wfn.org | Episcopalians "Appalled" at Bishops' Plan to "Save" U.S. Church

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

9-February-2000 
00065 
 
    Episcopalians "Appalled" at 
    Foreign Bishops' Plan to "Save" U.S. Church 
 
    Consecration of dissident Americans as bishops called an "affront" 
 
    by Chris Herlinger 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
NEW YORK - The consecration by several foreign Anglican primates of two 
American priests as bishops is causing an uproar within the Episcopal 
Church in the United States, with many seeing the move as a direct 
challenge to church authority and tradition. 
 
    "I am appalled by this irregular action," Frank T. Griswold, Presiding 
Bishop of the Episcopal Church, said in a comment on the consecrations, 
which took place on Jan. 29 at St Andrew's Cathedral in Singapore.  A group 
of conservative church leaders, unhappy with what they see as an 
increasingly liberal church in the United States, consecrated two American 
priests, John H. Rodgers and Charles H. Murphy, as bishops. 
 
    A string of issues, especially openness by many U.S. bishops to 
acceptance of homosexuals within the church, has prompted growing criticism 
by conservative Anglican leaders outside the U.S. 
 
    Homosexuality was the most divisive subject discussed at the Lambeth 
Conference of Anglican bishops in 1998. 
 
    Those performing the ceremony were two archbishops from Rwanda, an 
archbishop from South East Asia and two retired U.S. bishops from Tennessee 
and South Carolina. 
 
    The bishops said they hoped to plant "Anglican missions" in the U.S. 
which would be receptive to their conservative message.  The group said the 
move was done amid "a crisis" within the Episcopal Church "in an initiative 
aimed at reversing a 30-year decline of 30 per cent in the membership of 
the Episcopal Church in the U.S." 
 
    Their action immediately drew fire from a wide range of fellow bishops 
and church leaders, who said the ordination was an affront to Anglican 
tradition, in which bishops of specific geographic areas have authority 
over issues of ordination.  Given that the two Americans were ordained by 
bishops outside the United States and as it was not clear on whose 
authority the men could now act as bishops, it was highly unlikely they 
would ever be given official recognition by the U.S. church, officials here 
said. 
 
    Observers said the move was an apparent attempt by a conservative 
faction within the world-wide Anglican Communion to try to consolidate 
different conservative groups.  Jim Solheim, director of the Episcopal News 
Service, told ENI that the move was a major step for conservatives because 
it challenged existing church polity. 
 
    Its implications were far-reaching, he said, because it raised the 
issue of a possible schism within the church.  "Once you challenge the 
polity of Anglicans, based on a geographical diocese headed by a bishop, 
you are inviting chaos," he said. 
 
    Ian Douglas, who teaches at the Episcopal Divinity School, agreed, 
telling ENI the move was highly significant because "of the global 
implications of different provinces getting mixed up in, or inserting their 
authority into, other autocephalous [self-governing] churches in the 
Anglican Communion - namely the Episcopal Church, USA." 
 
    The real issue raised by the latest move, he told ENI, was about power 
- "in particular power to define Anglican identity and authority." 
 
    In a letter to fellow U.S. bishops on Jan. 31, Griswold said those 
participating in the ceremony had largely "fomented" the "purported crisis" 
they had raised.  He said the church they were criticizing "bears very 
little resemblance to the church we actually know, which is alive and well 
and faithful." 
 
    Griswold said the action would, in fact, serve to "confuse and alienate 
the faithful in the pew, who see structures beyond the congregation as 
conflictual and focused on concerns unrelated to mission." 
 
    A statement from the office of George Carey, the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, said the move was a cause of "grave disappointment" to the head 
of the Anglican Communion, "as it is his [Carey's] view that such 
consecrations are irresponsible and irregular, and only harm the unity of 
the communion." 
 
    The move was also criticized by some conservative church leaders who 
said while they understood the motivation for the action, they were deeply 
concerned about its implications for church unity. 
 
    "While I appreciate the concern and frustration that has prompted this 
action, I wish to express my profound disappointment that these 
consecrations have taken place at this time and in this manner," said Harry 
Goodhew, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, and a prominent conservative. 
 
    Bishop James Stanton of Dallas, who heads the conservative American 
Anglican Council (AAC), was an observer at a recent meeting in Kampala, in 
which a group of conservative bishops met to discuss plans for the 
consecration of the two new bishops. 
 
    Bishop Stanton said he had asked them not to take "precipitate action," 
according to Episcopal News Service in New York. 
 
    In a statement issued on Jan. 31, the AAC said that while it had hoped 
that the consecrations could have been avoided, the act marked "the 
beginning of a new reality for the Episcopal Church."  The leadership of 
the Episcopal Church, it said, had utterly failed to recognize the 
magnitude of the crisis that is tearing apart our church." 
 
    However, a prominent AAC member said after the statement's release that 
he felt the AAC was tacitly approving the ordination of the bishops - 
something he could not condone. "To give encouragement to such unorthodox 
actions not only is contrary to the reason, tradition and orthodoxy the AAC 
stresses as the foundation of its beliefs, but helps to sow the seeds of 
schism," Jack H. Taylor Jr. of the Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, 
Texas, said. 

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