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March 13, 2005
Thoughts on the Anglican Divide
Last Sunday I attended the communion service held in the Episcopalian Church of Our Saviour in Richmond, Kentucky. It was a bittersweet experience. Firstly, it was good to be able to share the worship of this community and to share it in particular with my friends and hosts. However, it was sad to see so small a congegation and to hear that they will soon be unable to pay the stipend of their newly appointed parish priest.
This is a congregation which has really seen hard times and decline. There are a number of reasons for this, beginning with a split in the congregation some ten years back. Their then rather handsome church and its associated position in the heart of the town was sold and replaced by a house on the outskirts which was to have been a temporary home until a new church could be built or acquired. It was argued at the time that the church was in need of repairs and would cost too much to renovate. The buyers of the old church, meanwhile, renovated and brought it back into use as an Arts Centre.
Further disagreements, not only locally, but with the Diocese and with the National bodies, led to more loss of membership, and the final blow was the loss of the Vicar three years ago when he moved on to another parish. For two years the congregation has struggled without a priest and finally acquired their present Vicar six months ago - now they face losing him as they simply are too few in number to pay his wages.
This all brought into sharp relief for me the dichotomy that faces the Episcopal Church in the US. It is not and never has been an "Established" Church, yet it has, until relatively recently, been fairly strong and well supported financially. Not so anymore.
One important reason for this is the leadership - as in the Provincial Synod - having suffered from an excess of what is best described as "liberal" thinking in recent years. This is the body which, despite the reservations of the rest of the Anglican Communion, went ahead and appointed women priests and even a bishop. It caused enough problems elsewhere, but it also split this church from top to bottom. Many left as a direct result and have joined either Roman Catholic congregations or gone to "free" Protestant congregations - all of which have enjoyed a huge upsurge in membership. Even this would not have been so critical for the congregation of Our Saviour, had there not been the ongoing dispute over the site of a new church and the provenance of the sale of the old one.
The latest dispute, and the one which seems likely to destroy this, and perhaps other Episcopalian congregations, has been the insistence of the church heirarchy on consecrating a practicing homosexual as Bishop in the face of opposition from the congregations who pay his and other clergy salaries. This has had a devastating effect on congregations like Our Saviour, with many simply withdrawing their finacial support, refusing to fund diocesan contributions or clergy they do not find acceptable. That is, after all, the American way. They simply will not pay for anything the do not think right or are prepared to accept.
It was put to me that they are very sad that this is so, but that the heirarchy of the church will not listen to the people in the pews, that the Eastern Liberals regard the majority of the Church who reside outside of the New England/New York conurbation and who do not share their "liberal' views except with contempt. They feel they have no option but to withdraw their support and find a spiritual home wherever they can. For many this is extremely painful, but they feel it is the only way they can make themselves heard in this debate.
I felt very sad as I left the tiny congregation and their young priest and his family. I hope to be able to worship with them again this Sunday before I return to England. I hope, too, that I can encourage as many as possible to pray for the American Anglican Church as it faces this crisis brought on by no doubt well intentioned but very unwise leaders who have failed utterly to grasp the depth of feeling of their congregations.
As Jonathon Swift wrote in 1740 "It is the error of many to mistake the echo of the London coffee house for the voice of the nation", so I think it could be said that the Episcopal Church of the US has mistaken the echoes of the Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, and New York coffee shops for the voice of the Church.
I hoipe you will all join me in praying for the congregations now suffering as a result. Let us pray that our Lord will come to their aid and show them how to remedy this problem.
Posted by The Gray Monk at March 13, 2005 10:12 AM