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OHIO: Bishop feels pain of orthodox intrusion. Writes letter to Diocesan Sr. Wardens condemning "Choose This Day"
By Bishop Mark Hollingsworth, Jr.
March 24, 2006
Dear colleagues,
Some of you, most likely Senior Wardens, will have recently received a letter from the Rev. D. O. Smart, who identifies himself as the Dean of the Mid-Continental Convocation of the Anglican Communion Network. The writer expresses his views about the Episcopal Church in extreme terms, including the statement that our differences are mutually exclusive and irreconcilable. The letter offers, to any who would return a postcard, a DVD entitled "Choose This Day" and it solicits the names of other congregations and their lay leaders who might be interested in receiving the same.
I want to share with you what I know about this letter, its author, and the DVD it offers. Mr. Smart was a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas and was deposed (removed from Holy Orders) for abandoning the communion of this Church. Unlike some members of the Anglican Communion Network who continue to work for the unity of the Church, he has disassociated himself with the Diocese of Kansas and the Episcopal Church. He has sent this letter to Senior Wardens of a number of dioceses in the Midwest and perhaps elsewhere.
The film that he offers to send I first saw in early December and have seen a couple of times since, most recently at last week¹s meeting of the House of Bishops. You can view it at www.anglicandecision.org. It is a product of the Anglican Communion Network and features a number of that group¹s leaders, including the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Rev. Dr. Leslie P. Fairfield of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, and the Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall S. Harmon, Communications Director of the Diocese of South Carolina.
These and others in the film describe the Episcopal Church as non-Christian and its leaders as pagans. I do not believe this is true of our Church, the Diocese of Ohio, you, or me. Nor do I think it is so of them. As I have said repeatedly, differences are by their nature irreconcilable; if they were reconciled they would not be differences. Our challenge as Christians is, in spite of our differences, to be reconciled people.
Both the letter and the film it offers do nothing I can discern to build up the Body of Christ. Rather, I have found them to play on a dynamic of fear and a divisiveness that are anathema to Christian community. Indeed, the closer we get to this summer¹s General Convention in Columbus, the more the power of evil will seek to divide us with strategies of fear and reactivity. It will continue to be our faithful challenge to resist such efforts to set one against another, and our catholic fidelity to hold our differing perspectives and convictions with a generosity of heart that is worthy of Christ¹s sacrifice.
To be a people reconciled to God and one another in Christ, we will need to make room for one another in our prayers, our conversations, and our hearts. We will need to engage with one another at a higher level than that of fear. We will need to call each other not by derisive or pejorative names, but as sister and brother, knowing that it is in one another that Christ is coming to each of us. As we all prepare for the General Convention, I encourage you and those you serve to attend one of this spring¹s regional meetings, the dates, times, and venues for which are found on the Diocese of Ohio website at www.dohio.org, and to consider attending some of the General Convention in June (information also at our website). The Church that you and I love is worthy of the best we have to offer.
I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3
Gratefully,
--The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr. is the Bishop of Ohio
