Anglican Priest Blames Episcopal Church's Problems on Departure from Scripture
by Jim Brown
July 25, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A traditional Anglican minister is criticizing his former bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas for allowing parishes to move forward with blessing homosexual relationships.
Arkansas Episcopal Bishop Larry Maze recently announced in a letter to clergy that certain parishes in the diocese will "likely move forward" with blessing same-sex unions. This news comes a month after the Episcopal General Convention decided not to adopt a moratorium on same-sex "blessing" ceremonies. At that same gathering, the Episcopal body also rejected a resolution to affirm that Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" as is stated in John 14:6.
Rev. Sam Seamans is the rector of St. Thomas Anglican Church in Mountain Home, Arkansas, and a former Episcopalian. Before leaving the Episcopal Church, he served under Maze and describes the bishop as "theologically liberal."
Regarding Maze's character, Seamans is able to recount a number of positives. "I must say that he is a very gentle, kind, and sincere bishop," the rector notes. Nevertheless, he says, "I believe that he is sincerely wrong on these theological and doctrinal issues, particularly as it pertains to same-sex blessings and, indeed, the very reality of monogamous homosexual unions and relationships."
Bishop Maze's allowance of homosexual blessings is symptomatic of a much larger problem, Seamans contends -- namely, the Episcopal Church's "failure to adhere to the demands and constraints of holy scripture." He believes many of the problems the denomination is facing can be traced back to this failure.
Any church will begin to go astray, the Anglican priest suggests, "if the Word of God is not viewed as being just that -- the Word of God -- and if it's just something that we use in a different cultural context, in other words."
There is a serious flaw in the idea "that Christians should reinterpret the Word of God based on our current culture's definition of what's acceptable," Seamans points out. "That's where I think the Episcopal Church has gotten into huge trouble," he says.
That reliance on a cultural definition of righteousness rather than scripture, Seamans asserts, is why the Episcopal Church's congregations are "statistically losing thousands of members." And that same reason, he adds, is why the denomination has lost thousands of its members even just since the last General Convention.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
