For generations we Anglicans have understood ourselves to offer a middle way, a via media. In a very similar vein, we have often spoken of our calling as that of a "bridge" church.

These self-understandings depended on reference to realities on either side: through what land were we the middle way? Between what shores were we the bridge? For many years now via media image and the bridge image were always drawn with Catholicism on one side and Protestantism on the other. We believed that we Anglicans, at our best, were the middle way among Christians. From our vantage point we could see in both directions. We touched both shores. We were at the "center" of Christian understanding and living, of received Faith and Order. For me, for instance, that means valuing both the wisdom of the reformers and the theological heritage of a united western Christendom. It means striving to be in relationship with our many Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic neighbors here in Pittsburgh as well as with those in protestant and evangelical fellowships. To stand in the middle of the saints is a unique gift that God has given to our church.

But is that what many people mean when they claim to stand in the "via media" today? I don't believe so. The Episcopal Church in the United States of America is presently holding up a "via media" with vastly different fields on either side, offering a "bridge" between very different shores. The via media now on offer is a middle way between Christianity and the modern world. We are the church where Scripture is often not God's Word but "good words." We are the church that says less and less about Sin and Redemption through Jesus Christ and yet pronounces, ex cathedra, as it were, more and more about national budgets and secular political platforms The bridge now being advertised is one between classic Christianity and secular culture. Worse, instead of simply using that bridge to bring Christian faith and values to the culture (the work of the whole church at all times), we seem much more interested in making it into an avenue dedicated to bringing secular values into the church. In this shift the place of the Episcopal Church has been moved from the very mainstream of Christian witness to the margins of the Christian enterprise. This is a radical shift. And, as the numbers of our own statisticians at headquarters bear out, this is a suicidal shift, at least in terms of Christian mission and Christian identity.

As General Convention approaches, we should all listen carefully to which via media is on offer. Pay attention to which bridge any sales team is inviting us to cross.

Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That is His claim, Easter's message, and the Church's gospel. Our middle way needs to be right through the center of that proclamation. Our bridge needs to tie the bearers of these affirmations ever nearer to each other. Any other via media or any other bridge leads to a place of danger, distortion and even death.

Whatever happens this June, those of us committed to the classical "via media" have every intention of continuing our witness at the very center of Christian faith and order and in the very middle of Scripture's Gospel.

--The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan is the Bishop of Pittsburgh

http://www.pgh.anglican.org/news/local/viamedia051206