ECUSA Bishops Expected to Continue Defying Anglican Leaders
by Jim Brown
March 28, 2005
(AgapePress) - A conservative Anglican theologian says the head clergy in the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) are acting more like lawyers than apostolic leaders in their efforts to ease Anglican tensions over the American denomination's consecration of an openly homosexual bishop.
Last month at a crisis meeting of world Anglican leaders, the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada were asked to withdraw from an Anglican governing council because of the American church's consecration of V. Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual priest, as Bishop of New Hampshire, and the Canadian churches blessings of same-sex couples.
The ECUSA leaders made limited concessions in response, saying they will not approve any new bishops and will not authorize public religious rites for same-sex couples for at least a year. However, some Episcopal clergy have conducted such ceremonies in private, and some observers feel the bishops' pledge leaves open the possibility that individual priests could continue to perform these non-public blessings of homosexual unions.
Dr. Kendall Harmon is Canon Theologian for the Diocese of South Carolina. He says the U.S. bishops are engaging in "the worst kind of schoolyard politics" and contends that their behavior "shows a tremendous lack of understanding of the seriousness of the crisis and of what they've been asked to do."
Harmon says what the bishops have made with their careful concessions is "basically an attempt to dictate the terms of their own repentance -- and the heart of repentance is [that] you don't get to dictate its terms. Repentance is on God's terms, or it isn't repentance."
The world Anglican leaders have asked the Episcopal bishops to declare a moratorium on same-sex blessings and homosexual ordinations until a new consensus in the Anglican communion emerges. However, just as the ECUSA leaders are refusing to prevent individual priests from conducting the forbidden ceremonies, Harmon likewise expects that the U.S. bishops will ignore the Anglican archbishops' request to withdraw from the Consultative Council.
"I think there's a real chance that either the Anglican Church in Canada or the Episcopal Church will choose to send their representatives [to the next council meeting] anyway, even though they've been asked not to," the Canon Theologian says. "And if that happens," he adds, "the controversy could escalate even further before June 2006."
The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church USA is slated to hold an April 13 meeting in Chicago to decide whether they will defy the Anglican leaders' request. In the meantime, while the American bishops' actions and apparent lack of repentance have put the ECUSA at odds with the larger worldwide Anglican Communion, the Scottish Episcopal Church has recently stirred the pot of controversy by announcing its own willingness to accept priests who are in homosexual relationships.
Responding to the world Anglican leaders' declarations concerning the U.S. and Canadian churches and their pro-homosexual actions, some Scottish Episcopal bishops have made a declaration of their own. According to an Associated Press report, the Scottish clergy announced on a church website that they have never barred anyone from the priesthood based solely on "a close relationship with a member of the same sex." The bishops also said Episcopal priests in Scotland sometimes offer church blessings to same-sex couples.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
