Dissenting Connecticut Clergy Contend for ECUSA's Reform
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
May 5, 2005
(AgapePress) - The Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut is threatening to punish six priests who are at odds with his support for the Episcopal Church USA's current positions on homosexual issues. The conservative clergy face being defrocked for their refusal to abide by the ECUSA's practice of ordaining homosexuals and conducting same-sex blessing ceremonies.
Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith has threatened to inhibit six dissenting priests that he claims have "abandoned the Communion." But in the eyes of the six priests, it is Smith and other Episcopal and Anglican leaders -- such as the liberal and pro-homosexual bishops in the Anglican Church of Canada -- who have abandoned the Anglican Communion by embracing false teaching.
One of the six, Christopher Leighton of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Darien, says there is a deep chasm between conservative priests and leaders of the diocese over biblical authority. "The Bible's very clear," he contends, "that the only acceptable expression of intimacy, in human beings, is between a man and a woman for life, and we call it holy wedlock. And the recent decisions of the Episcopal Church fly in the face of the scriptures and of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and world Christianity."
Who's Out of Communion?
The Anglican Primates expressed their similar feeling in an official communication issued after their February 2005 meeting in Ireland. Having warned both the ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada repeatedly about the ordination of practicing homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates came down with a clear decision in Belfast 2005, clearly expressing their conclusion that the two North American churches were out of line.
"Basically," a pastoral letter from the Southeast Asian Primate stated, "ECUSA and Canada are both suspended immediately to give them time and space to go through their Canonical and Constitutional procedures to express their desire and will to stay in the Anglican Communion by repentances and reversing what they have unilaterally endorsed and put in place."
But despite the censure of the Anglican Primates, both the ECUSA and the ACC have persisted in encouraging the officially proscribed policies and practices -- sometimes in an "unofficial" way. Just last week, the Associated Press reports, Bishop Michael Ingham of the ACC endorsed a statement in which Canada's Anglican bishops pledged "neither to encourage nor to initiate the use of such rites" until a nationwide synod settles the issue. But at the same time, Ingham says this leaves his diocese in British Columbia free to continue its current practice of blessing same-sex couples.
And in the case of Connecticut's Bishop Smith, he has acknowledged that the blessing of same-sex unions "has not been authorized" by church leaders. Nevertheless, he publicly states, "I look for the day when we as Episcopalians in the Diocese of Connecticut will be able publicly to recognize, bless and support faithful, Christ-centered life-commitments of gay and lesbian persons among us. I pray for and seek changes in our church's life, discipline, and worship that will bring recognition, acceptance and equality for sisters and brothers who are lesbian, gay, and transsexual" (titusonenine.classicalanglican.net).
Meanwhile, the Bishop of Connecticut warns that any priest or deacon who has been determined to have abandoned communion -- such as the dissenting priests of the six conservative parishes -- may be "inhibited" from ordained ministry within the diocese for up to six months. At the end of that period, he notes, if the priest has not returned to communion, the bishop can depose the cleric from ordained ministry.
Dissenters Stand Faithful, Firm, and Fearless
But despite Bishop Smith's abuse of power and rejection of scripture, Leighton says those six conservative priests want to remain in the Diocese and in the Episcopal Church USA. He contends that he and the other dissenting Episcopal clergy feel they have been chosen to take their stand for the Bible and for Christ and face the consequences.
"I've used the phrase 'I'm not threatening to leave, I'm threatening to stay,'" the conservative bishop explains. "Over the last 20 plus years I've lost many friends, lay people and clergy, who have given up on trying to reform and renew the Episcopal Church and now are in Bible-based churches."
However, Leighton adds, "In our case, we still feel called to remain, let our light shine, and really give the Episcopal Church one last chance." Since the Anglican Community has only suspended the ECUSA, he points out, the denomination still has a chance to "reconsider its false teaching and come back to the Bible."
