A Change Coming for TEC?

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

It can be argued that the crisis of authority in the Anglican world is evident in the shift from the biblical understanding of divinely appointed clergy to a corporate model of business. Divine appointment took the form of a calling on the man's life to serve God in the Church. The "call" was to be confirmed by his home congregation, discerned by a diocesan committee, and tested through seminary training, liturgical studies, prayer, the moral quality of the candidate, and Ember Day communications with his bishop. 

The shift began well before the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church decision to restructure in July 2012. It began at the peak of the Episcopal Church's cultural influence in the 1950s. Episcopal Church bishops perceived of their body as an entity resembling the "Established Church" of the USA. Bishop Paul Hewitt notes in his book The Day-spring from on High that "The Episcopal Church was a de-facto state church until the 1960s." (p. 29)

The bishops worked hard to build a perception of prestige, and they took measures to secure it. The college of bishops resembled an elite club in which the members were expected to guard the club's reputation. 

This is one reason Bishop James Pike was never held accountable for his apostasy. Pike wrote that the Church was no longer relevant in an essay published in Look magazine in December 1960. He was a growing embarrassment to the bishops who were glad to see him depart the Episcopal Church in April 1969. His parting shot was to describe the Episcopal Church "a sick - even dying- institution."

As the Episcopal Church lost ground to the counter-cultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s, it sought to create and deliver a revision of itself that would capture the public's attention. This required a business model for strategic decision-making and business operations. The new model sought to make the headlines by claiming to be the first at every turn. The Episcopal Church would be the first church to have women priests. It would be the first to consecrate a woman bishop. (And even better if that first female bishop be an African American!) The Episcopal Church would be the first to have a female Archbishop in Katharine J. Schori. In 1977, Bishop Paul Moore (NY) ordained the lesbian Ellen Marie Barrett to the priesthood. She served as Integrity's first co-president along with the late gay activist Louie Crew. Not surprisingly, the Episcopal Church was the first to elevate a partnered homosexual to the episcopacy. All these made for dramatic, attention-getting headlines.

The trend-setting bishops launched innovation after innovation. The theological leanings of the trendy Episcopal Church included Process Theology, Liberation Theology, and Feminist Theology.

There would be a new prayer book. From the outset, it was recognized as a departure from all former Anglican Books of Common Prayer. The 1979 prayer book presents what Urban T. Holmes termed a "differentiated" theology. An Episcopal priest and theologian, Holmes understood that the liturgical revisions of the 1970s drew more on Process Theology and modern philosophy than on Scripture, Tradition, and the Church Fathers. In reference to the 1979 Prayer Book, he wrote, "It is evident that Episcopalians as a whole are not clear about what has happened. The renewal movement in the 1970s, apart from the liturgical renewal, often reflects a nostalgia for a classical theology which many theologians know has not been viable for almost 200 years. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer is a product of a corporate, differentiated theological mind, which is not totally congruent with many of the inherited formularies of the last few centuries. This reality must soon ‘come home to roost’ in one way or another."

In the final analysis, spiritual pride and ambition turned a Christian body into a prime marketing agency for all things culturally relevant. The veneer of Christianity has worn thin over the past decade, exposing a church that is, as Pike predicted, a "dying institution." 

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's suggestion is to make The Episcopal Church the Anglican version of the 1960s Jesus Movement. He said, "Our work is actually the work of participating in the Jesus movement, which seeks to realize God's dream and seeks to accomplish God's mission in this world." 

When a body has exhausted all the new relevancies, it will try to resurrect some of the old ones.

Yet there are stirrings that suggest a change is coming. There is hope! Pray that the bishops repent of their pride and ambition. Pray that they stop promoting a false gospel that "love" covers a multitude of sins. Pray that the Holy Spirit will convict, renew, heal, and direct a new generation of faithful Episcopalians who are done with false Utopian promises.

Related reading: The Tragedy of James Pike; Changing the Church by Stealth; Anglicans and Process Theology; David W. Virtue, The Seduction of the Episcopal Church (2019); Dropping the Word "Church"