Conservative Anglicans Saddened by ECUSA's Direction
by Jim Brown
June 23, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A conservative Anglican group is decrying what it believes are heretical teachings espoused by the female bishop elected to head the Episcopal Church USA.
Katharine Jefferts Schori was recently elected President Bishop of ECUSA after a stint in the Diocese of Nevada, where she supported allowing priests to "bless" same-sex unions. Schori, who claims homosexuality is inborn and thus not a sin, and that the Bible should not be taken literally, is the first female to lead the denomination.
Conservative Anglicans are expressing strong disapproval over Schori's election to head the U.S. contingent of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Among those is Canon Daryl Fenton with the Anglican Communion Network (ACN), which includes ten conservative dioceses. Fenton says Schori's revisionist theology is an affront to the majority of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion.
"Certainly our network of parishes and dioceses' reaction was that the church had elected someone whose doctrines and beliefs were counter to historic faith, counter to biblical truth, and counter to the historic practice of the church," states Fenton.
The ACN spokesman says Schori's election is yet another indication that ECUSA does not intend to repent of its rejection of scripture, as well as a virtual "thumbing of the nose" at conservatives.
"We have voluntarily associated in the Episcopal Church in the USA, that's true; but we have a great deal of local autonomy," he explains. "So when this kind of thing happens, we've stood together as these ten dioceses, saying this is biblically wrong, historically wrong, morally wrong -- and that's why we've taken the stand we've taken, even though we're quite a small minority."
Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan, moderator of the ACN, says although Schori's election is troubling, "the decisive moment in contemporary Anglican history" was the Episcopal Church's consecration of openly homosexual Bishop V. Gene Robinson.
Indeed, the debate within the Anglican Communion since Robinson's approval in August 2003 has driven a wedge between ECUSA and the rest of the Anglican community, as well as between the two major factions within ECUSA. The American contingent wrapped up its General Convention in Ohio this week without coming close to meeting the demands of its own conservatives and other Anglicans across the globe. Duncan put it this way in a letter posted on the ACN website: "By almost every assessment the General Convention has embraced the course of 'walking apart.'"
Associated Press points out that conservative congregations that may be considering leaving the Episcopal Church face the prospect of losing church property. But it is more likely, say some experts, that ECUSA's membership will continue to erode, even as the American church becomes more alienated from Anglican traditionalists abroad. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, of Rochester in England, was quoted as saying "virtually two religions" now exist between conservatives and liberals.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
