Dean William Rankin of the Episcopal Divinity School said recently of the trial of Bishop Righter, "The people prosecuting Walter Righter ought to be ashamed of themselves. Heresy implies orthodoxy, and we have no such thing in the Episcopal Church." Dean Rankin adds: "Civilized, educated, dignified people do not bash others - for any reason ... nor do they hide behind a phony smokescreen such as presumed church order or presumed correct thinking" (The Witness, p. 36, Dec. 1995)

Dean Rankin is supported by the Bishop of Newark, John Spong, who wrote recently in his diocesan paper that "heresy ... means false teaching." In order to make such a claim, Bishop Spong says, one must subscribe to "...the arrogant assumption that the ultimate truth of God from which heresy deviates is both known and possessed." Such an assumption, he says, "reveals ignorance and idolatry" (The Voice, Diocese of Newark, p. 2, Dec. 1995)

For Bishop Spong, apparently, calling someone a heretic is arrogant and ignorant, while calling someone an idolater is perfectly justified. And as Dean Rankin would have it, virtually any belief - except the belief that Bishop Righter acted wrongly - would seem to count as acceptable in the Episcopal Church.

But if we don't possess sufficient knowledge of God to discern when heresy occurs, how can we identify the heresy of "idolatry"? And if "correct thinking" is "a phony smokescreen," how are we to define what "civilized, educated and dignified" really mean? Ultimately, if there is "no such thing [as orthodoxy] in the Episcopal Church," why should anyone be "ashamed" of anything?

The presenters are, for their part, unashamed. We have made our case out in the open. We have followed the canonical procedures. We have believed that what the church has said, it has meant. We have held that not to have done something in this matter would be to acquiesce to the adoption of a new orthodoxy - one far less wise or grounded than the tradition we have been ordained to defend.

(The Rt. Rev.) James M. Stanton Bishop of Dallas Dallas, Texas