Wednesday, June 01, 2005

fr. kimel on the ecusa

A lot of theological water has now passed under the bridge. It is now common for Episcopalians to uncontroversially state that there are “many ways to God” and that Jesus is but “one savior among many.” The gospel of Christ has been replaced by an insidious counterfeit—the ideology of radical inclusivity. The three sacraments of this ideology are abortion, the blessing of same-sex unions, and open communion. As an institution, the Episcopal Church is no longer in a crisis of apostasy; it simply is apostate. Of course, there still remain faithful orthodox believers, congregations, and even some dioceses; but the war for orthodoxy in ECUSA has been lost. The House of Bishops, the ECUSA bureaucracy, the seminaries, and the majority of parish pastors have all embraced the false gospel of radical inclusivity. The Episcopal Church has become an effete high church unitarianism. Episcopalians today worship a very different God than the God Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To all who still believe we are called by God to stay and fight and recapture the institution—wake up and smell the coffee! ECUSA’s madness is God’s judgment upon it. God is not going to save the Episcopal Church as an institution. He has lifted his restraining hand and is now allowing it to follow its own sinful desires into lunacy and dissolution.

I encourage you, whole-heartedly, to read the whole thing.

I have to say, I agree with almost all of what he says. But I keep reminding myself of the situation of, for example, Gregory of Nazianzus. The Church was crumbling into apostasy around his ears too. There are, admitedly, dissanalogies, and I certainly would not criticize Fr. Kimel for his actions. St. Gregory after all was the orthodox life raft. Its just that I really believe that the law of our prayer is the law of our belief -- apart from whatever the overwhelming, heterodox majority would tell you -- and I can still discern catholicity in our Common Prayer, although sometimes I have to squint and turn my head sideways to see it, but I believe its there.

Its true: I may be in communion with Bishops Robinson and Griswold et al. That can't be helped. But I'm also in communion with Jeremy Taylor and Lancelot Andrewes and King Charles and Pusey and Keble and George Herbert and Gregory Dix and the Martyrs of Melanesia and, for that matter, Bp. Duncan and Fr. Kimel (at least until the paperwork is sorted out).

I do believe, more and more, that the ship has hit the iceberg and is going unrecoverably down. For now I mean to direct people to the life rafts. I agree with Fr. Zahl that the ECUSA has become a mission field, and I believe that many of the natives are receptive to the Gospel. For now, my help being in the Name of the Lord, I mean to proclaim it to them.

3 comments:

DBW said...

BUT... the religious powers that be in Jesus' day were just as flawed and corrupt... and Jesus kept on keeping on. And through history, the church has gone through phases where things seemed hopeless. I am hoping that that is what is going on in ECUSA. Some day I hope whats going on now will be likened to the inquisition or the selling of indulgences or some other particularily embarrasing bit of Rome's history.
We can hope.... Or maybe you're right, we're on the Titanic and most everyone is in denial that the ship is sinking...

Andrew said...

I too am with DBW in hoping for the best. These bleek times offer little sign of optimism, but I choose to have it. Another story that comes to mind is the story of Elijah the prophet who thought he was totally alone in his orthodoxy. God told him about a few thousand (I can't remember the correct number offhand) that were also faithful, but that the rest of the entire nation was apostate.

This story is strikingly similar to the church worldwide today, not just in the ECUSA or the Anglican Communion. We must remain faithful and fight till we are physically cast out from them by them. They need people to preach the gospel to them, just as anyone else does.

Please stay and fight the good fight. Please join with me in Christian unity to fight the enemies of God wherever they are, especially within the Church!

gwb said...

I agree. I intend to stay till I am forced out. I just believe that I will indeed be forced out before too long.