Conservative Anglican Group: Regardless Who Is Next Presiding Bishop, ECUSA Loses
by Jim Brown
February 1, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A conservative Anglican group says the four bishops who have been nominated to be the Episcopal Church USA's new leader are "committed theological revisionists." None of them, says the group, are willing to adhere to the authority of scripture or lead the denomination towards repentance.
Bishop Henry Parsley of Alabama is the only nominee who voted against the 2003 ordination of the denomination's first openly homosexual bishop, V. Gene Robinson -- a move which has alienated conservative Episcopalians and Anglicans worldwide. The other nominees are Bishop J. Neil Alexander of Atlanta, Bishop Edwin Gulick of Kentucky, and Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of Las Vegas. Schori is the first woman nominated to head ECUSA. The American Anglican Council (AAC) says it is "deeply disturbed" that none on the slate of candidates is "representative of orthodox Anglicanism."
Cynthia Brust with the AAC says the three who voted to consecrate the homosexual bishop more than two years ago also voted against a resolution to affirm the authority of scripture and other basic tenets of the Christian faith. And Parsley's actions, she asserts, "belie his claims of orthodoxy."
"Bishop Parsley voted the right way about Gene Robinson and the affirmation of faith resolution," says Brust, "but I fear he did it for the wrong reasons. He's on the record in a news article saying he voted against Gene Robinson's consecration because now was not the time, [that] the church should reach consensus. That is not an orthodox position."
Brust contends Parsley has caused "great grief" among the orthodox in his own diocese by pressuring them and condemning the work of the American Anglican Council and the Anglican Communion Network.
The AAC laments that regardless who of the four candidates is elected as Presiding Bishop, the status quo will remain. "Tragically," states the group, "the leadership of any of the nominees promises a 'business as usual' attitude that chooses collegiality and pluriform reality over orthodoxy."
It is Brust's contention that Parsely's nomination along with the other three bishops merely shows, that once again, the denomination has chosen to alienate conservative Episcopalians and Anglicans worldwide. The AAC spokesman believes the only way ECUSA can continue to work together with the worldwide Anglican Communion is to move seriously into repentance.
"Which, of course, has to be upheld and marked by actions," says Brust, "these actions being the cessation immediately and permanently of the ordination and consecration of non-celibate homosexuals as well as same-sex blessings." But she admits she does not see that any of the four candidates for Presiding Bishop are "willing or able to take the Episcopal Church in that direction."
Whoever is elected to that position will succeed the retiring Frank Griswold and will serve for a term extending to 2015. The election is set for the church's General Convention in June 2006.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
