I wish only to address a single point in your comprehensive statement, namely your response to the Standing Committee's repudiation of "all false expressions of our Christian Faith that would seek to dilute or avoid Jesus' clear words 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'."
Read moreHow does the Church respond as Church when ecclesiology is dead? What is the biblical response when biblical categories are cast aside by authorities who have no meaning, nor even any reality, apart from the Word of God?
If the U.S. Constitution were thrown out the window, the local police would have no legitimate authority to maintain order -- only the guns they were issued under the authority of the old Constitution.
Read moreAll shouting aside, we now have a remarkable reflection from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, entitled "The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today." I am very encouraged to read it, for it gives us a much clearer view of the way forward for the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. I commend it for your study, for its importance for our future can hardly be overstated.
Read moreThe Anglican Communion Institute, of which Andrew Goddard is a Fellow, exercises enormous influence on Canterbury's thinking on the Communion (or the other way around, with due respect to the current chair). Goddard based his model on that of Michael Langrish, which I am sure was the result of much discussion, and received official sanction at the highest levels in Lambeth and the Church of England.
Read more2. The choice, in ACI's view, is not between "biblical fidelity" and "communion". We agree with the Archbishop of Canterbury's own general view, and the Windsor Report's, that the discernment of Scriptural truth in its fullness is properly sought within the visible communion of Christ and in fact leads to the building up of this communion. I realize that this is a theological commitment that is not shared by all Christians. But it has some venerable apostolic and catholic heft behind it.
Read moreECUSA's Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion proposed several key resolutions in their report One Baptism, One Hope in God's Call. In response to this document, Tom Wright pleaded in "The Choice before ECUSA" before the Convention that these resolutions did not comply with Windsor. What followed in GC2006 was tragic. The General Convention fell short of even what the Special Commission recommended.
Read moreEmbraced by the leadership of all the mainline Protestant denominations, as well as large segments of American Catholicism, liberal Christianity has been hailed by its boosters for 40 years as the future of the Christian church.
Instead, as all but a few die-hards now admit, all the mainline churches and movements within churches that have blurred doctrine and softened moral precepts are demographically declining and, in the case of the Episcopal Church, disintegrating.
Read moreSecond: Courts are learning why gay marriage is unconstitutional. On the heels of the Goodridge decision, which forced gay marriage on the Massachusetts plebiscite, I published an article titled "Why Gay Marriage Is Unconstitutional."
Read moreGod of mercy! Didn't the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church need this! A Convention which was full of life, fun and joy in the Lord, with uplifting worship and Bible studies. A Convention which clearly demonstrated that the Episcopal Church is committed to mission, to the Anglican Communion, and to the Archbishop of Canterbury. A Church that takes the Millennium Development Goals seriously.
Read moreA number of pundits have noted that the Episcopal Church in America is no different than a number of mainline protestant denominations - the majority of which seem to have headed away from a literal application of Scripture and have adopted a "social gospel." Virtually all of those denominations are now in decline. I believe that the problem goes considerably deeper, and that it has its roots in the abandonment not only of Holy Scripture, but the God portrayed in Holy Scripture.
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