Conservatives Petition Anglican Primates for Protection of Orthodox in Episcopal Church
Episcopal News Service. February 19, 1999 [99-005]
(ENS) Conservatives in the Episcopal Church, alleging that they are "increasingly marginalized and theologically offended," have supported a petition sent to the world's Anglican bishops, asking them for intervention to protect their orthodox status in the American church.
The petition was sent in the name of the Association of Anglican Congregations on Mission (AACM), a group of parishes that have left the Episcopal Church. It asks the orthodox bishops of the Anglican Communion for "protection of orthodox Anglicans in the United States until the Episcopal Church of the United States of America is reformed or replaced as a province of the Communion." The petition also asks the primates of the Anglican Communion for "emergency intervention" to protect orthodox believers.
AACM's petition to the primates includes almost 200 pages that "recounts the current state of the Episcopal Church and its response to and decisions made" since last summer's Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. "It reports with detailed appendix, ECUSA's continued violation of Lambeth resolutions and open rejection of them via specific actions in conflict," including resolutions passed by dioceses.
The petition states that the "reformation" of the Episcopal Church must include conformity with resolutions on human sexuality, the authority of Scripture, the authority of primates to intervene and limits of diversity. And it demands that "immediate action must be taken with respect to resolutions and canons to be adopted at the 2000 General Convention."
"If the revisionist ECUSA bishops do not cease violating the above resolutions and the 2000 General Convention does not take appropriate action to bring ECUSA into compliance, the Primates Meeting should take such action as may be appropriate to separate ECUSA from the Anglican Communion and replace it with an alternative province composed of a continuing Episcopal Church of orthodox believing Christians who submit to the sovereign authority of Scripture and are loyal to our Anglican tradition and formularies."
"We are working together to express the unity in the faith which we share and for a common goal of faithfulness to true Anglican, biblical orthodoxy in the Episcopal Church, or if necessary, in a continuing, alternative province in the Anglican Communion," said a statement by the First Promise Round Table endorsing the petition distributed in December.
The Rev. Chuck Murphy, leader of the First Promise coalition, argued that the American church was "in the middle of a major struggle" and needed the help of"an international alliance of primates" who hold orthodox views.
Many conservatives are predicting a theological confrontation at the next General Convention, scheduled for the summer of 2000 in Denver and are pressing for a non-geographic province to protect themselves. A recent meeting in Atlanta of 36 leaders in the movement put forward the name of a potential bishop to guide such a province -- the Rev. John H. Rodgers, former dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. When asked by a reporter whether he would accept such an election, Rodgers responded that it might still be possible for the Episcopal Church to "repent," making radical action unnecessary. Yet he admitted that it "would require a major miracle, similar to the parting of the Red Sea."
Conservatives have raised the possibility of a diocese or province of orthodox Episcopalians before but Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has sent clear signals that he would not recognize a separate jurisdiction outside of the Episcopal Church. "Are they aware they would not ever be recognized by the archbishop of Canterbury?" Bishop Mark Dyer of Virginia Seminary told a Washington reporter. "There isn't the slightest chance. Whatever differences the archbishop has with some practices in the Episcopal Church, he would never recognize this group."