What Is At Stake?

George F. Woodliff III

I. Introduction

The General Convention of The Episcopal Church will meet this summer in Anaheim, California. Several disoceses have proposed resolutions which call for the repeal of General Convention 2006 resolution B033 which calls upon "Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."
The background of resolution BO33 was the election and consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop in 2003 which precipitated a crisis within the Anglican Communion. The primates of the 38 provinces of the Communion subsequently requested and reaffirmed in their recent meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, moratoria on "the election of bishops in same-gender unions, Rites of Blessing for same-sex unions, and on cross-border interventions." The recent communiqué from the primates' meeting in Alexandria stated: "If a way forward is to be found and mutual trust to be re-established, it is imperative that further aggravation and acts which cause offence, misunderstanding or hostility cease."
There is a very real possibility that the Episcopal Church through its General Convention this summer will take actions that will increase the distance between The Episcopal Church and the majority of the Anglican Communion and will further tear the fabric of the Communion.
The question that every Episcopalian in the Diocese of Mississippi needs to ask is: so what? What difference does it make? What is at stake?

II. The Continued Existence of The Episcopal Church and The Anglican Communion Is At Stake

I shall begin with an observation which I hope by now has become obvious to everyone: our church is in crisis. This observation is amply supported by the facts on the ground. Eleven Virginia churches (one being the church of George Washington) have left The Episcopal Church. The historic church in Savannah, Georgia, of which John Wesley served as rector, has left TEC. One of the largest parishes in the country, Christ Church, Plano, Texas, has left TEC. Many other parishes throughout the country have left TEC. Four entire dioceses have left TEC. A court in Virginia has held that we are a divided church. At least five Global South provinces are exercising episcopal oversight over former TEC parishes in different parts of the country. There have been numerous lawsuits over church property resulting in enormous legal costs. Many clergy have been deposed for transferring to other provinces. A significant number (approximately one-fourth) of bishops from other provinces did not attend the Lambeth Conference this past summer for reasons related to the crisis. The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem, attended by 1148 lay and clergy participants, including 291 bishops and representative of a sizeable number (perhaps over one-half) of Anglicans in the world, issued a statement which included the following assertion: "While acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury." The penultimate paragraph of the statement contained this sentence: The meeting in Jerusalem this week was called in a sense of urgency that a false gospel has so paralyzed the Anglican Communion that this crisis must be addressed.

In October, 2003, the Primates of the Anglican Communion at an emergency meeting at Lambeth issued a statement declaring that the proposed consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop would "tear the fabric of our Communion at its deepest level." That has happened and continues to happen. Ephraim Radner and Philip Turner have said that a church-dividing issue is one that divides the church. Now, you may disagree as to whether the current issue should divide the church, but it is hard to argue with the fact that this issue has divided the church.

Therefore, with respect to the question of what is at stake, I begin with what I believe to be the most obvious and factually indisputable the ongoing existence, composition, structures, polity, locus of authority, and interrelatedness of TEC and the Anglican Communion. I have talked with priests, bishops, and primates, and I believe it is fair to say that no one knows how this drama is going to play out.

The GAFCON Statement eschews formal schism: "Our fellowship is not breaking away from the Anglican Communion." Nevertheless, it clearly establishes structures of internal differentiation along confessional doctrinal lines. What is at stake is what impact the new reality of GAFCON will have on the Communion and how that reality will relate to the proposed Anglican Covenant.

A related matter at stake is the impact that the future shape of the Anglican Communion will have on ecumenical relations. We already know from statements made in 2003 that these relations have been severely strained.

All of these obvious ecclesiastical issues are definitely at stake: will the Communion survive and in what form?

III. The Gospel of Jesus Christ Is At Stake

Although these ecclesiastical issues are not insignificant or inconsequential to any of us, something more essential is at stake. Let me begin with what I hope is another obvious point. Thousands of people do not leave the church that they love without a very good reason. That reason was articulated in the GAFCON Statement as the promulgation of a "false gospel" in the Communion: "The chief threat of this dispute involves the compromising of the integrity of the church's worldwide mission."

What is at stake is the truth of that assertion which was elaborated more fully earlier in the document:
"The first fact is the acceptance and promotion within the provinces of the Anglican Communion of a different gospel (cf. Galatians 1:6-8) which is contrary to the apostolic gospel." This false gospel undermines the authority of God's Word written and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the author of salvation from sin, death and judgment. Many of its proponents claim that all religions offer equal access to God and that Jesus is only a way, not the way, the truth and the life. It promotes a variety of sexual preferences and immoral behavior as a universal human right. It claims God s blessing for same-sex unions over against the biblical teaching on holy matrimony. In 2003 this false gospel led to the consecration of a bishop living in a homosexual relationship.

Approximately one-third of the bishops of the Anglican Communion believe that a false gospel is being preached in certain provinces. What is at stake is the truth and the significance of that claim. Is it true, and even if it is true, does it really matter? Are there any limits to the truth claims of Christianity, and if so, what are they, and how are they determined? The question of a false gospel raises other related issues.

IV. The Person of Jesus Christ Is At Stake

The gospel is essentially and irreducibly the proclamation that Jesus is Lord. What is at stake is the identity of the person named Jesus. We might consider this a question of Christological epistemology. How do we know Jesus? If we functionally jettison Scripture and tradition (the consensual reading of Scripture by the church through time) as well as the doctrine of the church as all being in some sense idolatrous, then what are we left with? Then does not Jesus just become a mere name or a cipher into which we can pour our own projections, desires, and predilections?

This diocese has affirmed the uniqueness and lordship of Jesus, but what does that mean if we have radically different ideas of who Jesus is and what he requires of us? And how are these different views to be resolved?

V. The Role of Scripture Is At Stake

What is at stake is also the role of Scripture now in the Episcopal Church. Does it still have its place of primacy in determining questions of faith, such as, preeminently, the person and significance of Jesus Christ, as well as essential aspects of the gospel, such as sin and redemption, or has it in actuality been supplanted by human experience? And if experience is the real guiding principle, then whose experience and why? What unspoken presuppositions, postures, and perspectives do we bring to the text? How are disputes over differing interpretations to be resolved? The fact that different parts of the Communion have reached antithetical and mutually exclusive positions on the presenting church-dividing issue is compelling evidence that we are facing a Scriptural crisis in this church.

VI. The Meaning of Marriage Is At Stake

Since the presenting issue in the current crisis is in the area of sexuality, the very meaning of marriage is also at stake. Is marriage a divinely ordained institution based upon the givenness of human nature and a purposive telos, or is it something that is malleable based upon claims of human rights? If it is the latter, are there any limits to its elasticity, and what are the bases of those limits? Furthermore, if various permutations are allowed, are there to be any moral obligations within those permutations, and, again, on what grounds?

VII. Fidelity to Jesus Christ Is At Stake

What is at stake ultimately for many of us is fidelity to Jesus Christ. What is at stake is not the compilation of a list of sins which will lead to damnation. What is at stake is the de facto claim of authority of an ecclesiastical body to redefine sin, thereby altering the very heart of the gospel sin, repentance, confession of belief in the saving blood of Jesus, transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit. If an ecclesiastical body can arrogate unto itself the right to declare that what had been considered sinful behavior for two thousand years of Church history was actually no longer sinful behavior and further claim the imprimatur of the Holy Spirit for such a radical change, in contradiction to Scripture and its own catechism, not to mention the overwhelming consensus of the Church Universal, then what is left of the gospel? What is the need for a savior? When you redefine sin, you are also redefining the gospel, which brings us back to the assertion in the GAFCON document that a false gospel is now being preached in parts of the Communion.

Scripture teaches that there is such a thing as a false gospel. (Galatians 1:9; 2 Corinthians 11:4) Such a false gospel can actually be very appealing and display an outward form of godliness but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3:5) Jesus himself warned against simply acknowledging him as Lord but disobeying his commandments. (Matthew 7:21-27) Those who are willfully disobedient and follow the wrong path will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Ephesians 5:5; Galatians 5:16-21) The exhortation to Timothy applies equally to us: Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. (2 Timothy 1:14)
But how are we to be true to that exhortation if we cannot even agree on what the good treasure is?

These are not insignificant matters. What is at stake? Very much. Very much indeed.