Course Correction

In the past few months we have seen the proliferation of several "loyal Episcopalian" groups in the diocese of Fort Worth. They appear to all be made up in the main of the same people (at least in their leadership). The latest to arise is the "Steering Committee." They have issued a statement on the recent visit of Archbishop Venables. Read it all here.

I want to respond to some of it - In their statement they assert:

Venables graciously and ably presented the fundamentalist case for a literal interpretation of selected scripture. He also continued to misstate the position of our presiding bishop and the Episcopal Church regarding the role of Christ in salvation and characterized Christianity as an “intolerant” faith. While emphasizing that the church is the people, he urged as to church property that, "We must retain what is rightfully ours."

Sadly the Steering Committee is off course. Bishop Venables spoke generally to the current crisis in the Communion as a conflict over the whole of the Scriptures as the Word of God and over Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Word of God. On the wall in my office (and likewise on the walls of most of the clergy offices throughout the Episcopal Church) are my two ordination certificates. They both attest that I "freely and voluntarily declared that he believes the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of GOD, and to contain all things necessary to salvation." The Holy Scriptures are the Word of GOD. That is an essential concept over which we are arguing, not a secondary matter. There is no mistaking that the leadership of the Episcopal Church has increasing difficulty with that simple statement. In discussions about this, immediately the distinction is made about who said what, and is it the word of God, or not. I have been a Deputy to General Convention since 2000 and have participated in an online discussion with my fellow deputies, and it is not a misstatement to say this is so. Archbishop Venables frames it well:


The bishop did describe Jesus' statement "No one comes to the Father but by me" as intolerant. If Jesus is the Word of GOD incarnate, then this statement means what it says.

The Steering Committee North Texas Episcopalians (“Steering Committee”), recently created to support the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth as a constituent part of the Episcopal Church, contends that the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth was created by the approval of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, and as with every diocese in the Episcopal Church, exists solely by virtue of its unity as part of the Episcopal Church. Should our bishop and some clergy and laity decide to leave the Episcopal Church, those Episcopalians who remain will continue to be the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and full participants in the Episcopal Church.

Again, a slight course correction - The Diocese of Fort Worth was created out of the Diocese of Dallas, organized itself, and then came into union with the General Convention. It exists as a diocese of the Episcopal Church because it is in union with the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. If it ceases to be in union with General Convention that does not mean it will cease to be a diocese. It will mean that it is no longer under the jurisdiction of the General Convention. It is undeniable that a diocese ultimately is not about buildings and assets, it is all about a group of people gathered around and under the leadership of its bishop.

The Steering Committee also notes that a visit of this nature by a foreign bishop violates the call in the Windsor Report for a moratorium on interventions by bishops in provinces and dioceses other than their own. This visit ignored the objection of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who wrote to Venables requesting that he cancel his visit, calling it "an unprecedented and unwarranted invasion of, and meddling in, the internal affairs of this Province."

It needs to be noted that it is insufficient to cherry-pick the bits of the Windsor Report you like and ignore the rest. The Steering Committee referenced paragraph 155 of the Windsor Report, but not the whole of it. Paragraphs 156 & 157 also need to be considered:

156. 156.We call upon all parties to the current dispute to seek ways of reconciliation, and to heal our divisions. We have already indicated (paragraphs 134 and 144) some ways in which the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Diocese of New Westminster could begin to speak with the Communion in a way which would foster reconciliation. We have appealed to those intervening in provinces and dioceses similarly to act with renewed respect[105]. We would expect all provinces to respond with generosity and charity to any such actions. It may well be that there need to be formal discussions about the path to reconciliation, and a symbolic Act of Reconciliation, which would mark a new beginning for the Communion, and a common commitment to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to a broken and needy world.
     
     
157. 157. There remains a very real danger that we will not choose to walk together. Should the call to halt and find ways of continuing in our present communion not be heeded, then we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart. We would much rather not speculate on actions that might need to be taken if, after acceptance by the primates, our recommendations are not implemented. However, we note that there are, in any human dispute, courses that may be followed: processes of mediation and arbitration; non-invitation to relevant representative bodies and meetings; invitation, but to observer status only; and, as an absolute last resort, withdrawal from membership. We earnestly hope that none of these will prove necessary. Our aim throughout has been to work not for division but for healing and restoration. The real challenge of the gospel is whether we live deeply enough in the love of Christ, and care sufficiently for our joint work to bring that love to the world, that we will “make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4.3). As the primates stated in 2000, “to turn from one another would be to turn away from the Cross”, and indeed from serving the world which God loves and for which Jesus Christ died.

It is clear that the current situation here is some of the working out of paragraph 157 of the Windsor Report. It needs to also be said that since the WR's publication in 2004, the response of TEC has been to continue on its same course while attempting to pay lip service to the rest of the Communion. (Resolution BO33 of GC 2006 was just that.) The leadership of the diocese of Fort Worth, in keeping with the spirit of the Windsor Report, is attempting to make provision for those parishes who chose to walk apart from the diocese and to adhere to the General Convention, to be able to keep their property. The word on the street is that TEC wants none of that.

It also needs to pointed out that the Presiding Bishop is not a metropolitan bishop despite her current address. She does not legitimately exercise the authority of an archbishop over any of the bishops of TEC, save that perhaps of the Bishop to the Armed Forces. Knocking your stick on just any cathedral door doesn't give you say-so over anything. She has no say over who visits Fort Worth at the invitation of the ordinary. And as I wrote in an earlier post, we were blessed by this most recent visit.