Catholic church have some differences among church leaders and members, but it doesn't seems as great. Growing up in the Lutheran church there was 0% diversity, no alternate views allowed. How does the Episcopal church work? It is ironic that I consider myself generally quite conservative but believe that gay and lesbian individuals should have all the rights as heterosexuals. I'm on both sides of this issue, I guess.

Tu Amigo, Pablo

Pablo,

Of the many autonomous churches in the Anglican Communion, the ECUSA (Episcopal Church USA) is one of the most liberal, but it has a vocal minority that is both conservative and evangelical. The church is very deliberate in the way it decides things, through its triennial General Convention. The convention is bicameral with a House of Bishops and a House of Deputies. The Deputies are from both the lay and the clerical orders.

The Book of Common Prayer is indeed very scripturally based and is the official voice of the Church's ethos and beliefs. (Lex credendi, lex orandi) Bishop Spong is vocal and extremely liberal in his beliefs. Many churches in some dioceses are extremely conservative and won't call a woman to be rector (pastor), even though ordination of women was adopted by the General Convention in 1976.

I had a bishop when I first joined the church 30 years ago who called the Episcopal Church "the roomiest church in Christendom." Its genius as I see it has always been that people can have quite diverse views but can still stand shoulder to shoulder worshipping God and carrying out the mission of the church to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, etc.

Fortunately, I am a member of a very welcoming parish, All Saints Church in Worcester MA. The parish has a GLBT group called the All Saints Alliance. All its members are active in the church and permeate its ministry in many other ways. Three of the couples are married ... yay Massachusetts! Another couple have been together 35 years. Our rector was recently elected the Bishop of Newark (NJ), which, incidentally, is the diocese Bishop Spong headed before he retired.

What worries me most about the current controversy is that gay and evangelical Chritians in the Episcopal Church are not finding it possible to sit down together and work out their differences, which has long been a hallmark of Anglicanism. We need to agree to disagree agreeably, as I see it. Instead, we are demonizing each other. When that happens, we dishonor God and Jesus' reconciling love, and God's work does not get done.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

BenL