-ALL WILL / NOT BE WELL

How does one represent in a title the double reality of a faithful Christian living through a crisis?

On the one hand, the best-known mantra of the fourteenth century English mystic Julian of Norwich, “all will be well,” claims a most basic truth. Through it all and after the worst, God will be present, sustaining and renewing for the individual believer.

On the other hand, the actual experience of the crisis may be painful to the extreme. “All will be well” may function as the last thread of hope a soul clings to.

All this is said for the individual; for certain human institutions, the use of the words, “all will be well,” may be part of “the big lie.”

One individual report (not a big-name personage) from the Synod of Province IV, just ended, is that the mood was “business as usual.” Resolutions attempting to press toward serious interaction with The Windsor Report were combined and replaced by a substitute resolution affirming “the spirit” of that report.

Province IV, comprising the southeastern states plus Kentucky, is arguably the most conservative of the provinces. If the watering down of the Windsor-related resolutions reflects an “all will be well” attitude, I’m afraid that doesn’t bode well for conservatives at General Convention.

Reinforcing this perception is the presence of five of the nominees for Presiding Bishop in the dioceses represented. These men are “powers” who exert their influence with words and without.

How can the outlook for conservatives at General Convention not be bleak? The Windsor Report is admitted to be the only explicit way that has been offered for keeping ECUSA in the Anglican Communion—our home in catholic Christianity.

“All will be well” seems to be the hope and prayer of those who seek to steer our church-ship into flow of the cultural mainstream. But the mantra that gives true comfort to individual believers, does not necessary apply to institutions.

If General Convention does not (and who would bet now that they will) humbly return to the Communion, then it can be predicted that a hundred thousand people would finally have had enough and walk away. There was a net loss of 27,252 people in Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) in 2004–the last year reported.

The “all will be well” leaders are bolstered for such a loss. Some will welcome it. But what a tragedy that multiple tens of thousands of sincere believers—many lifetime members—will be sacrificed for a purported forward step in the ministry of invitation and reconciliation. What a sad irony!

As an ordained representative of this church, I must say I have a foreboding feeling that “all will not be well” in ECUSA.

-A SWING AND A MISS

The retiring bishop of the Diocese of California, William Swing, has posted an essay — "The Episcopal Church in the Balance" — at the diocese website. It is about what the Episcopal Church (USA) is really facing at General Convention.

It seems to him the crisis is not about how to apply Scripture, reason, and tradition to an important moral question. Nor is it about how to approach such decisions in communion with the international family that is your home in catholic Christianity.

It is about freedom, power-struggles, and church property. You should read this whole thing. It is probably a view deep into the minds of insiders in the leadership of ECUSA.

The only part of this rant that approaches a biblical theme is the word “freedom.” But is this the freedom in Christ found in the New Testament? We don’t know from the article, because the bishop doesn’t engage the New Testament or the gospel.

Freedom as he describes it is more freedom of movement or freedom in an institutional sense.

This essay is a depressing example of not granting any legitimate issues to your opposition. Swing sees his opponents as all about power and property when it gets right down to it. They must be using Scriptural concerns as a cloak for their power-plays. Swing allows no other room for their putative issues.

The title of Swing's essay shows how seriously he means to be taken. For the senior bishop in the House of Bishops to write like this adds greatly to the bleak outlook for General Convention. Knowing that he is still the leader of the diocese which has three gay priests in partnerships nominated to replace him is downright ominous.

Thanks to CaNN for the alert.

-GENERAL CONVENTION AS WATERSHED

The platform of "The Consultation" (eleven ECUSA organizations) was published on Susan Russell’s blog of April 17.

According to Russell, the platform is “not just a legislative agenda for General Convention but a vision for the Episcopal Church — grounded in the one Lord, one Faith and one Baptism that bind us together as the Body of Christ called to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.”

The following quote should be taken up word-for-word by those who don’t see things quite as The Consultation does:

We come to the 2006 General Convention in Columbus understanding clearly that the Episcopal Church is once again at a watershed moment in history. Now more than ever, it is critical to articulate what we believe and what we are called to do.

One only has to read between the lines a little to get the importance of this manifesto. The first “call” for the 2006 General Convention is to:

Continue the radical reformation [my italics] of the Church. [including] Remove all canonical obstacles to exercising the full baptismal ministry in the whole life of the Church.

If any Deputies to GC read the whole platform, please pay attention to the subtext that baptism, without explicit reference to vital faith in Jesus Christ, opens the way to consecration as a bishop. If I had to pick one factor that accounts for the scourge in our church, it would be bishops who give no clear testimony by their words and actions that they have a saving faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Let Deputies be clear about one more thing. Many of those who represented these eleven organizations are ready and willing to sacrifice the Anglican Communion for faithfulness to their principles. This comes out subtly in Susan Russell’s preface to the platform:

It strikes me as an extremely hopeful sign that as we move closer to Columbus and General Convention 2006 there are faithful folks at work creating a proactive platform for a vision calling us to look beyond fighting over the unity of the institutional church to proclaiming the mission of the prophetic church: Alleluia, Alleluia!

Read the platform. Search for one reference to a priority for proclaiming the good news of eternal life through Jesus Christ—setting people free from the guilt and power of sin. Russell is aware of this component of our Anglican heritage. It comes out in one of her responses on her blog. But the evangelical and catholic mission of the gospel doesn’t make the list.

And let's be clear. Evangelical Episcopalians embrace the social and cultural implications of the gospel for our world (although I don't see the implications as most of the Consultation platform sees them). We are the hands and feet of Jesus in God's world.

But, if there is one thing, apart from a refusal to turn back to the Anglican Communion, that will drive me from the Episcopal Church, it is the abysmal omission at the national level of this church of evangelical priorities.

-ECUSA’S OFFICIAL DEFENSE

The Rev. Dr. Leander Harding has written a thorough commentary on the official defense of ECUSA's position given at Nottingham, England in 2005.

To Set Our Hope On Christ summarized the defense to the Anglican Consultative Council by an ECUSA team regarding General Convention's actions in 2003. Significantly, that team did not back away at all from the actions of GC 2003. Thus we should not be surprised that the recent report from the Special Commission avoids recommending any true halt on directions set at the Minneapolis Convention.

Harding's work is slow going, but worth the effort.

In short, the argument that is bound to be repeated in Columbus is:

-God surprisingly and graciously went against Old Testament laws to include the Gentiles in Christ without circumcision.

-In the past thirty or forty years, ECUSA has observed holiness in the lives and ministries of gay people living in intimate relationships.

-Holiness means this is from God.

-God is doing another surprising, gracious thing which may overturn our understanding of scripture on sexual ethics.

-A PLEA TO G.C. DEPUTIES

The Rev. Leander S. Harding, in his blog of the same name, has posted an Open Letter to the Deputies to General Convention from his diocese.

Part of what I'm feeling as GC approaches is expressed perfectly and I commend the whole letter to you.

He couches his appeal in prayer related to our defining relationship with the Anglican Communion:

It is my prayer that the General Convention will say yes to the requests contained in the Windsor Report and do so in a straightforward and unequivocal way. It is clear that rejecting the provisions of the Windsor Report would mean a break with the world-wide Anglican Communion.

One point of analysis touches a truth I recognized as I read these words: "The divisions in our Church run more through parishes than between parishes." I must guess that the forcing of the approval of a partnered-gay man as a bishop at General Convention 2003 may end up killing the church I serve. We are just barely marginal financially and more of the same from GC 2006 will predictably do us in.

Finally, this:

I want to say to you as a parish priest with long standing that the legislative victory of the last General Convention does not begin to represent the mind of our Church at the parish level. The efforts at dialogue and consensus building on this issue in our own diocese have been well- intentioned but inadequate. Many, many people in our Church and in our diocese feel profoundly that they have been neither consulted nor heard on this issue.

Read the rest and write your paraphrase to your deputies to GC 2006. Time is speeding by for our church.

-DEEPEST DIFFERENCES

The Presiding Bishop of ECUSA, many bishops, and other leaders are banking on an appeal to the Anglican Communion to hold diversity in tension while seeking a new consensus on sexuality and to get back to a shared mission.

I am persuaded by those serious-thinking people on both “sides” of our present argument who assert that the debate over homosexuality goes way deeper than the surface issues.

Our understanding of the mission of the Church, in practical terms, is one area of deep disagreement. Related to this, we often have radically different understandings of the good news of Jesus and the meaning of reconciliation to God.

Many other foundational points could be explored, but let’s start with mission and salvation.

In a previous diocese, I was part of a weekly lectionary group with three or four other Episcopal priests. Again and again when the readings had clear statements of the call to be reconciled to God and to receive eternal life, I would ask if they saw a personal element to this salvation. Not once did they agree; always it was communal, societal salvation.

Take the readings for the third Sunday of Easter. If you are to preach, what will you preach? If you are to hear, what will you hear? With some exceptions, you will see one of the deepest divides in our church played out in the sermon.

The BCP lectionary and the Revised Common Lectionary only share Luke 24:36b-48 this week. During an appearance of the risen Christ we hear:

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

This purports to give one version of “The Great Commission”—“…repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations….” Of course, those who have bought into the post-modern, neo-gnostic outlook will deconstruct this classic scripture into a power-play by the later church.

The BCP readings then have (in order of the settings) Acts 4:5-12. Peter and John are arraigned ominously before many of the same people who condemned Jesus. The leaders ask what authority they claim. Peter answers:

…this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is `the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”

Another ringing proclamation of “salvation” and being “saved” (shades of Baptist-like preaching)!

Finally, in chronological order, we hear 1 John 1:1-2:2—“concerning the word of life”:

…if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
….
…if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

“Atoning sacrifice” is the RSV/NRSV soft translation of hilasmos—translated in earlier versions by “propitiation,” with its hint of the wrath of God. This was too much for the translators of the post-WWII boom. But Leon Morris, in The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, gave a rock-solid defense of the harder translation.

So, those who follow the BCP lectionary will be confronted by three “hammers of grace” ringing our bells.

What will the preachers do with these monumental texts? Mark my words—Many will ignore them and default to the equally classic reading from Micah 4:1-5:

In days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk, each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.

Some who preach will make special pleading about the world situation. Micah must be preached. But if the world were at peace, they would still find a reason (or give no reason) to bail out to Micah.

Those who follow the Revised Common Lectionary do not have such an out provided. Along with the gospel noted above, they will hear Acts 3:12-19—the episode that provoked the reading above from the BCP lectionary. And even here, the conclusion pressed on the crowd of witnesses to the healing is this:

And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.

Jesus suffered to deal with the problem of sins. Repentance and a “turn to God” is the way to grasp God’s gift. This is individual salvation. Are there corporate, societal implications. Well, of course! But these begin with personal reconciliation to God.

The RCL, in chronological order, has a reading from 1 John 3:1-7:

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God….
…..
You know that [Jesus Christ] was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

All these readings are cut from whole cloth. They cohere. Will those who preach this Sunday give ringing appeals for people to be assured that they are personally reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, knowing that eternal life will further call them to serve God in the world God made? Or will these golden texts be bypassed as an anachronism?

See how it is where you worship this Sunday. You will be hearing a most basic part of the deep, defining, differences in the Episcopal Church. Two radically different gospels will be proclaimed across the ECUSA.

This post is being adapted into the beginning of a new “page” in the right column.

-THE UNPARDONABLE SIN

I've been waiting for this. Thank you Louie for coming right out with it.

CaNN gives us a link to a Louie Crew post that perfectly identifies the stakes in our debate from the gay side. Do not miss this! The stakes could not be higher.

Crew: "It is a sin against the Holy Spirit to interfere with the blessings which God has already bountifully bestowed on lesbians and gays…."

Get out your Bible — Mark 3:29 || Matt. 12:31,32; Luke 12:10. The "sin against the Holy Spirit," which I think Crew rightly interprets as a word against the Holy Spirit's work, is "the unpardonable sin." There is a connotation of determined finality in this rejection of the Spirit. Commentators suggest it is unpardonable because it doesn't seek pardon.

The claim of the holiness of certain gay unions — a main argument of the ECUSA defenders at Nottingham — is a claim that this is from the Holy Spirit. Those who speak against this are seen as guilty of an unpardonable sin.

Of course, gay supporters would allow that this can be forgiven, but only if the guilty persons repent of their words against this movement of the Spirit.

Now, consider fully who is saying this. This is not a Maury Johnson. Louie Crew is the leading gay advocate in ECUSA. He founded Integrity. He is Chair of the Newark Deputation to General Convention and a Member of Executive Council. He was nominated for President of the House of Deputies in 2003.

And consider where he said it. This was a post to the House of Bishop's and Deputies internet discussion—a forum including the best and brightest of gay advocates. It would be most interesting to hear whether anyone tried to tone down Louie's biblical allusion.

Even if Mr. Crew hesitated to connect the dots, the rest of the sentence has conservatives standing against a work of God. Not a good place to stand.
Crew's quote is one very big bit of evidence of the depth and intractability of our conflict.

-PLEA BARGAIN

From the Report of the Special Commission on the Anglican Communion, page 17, para. 47: "The Communion is presently wrestling with the issue of same-gender sexual activity and its implications for fitness for ordination and episcopal office."

No, the Communion is not. The Archbishop of Canterbury said recently (and everyone on the Commission must know the quote by heart): “In my judgment, we cannot properly or usefully reopen the discussion as if Resolution 1.10 of Lambeth 1998 did not continue to represent the general mind of the Communion.” To not "reopen" is way, way short of "wrestling with" the issue.

But, the Commission's bare assertion then becomes their basis for not recommending a moratorium on gay consecrations. No moratorium without full promise of engagement first.

All this after the Commission accepts on the previous page that the approval of Robinson was "out of sequence, given the unresolved question of the blessing of same-sex unions." This is rich!

It is like a person convicted of DWI and awaiting sentence, requiring that the judge engage in a debate about the goodness of drinking and driving.

-TRAFFIC VIOLATION ROLLING STOP

In an effort to find a new analogy in place of fudge for the apparent direction General Convention will be heading, I pictured a traffic violation stop with a twist.

What if you were pulled over by an officer, but instead of stopping, you slowed way down and even pulled onto the shoulder.

If the officer didn't think you were dangerous, she might do an O.J. and just follow for a while, possibly calling out to you on her loudspeaker. "Stop now," she would say, "There will be consequences if you continue."

But you roll on just enough to prevent her from parking her car and getting out.

You think you are being clever, but she is calling for backup and a spike-strip.

-READ JUDE AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME

I believe I’m right that the Epistle of Jude is never scheduled for reading on Sundays in the Episcopal Lectionary. Of course, Jude is blown off by critical academia as a very late, questionable, pseudonymous writing. It is in the canon of the New Testament, yet the canon and the very idea of an authoritative canon are under renewed assault.

It feels like there is an enemy out there.

Read Jude again “for the first time” and you will see why Jude is such a threat. May he threaten us again!

This is the English Standard Version—an excellent recent translation in the AV/RSV line. [Sorry that my cut and paste has the verse numbers jammed against the first words.]

The Epistle of Jude

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

1Jude, a servant[a] of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for[b] Jesus Christ:

2May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

3Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

5Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved[c] a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day– 7just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire,[d] serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

8Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12These are blemishes[e] on your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

14It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

17But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18They[f] said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. 20But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22And have mercy on those who doubt; 23save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment[g] stained by the flesh.

24Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Footnotes:

1. Jude 1:1 Or slave; Greek bondservant

2. Jude 1:1 Or by

3. Jude 1:5 Some manuscripts although you fully knew it, that the Lord who once saved

4. Jude 1:7 Greek other flesh

5. Jude 1:12 Or reefs

6. Jude 1:18 Or Christ, because they

7. Jude 1:23 Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin

-THE CHOICE FOR GC

An exchange between Tobias Haller and Ephraim Radner on titusonenine brought into focus the choice facing the General Convention. Anthills (with an "s" added to suggest the various attitudes in our church toward the Anglican Communion) will now focus on this choice.

These words from Radner (comment #31) galvanized my thinking about what I need to do here:

…the consequences of our disagreement are quite concrete and will determine the actual shape of our church very shortly and into the future. For some of us, it will determine the shape of our professional lives. Time is running out to put aside the arguments for the present and to re-engage the Communion on its own terms, within which at some point these arguments may again be examined.

I am among the "some of us" who anticipate that choices beyond our control may "determine the shape of our professional lives."

My original purpose started getting bogged down in the details of the argument over homosexuality. I knew before but now see more clearly that we first have to get through a "meta-choice" very soon.

Most Bishops and Deputies to GC are not going to change their views on homosexuality in the two months and nine days until the convention. What will take concentration, meditation, and prayer during that period is the choice about The Windsor Report way of being the Anglican Communion.

The Bishop of Arizona now says (after his "cat out of the bag" memo) that he is "personally faced with a dilemma as he tries to balance his own concerns about the Communion against equally strong convictions in favor of autonomy and inclusion."

In the exchange in titusonenine linked above, Haller took Radner's lead and shifted to thinking about "a way forward." But then the discussion ended. Is this ominous?

Can a way be found? What are the options? What are the arguments pro and con on the possible ways forward?

My metaphor here now is a large pasture with many anthills. "The field is the world." The anthills claiming to be Anglican are, as a "fact on the ground," diverse. The crucial question is, how will they relate?

That thread on titusonenine fizzled out. If a "safe" place is needed to continue the discussion, I offer this site. I will delete comments here that don't mirror the irenic (if spirited) tone of Haller and Radner.

I will be happy to create threads to accomodate anyone with something helpful to say.

This is my new focus and it feels to me like it's on target.

[This is anthills' revised purpose statement in right column. View unrevised "pages" only in this new light.]

-TRADITION ALIVE

“Traditional” or worse,”traditionalist,” are words that may connote a sense of uptight, moss-back, rigid, humorless commitment to the past.

Ephraim Radner has done his best to dispell that notion. An article for the Anglican Communion Institute (“If there is a future for ECUSA and the Anglican Communion, then what?”) includes this:

Now traditions can be and often are questioned and challenged; that is a part of the very “network” that maintains the bonds of the communion. But the questions and challenges, for all that, take place within and not outside this larger network, which is presumed because it is in fact real and living and defines communion as something more than a concept.

Tradition is the living, breathing, and yes, changing, “bequest” we have received. It has been challenged and should be. “Reformed and always reforming” is a watchword for more than the Reformed branch of the Reformation.

A full engagement with the tradition of interpretation of Scripture is precisely what has not happened in ECUSA. The decisions of GC 2003 were made ad hoc, without first reversing the standing position on same-sex blessings and ordinations.

Radner is not easy reading; but he is good reading. See especially the section on Scripture.