Theologian Says Clergy Marital, Sexual Discipline Lacking in ECUSA
by Jim Brown and Bill Fancher
July 14, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A conservative Anglican theologian says there's a "complete lack of marital and sexual discipline for the clergy" in mainline Protestant denominations -- namely the Episcopal Church USA.
ECUSA is getting set to ordain a bishop who is twice divorced and in his third marriage. Barry Beisner is to become bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California on September 30, despite concerns raised by some members of the nominating committee. They noted the Bible says a bishop must be "above reproach" and "the husband of one wife."
Dr. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, says the Episcopal Church is a "very broken church" in the area of leadership standards -- and Beisner's pending appointment, he adds, sends a confusing message.
"[In] a situation like this, where somebody has been involved in not one, but two tragic breakdowns and is now in his third marriage -- with children, by the way, from both of the first two marriages -- it simply provides a confusing standard at a time when the world is already confused about what Christianity means and what it looks like," says Harmon.
The Anglican theologian notes that in his South Carolina Diocese, Beisner could not even serve as a priest. "Part of what the New Testament lays down is ordination is not a right; it's a privilege, and it's a responsibility," he points out. "And part of the calling involves a call to a holiness of life that involves leading an exemplary life. And part of being an exemplary leader is the way that you deal with your marriage and your family, if you have them."
Harmon says the Christian standard is very clear -- those who are single need to be abstinent, and those who are married need to be faithful. He also comments that the vast majority of Anglicans outside the U.S. do not even countenance the idea of divorced clergy.
New U.S. Province?
Meanwhile, an official with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) is predicting a "reshaping" of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. could be happening soon. Faith McDonnell, religious liberty director at IRD, notes that ECUSA has been in a crisis mode since it consecrated an openly homosexual bishop in August 2003 -- and that the church's recent General Convention did nothing to settle the dispute.
"We were pretty much expecting the church to try to fudge their way through an apology to the rest of the [Anglican] Communion," she says. According to McDonnell, it did that -- and it was not enough. "Now we're left with two churches within a church," she comments.
The IRD spokeswoman says those within ECUSA who support strict scriptural teachings are seeking a new solution. She says she is hopeful that the primates of the "Global South" -- the Anglican provinces in Africa -- will help that group form a new province within the Anglican Communion in the U.S.
Jim Brown and Bill Fancher, regular contributors to AgapePress, are reporters for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
