The threat to the first American church

Possible split over ordination of homosexuals

By Derek Yee and Megan Sego
From the May 2007 Print Edition

            Since the installation of openly gay priest V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America is facing division over ordination standards. What outsiders may see as a mere disagreement between progressive and conservative members actually has greater implications, as the autonomous denomination reveals an interior power struggle. An interview with the Reverend Robbin Clark of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church of Berkeley provides a detailed perspective on this issue. 

            The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the Anglican Communion, which is a group of churches descending from the Church of England, its “mother church.” The Anglican Communion has 44 member churches, with a worldwide membership of 78 million, according to the Communion’s Web site. In fact, its seal is a compass rose, which symbolizes its diverse reach and the decentralization that has always been inherent to the church.

What differentiates the Anglican Communion from the Roman Catholic Church is that each church is autonomous and is not governed by a Pope. The central authority figure of the Anglican Church is the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Dr. Rowan Williams, who is called primus inter pares, or “the first among equals.”

            Last December, two large congregations in Virginia voted to leave the Episcopal Church and form a conservative sect of the church, possibly under the jurisdiction of an African prelate. In March of this year, the Episcopal House of Bishops essentially rejected the Anglican Communion’s request to put a hold on further ordination of homosexual priests and blessings for same-sex couples. If the Episcopal Church does not comply with the Communion’s standards for ordination, their relationship may be severed.

On April 16, Archbishop Williams agreed to meet with the House of Bishops in September in New Orleans to further discuss this issue, according to the Episcopal News Service. Williams, who has been moderate to liberal on many issues, hopes that the Anglican Communion can be preserved.

During the English Reformation, Clark says, one of the rallying cries was “no foreign prelacy.” This phrase regarded the ultimate authority of the Pope and the councils of the Roman Catholic Church over followers. This is one of the church’s founding principles: that it has never possessed a legislative structure capable of enforcing its will upon the Anglican churches across the world.

             When Anglican colonists came to America, they changed the name to the Episcopal Church, or “the church of bishops” in Greek. This was another clear rejection of an overarching church authority.

Even in such a decentralized structure, there are elements of organization that protect and promote church unity. The first is the Lambeth conference, hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury every 10 years in England. All bishops with jurisdiction — that is, who preside over churches — are invited for fellowship and theological study. Clark calls this “an instrument of union, but [its resolutions] are not binding.” The second unifying element is the Anglican Consultative Council, made of lay people and priests, and the third is the Primates meeting, a reunion of Presiding Bishops.

            Clark says the issue of contention is focused much more strongly on homosexual preachers than women. “Most people are not ready to be full-on righteous outraged about women anymore,” pointing to the progression of women’s rights in most cultures as a “gradually expanding reality.” Women are ordained in almost every country where the Anglican Church exists, and make up nearly half of all ministers since the ordination of the first woman was during World War II.  The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected and invested as the first Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the past year.

“The real issue is homosexuality,” Clark says of the division, and that in the ordination of Gene Robinson, “The [ECUSA] was acting within its polity as an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion.”

Gays have been ordained into the priesthood since the 1970s, and a clear dissent has been present since then, but it caught fire when Robinson was ordained. The spearhead of the anti-gay faction is Archbishop Peter Akinola, who presides over the Anglican community in Nigeria. Together with more traditional Anglican fellowships in Latin America and elsewhere in Africa, he has led a force against Robinson and others like him

“This discrimination comes not from Anglican thought, but from other types of Protestantism,” Clark says, and notes that many factors in the cultures of these areas contribute to such a perspective. In Africa, tribalism is still a prominent way of life; it views women as property, which discourages them from all leadership roles in the church. Even if African churches wanted to adopt a more liberal view on homosexuality, many in the east are surrounded by fundamentalist Islam, which threatens their church even with such a traditional perspective.

However, these traditional factions have sent out missionary bishops to the Episcopal Church to try to sway Americans to their perspective, and this is part of the great cause for concern. Exercising authority, albeit in the guise of good works, harms the autonomy each church has always possessed. This runs the risk of centralizing a previously loose organization, stunting the liberty the Anglican Church holds dear.

“We find more of God’s truth when we come to the table together,” says Clark, “We are more like family. Old Uncle Harry is a pain in the butt, but he’s still Uncle Harry.” In the past, coming to worship with different ideologies and interpretations of scripture has been something Clark and other Episcopalians have cherished. The liberty to associate oneself with a group that one chooses isn’t only an Anglican value; it’s an American one. It affords the freedom to choose a more traditional or progressive path, without the need for divisive political power plays. Those of the Communion should remember that such diversity is part of the Episcopal Church, the first American church.

While the ECUSA is currently at odds with the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Robert Sherwood Morse, along with other traditional Anglicans, broke away from the mainline denomination 30 years ago. On the corner of Durant Avenue and Bowditch Street, just one block away from UC Berkeley, is the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea. It is in this chapel that the Most Reverend Morse, Archbishop of the Province of Christ the King, preserves the Anglican liturgy of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

At the 1976 Convention of the Episcopal Church, liberals in the denomination moved forward to support a complete revision of the 1928 Edition of the Book of Common Prayer, effectively changing the theology of the Anglican Church that had been passed down through the ages, according to Morse. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer effectively altered the view of the sacraments that was outlined by Archbishop Thomas Cramner, who wrote the first Prayer Book in 1549.

There were additional changes made at the Convention, such as the approval of the ordination of women to the priesthood, which broke with the 2,000-year apostolic tradition. In general, the Episcopal Church was in favor of a weakened moral stance on many biblical issues. Even in the 1960s there were clergymen who denied the divinity of Christ, according to John den Dulk, a vestryman at St. Peter’s Church in Oakland. Retired Episcopal Bishop John Spong is known for having adopted this liberal theology.

            It was then that Morse decided that he must continue the apostolic succession, and he received support from Bishop Albert Chambers of Springfield, Illinois, the bishop of Korea, and a bishop from the Philippine Independent Church. Although the Province of Christ the King has no official relationship with the Anglican Communion, the archbishop is well respected in the Church of England.

            “We seek to continue what we’ve always done,” Morse said.

The current Episcopal Church has abandoned biblical morals as well as church tradition. For example, the King James Version of the Bible, translated by Anglicans, was the “Authorized” version for more than 300 years. However, the Episcopal Church now commends the New Revised Standard Version, an “inclusive-language” translation of the Bible, for use in liturgy. Much of the liturgy itself now includes inclusive language for the name of God as well. Additionally, the issue of homosexuality in the church has become a topic of contention. Most recently, there have been historic Episcopal churches that have decided to leave the fellowship.

            As for the parishes that have more recently left, “the present group is breaking away because of the amoral stance of the Episcopal Church. There is no discipline, and it is discipline that holds the church together,” Morse said.        

The Anglican Province of Christ the King houses its seminary in Berkeley, training men who will follow in the tradition of the church. Today, the small sect of Anglicanism includes approximately 60 parishes, spread among five dioceses, with about 12,000 members. Within the Continuing Anglican Movement, there are at least 100,000 members, and the number is growing.

“Thirty years ago, we projected that [the Episcopal Church] would only get worse, and it has come to pass,” Morse said.

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