�There are two religions on the floor!�
plus more on separation

A piece from Rev. Ian Montgomerey contains some remarkably prophetic statements about the Episcopal Church from a past Bishop of West Texas:

Bishop MacNaughton said at the 1991 [Episcopal Church in the USA] convention in Phoenix, “There are two religions on the floor!� Bishop MacNaughton was published in the Living Church, May 7, 1995. The editorial page of that issue introduced the article: -
“On this page, we find a bishop from a more centrist position, the Rt. Rev. John H. MacNaughton of West Texas, disclosing he has come to the conclusion that there are indeed two Episcopal Churches. In his two-part Viewpoint article, Bishop MacNaughton cites the current sexuality debate as divisive, but emphasizes what lies beneath that debate, two incompatible ways of understanding scripture and two incompatible ways of determining authority, as the reasons for the split.�
Bishop MacNaughton wrote: -
“It is my conviction now that the Episcopal Church is no longer one church but two churches. That division is no longer a dark possibility ahead of us, but is already upon us. We seem to be divided by the issues of human sexuality, but these are only the apparent dividers. I believe the real division lies at a much more profound level.�
He continues: -
“The more I have pondered all this, however, the more I have come to understand that these sexuality issues are really secondary, and that a series of much larger and far more consequential issues are what is really before us. Those issues are the nature and authority of scripture and the nature of the polity of the church.�
“They are questions of order, of authority and of corporate integrity. On matters of this magnitude, we can’t have it both ways and be honest. Indeed, we cannot have it both ways and remain one church. The fact is, we are walking an increasingly confusing and irrational path that demands that these things that divide us be addressed. In our failure to address them clearly, we have contributed nothing to the dialogue or to our grasp of diversity or to our tolerance for ambiguity. We have, in fact if not yet in form, divided ourselves into two churches.�
The next week Bishop MacNaughton concludes: -
“Can our divisions be resolved or are we like Humpty Dumpty, where “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men� cannot put it together again? Honestly, I don’t know. What I do believe is that our present course has profoundly divided this church and that promises to get only worse.�


No kidding. I think he was right.

Bishop MacNaughton’s prescient observations beg the question – if there are “two religions� within the ECUSA, then why not own up to it and split?

The same question could be asked of my former denomination, the mainline Presbyterian Church. In fact, some Presbyterian conservatives have proposed a “gracious separation.�

But in both the Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches, there is (sadly in my view) much resistance to gracious separation. The resistance comes mostly from liberals, but also from some conservatives and those in the middle.

I might speculate why sometime. But the result is people of opposed worldviews artificially and painfully bound to each other and spending energy fighting each other. And surely that energy could be spent in more productive ways with a lot less grief.

It’s not for nothing that Paul wrote, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?� (2Corinthians 6:14)