Neglected Questions

Sometimes in the midst of difficult issues, important questions are overlooked, not unlike not seeing the forest for the trees. Such is the case with Anglican’s current troubles.

So I will be so impertinent as to ask (and not rhetorically. These are genuine questions.): When does a church cease to be a church? If a church falls under the control of heretics who are not Christian and even anti-Christian with no reasonable prospect of wresting control from them, is it still a church?

Some orthodox are assuming that the Episcopal Church is still a church and may be thereby causing themselves needless agony by staying in it. But it is not at all clear to me that the Episcopal Church is a church anymore.

And if we do conclude that TEC is no longer a church, it certainly changes the equations of many Anglican issues. So as impolite and unAnglican as my questions may be, I think they need to be asked. They are certainly not being asked enough.