Timothy C. Morgan
posted 3/22/2007
The Episcopal Church is at least one step closer to an historic split with the 78-million-member Anglican Communion. The national church's House of Bishops with its left-leaning majority rejected a newly proposed pastoral oversight council, calling it an "unprecedented" power play.
In a letter to the 2.1 million American Episcopalians, the bishops expressed a "strong desire" to remain within the Anglican Communion despite differences over same-sex rites and openly gay bishops.
But the bishops deeply disputed the communiqué that the Anglican Communion's top leaders (primates) issued in mid-February after they met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The primates, many of them theological conservatives, called for the American church to receive oversight from a pastoral council and for appointment of a "primatial vicar." The council and vicar would provide a means to keep conservative congregations and dioceses within the Episcopal Church.
The bishops raised significant concerns about the primates' plan, saying, "first among these is what is arguably an unprecedented shift of power toward the primates, represented, in part, by the proposed 'pastoral scheme.'" Under the plan, a non-American primate would chair the council and the primates would name two of the five council members. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, head of the American church, would name the other two.
The bishops said the plan violated their constitution, and they urged the church's executive council to turn it down. The Episcopal executive council meets in June and is expected to hear from an internal working group about the February communiqué. The bishops indicated they continue to address the "pastoral concerns" of conservatives through other means more acceptable to the bishops. But the national church is also backing litigation against conservative priests and parishes seeking to leave the denomination and hold onto their church buildings.
The actions of the House of Bishops, accomplished through three resolutions, took many church watchers by surprise. Jefferts Schori and others as recently as three weeks ago predicted this meeting would not result in decisive action. The primates have given the Episcopal Church until September 30 to indicate clearly that they would no longer allow any rite of blessing for same-sex couples and would prevent another openly gay man from becoming a bishop, as happened in 2003.
But instead of acting on those requests, the bishops passed three resolutions. In the resolutions, the bishops called the primates' plan "injurious to the Episcopal Church." They requested an "urgent" meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to discuss their concerns. (Jefferts Schori admitted at a press briefing, "There is some belief in this house that other parts of the Communion do not understand us very well.")
The bishops said the plan violated their founding principles following their "liberation from colonialism and the beginning of a life independent of the Church of England."
"For the first time since our separation from the papacy in the 16th century, [the primates' plan] replaces local governance of the church by its own people with the decisions of a distant and unaccountable group of prelates," they said.
The bishops in their lengthy third resolution noted:
According to Bishop of Central Florida John Howe, Jefferts Schori told her fellow bishops she could on her own initiative still name a primatial vicar who would have delegated authority to visit dioceses and consecrate priests, but she could not delegate her role in disciplining bishops.
Late on Wednesday, Archbishop of Canterbury Williams issued a brief statement, saying, "This initial response of the House of Bishops is discouraging and indicates the need for further discussion and clarification. Some important questions have still to be addressed; no one is underestimating the challenges ahead." It is unclear whether he will continue to endorse appointment of the pastoral council and vicar.
For conservatives, future challenges could hardly be more daunting than the immediate challenges confronting them.
Those include:
Late on Wednesday, David C. Anderson, head of the conservative American Anglican Council, said in a statement the Episcopal Church's "desire for power and autonomy goes hand in hand with its rebellion against Scriptural authority."
"The church's arrogance is at its height; they still think they can dictate the relationship on their own terms, but the primates and the Archbishop of Canterbury have clearly said that that is impossible."
In her homily at the closing Eucharist, Jefferts Schori analyzed her church's predicament as a competition between two worldviews: One of them based in the Enlightenment, and the other in postmodernism. She compared seeing the church's situation to a scientist who perceives light as both a wave and a particle of energy. "There are occasions when it makes more sense to treat light as a wave and other times when using particle physics is more fruitful. Both are accurate; neither is sufficient."
But many conservatives see Jefferts Schori as inconsistent at best, not someone holding two perspectives in creative tension.
A humorist at Cartoon Church seemed to capture conservatives' doubtful opinion of Jefferts Shori and her fellow bishops by depicting a lonely, mitred primatial vicar sitting in a coffee shop awaiting instructions. Two thought balloons float above the vicar's head. One thought is set at the primates' meeting, where one primate pronounces, "A primatial vicar! Brilliant idea!" The second is at the Episcopal bishops' meeting, and a leader says, "A primatial vicar! No way!"
A brilliant idea with no chance of success, such as the oversight plan seems to have become, leaves both conservatives and liberals in the increasingly fractious Anglican Communion with the bleak prospect of the primates' ultimatum turning into a global game of lose-lose.
Timothy C. Morgan is deputy managing editor of Christianity Today.
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