Episcopal Modes of Protest: Finances and Feet
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
March 2, 2004
(AgapePress) - A conservative Episcopal theologian says there has been extensive fallout from his denomination's decision to approve an openly homosexual bishop at its August general convention in Minneapolis. The theologian says that act has yielded several levels of response from orthodox Episcopalians in the United States.
Dr. Kendall Harmon says the approval of New Hampshire Bishop Vicki Gene Robinson -- an Episcopal priest who divorced his wife in the 1980s and has lived with a male "partner" for years -- has prompted orthodox Episcopalians to vote with their pocketbooks by withholding funds to the Episcopal Church USA.
"People feel like this is a church that's turned its back on God, so they're channeling their financial resources elsewhere," Harmon says. "It's not that they're not tithing -- they're giving to the Lord; but they simply can't in any way give to the national Episcopal Church anymore because they feel like it's promoting a behavior which is against God's will."
For example, Associated Press reports that Alabama Episcopalians have rejected their denomination's approval of Robinson, and some congregations have cut contributions to church headquarters. Officials at a special state diocese meeting adopted a resolution over the weekend declaring that "blessings of same-sex unions and ordinations of non-celibate unmarried persons are not part of the common life of this diocese."
The bishop for the Alabama diocese says the vote "expresses disagreement, but not division" over Robinson's appointment, adding that there are not any plans to split from the church's New York headquarters.
In addition to directing their support elsewhere, Harmon says others in the ECUSA are voting with their feet by leaving the denomination. "We have a lot of people going, for example, to Eastern orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, or the charismatic Episcopal Church," he explains, "and part of the problem with that is these are people who are in a church where they feel that what happened in Minneapolis is either being embraced or it's not being stood against."
Still others, he says, are leaving their parishes and starting new worship communities that are not even fully affiliated with Anglicanism.
In the wake of Robinson's consecration, a group of orthodox Episcopal clergy and lay people recently formed "The Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes" to protest their denomination's disregard for scripture. That group was launched officially in late January and includes representatives from 12 Episcopal dioceses as well as individuals from geographic regions that are designated as "Convocations." Rev. Robert Duncan was elected moderator of the new Network and will serve for a three-year term.
The Network says it will operate within the constitution of the Episcopal Church and in full fellowship with the "vast majority" of the Anglican Communion.
