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 The gospel of Christ has been replaced by an insidious counterfeit—the ideology of radical inclusivity.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.