It took a while, but the ACNA College of Bishops conclave selected a
new Archbishop yesterday, Foley Beach.
I cannot claim to be familiar with him, but everything I’ve read about
him encourages me about his selection.
I particularly like his statement ten years ago upon departing The
Episcopal Church. This comes from A Living Text, where there are other notable past statements from Archbishop
Beach.
I am forty-five
years old and for thirty-four of those years I have been an active participant
in the Episcopal Church. I was baptized, confirmed, married, ordained a deacon,
and ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. It has served to shape and form
me spiritually and it has taught me tremendous aspects about worshiping
Almighty God.
The Church
has been a place of stability and refuge, although it has always been in need
of reform. But recent actions of the Episcopal Church have taken spiritual
depravity to new depth for the modern era.
The Church
which taught me the Gospel has now adopted a new Gospel which reduces Jesus to
nothing more than one option among many. The Church which introduced me to the
Word of God has now rewritten the Word of God to placate cultural and political
pressures put upon it by intellectual extremists.
The Church
which taught me to confess and repent of my sins has now embraced and endorsed
certain sins which have become culturally accepted. The actions of the 2003
General Convention in approving the consecration of a non-celibate homosexual
person to be a bishop in the Church, and its approval of a method by which
liturgies may be used for same-sex unions in the Church is the presenting issue
of a much deeper theological and moral problem within the Church.
While these
decisions are clearly in contradiction to the teaching of the Bible, the
lessons of Church History and Tradition, and the mind of the world-wide
Anglican Communion, they demonstrate a clear obsession with reinterpreting the
Scriptures and an amazing disregard to the consequences of their actions on
other Christians throughout the world whether Anglican or not.
A
revisionist philosophy has overtaken the ethos of the Church which interprets
the Scriptures, Church History and Tradition not according to what they
actually say, but according to how one is made to feel and in order to be
pastorally sensitive. I cannot be apart of such forsaking of Christian teaching
and morality.
To remain in
the Episcopal Church is on some level affirming the direction the church has
taken whether I agree or not. To remain in the Episcopal Church is to pretend
that I am not a participant in this abomination before the Lord.
To remain in
the Episcopal Church would be to knowingly violate my conscience, and that I
cannot do and keep my soul intact. To remain in the Episcopal Church and take
communion with those who teach and practice this false teaching would be a
clear violation of the Scriptures (For example, 1 Cor.5). Some say that I must
stay and fight for reform and change the direction of the Church. This has been
my battle cry for the past 24 years.
I have come
to the conclusion that the best way to reform it is to leave it and allow the
devastation of embracing sin to run its course. I must be about preaching the
Gospel of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and teaching the principles of the
Word of God. My calling from God is not to lead or participate in an
ecclesiastical fight which will evolve to litigation in the secular courts over
sacred idols and mammon.
While that
may be the call from the Lord for others, my calling is to help people discover
the most wonderful gift in the world — a living, dynamic, personal, and saving
relationship with Jesus. I cannot do this and be a part of an organizational
structure which now at its core denies the very things which I hold dear. The
Apostle James wrote that to know the right thing to do and not do it, is sin
(James 4:17). For me this is the right thing to do and not to do it would be
sin before God.
No comments:
Post a Comment