You are here
EDITOR's NOTE. Mary Ailes is on the Vestry of Truro Church in Fairfax, VA. The following article is her description of a talk given by Truro's Rector, the Rev. Martyn Minns, at Truro Church, Monday June 5, 2006. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.
--
The Three R's are the Key to General Convention 2006
by Mary Ailes
June 5, 2006
1. Repentance
2. Reaffirmation
3. Rollback
1. We are looking not for regret or remorse, but repentance Repentance means giving it up, turning around, admitting that what General Convention 2003 did was wrong and we're not going to do it anymore. To do anything less, as many of the General Convention leadership are promoting, is like one who has stolen a car - one may regret it, may even be remorseful, but one does not keep the car. One does not make a deal to only steal one or two cars a month and that's all. Martyn also used the analogy of the spouse caught in adultery. The spouse may be remorseful, but the spouse cannot then say "well, I'll only commit adultery once a while," or "I'll wait a while before I commit adultery again." No, the issue is repentance. We regret what we did, it was wrong, and we will not do it anymore. That is repentance.
2. We are looking for reaffirmation of the biblical view best expressed in Lambeth 1.10. This is the statement of the Anglican Communion through the Lambeth Conference, one of the major instruments of unity in our communion. The Episcopal Church should reaffirm Lambeth 1.10.
3. We are looking for rollback. We have all ready gone too far. The presenting issue is human sexuality, but underlying the issue, the foundational issue is the authority of scripture and revelation. We have replaced the scriptures with personal experience and the Holy Spirit with the spirit of the age. This is tearing apart not only the Episcopal Church, but the fabric of the Anglican Communion. The majority of the Anglican Communion holds firm to the Scriptures. They don't just say it, they live it - and sometimes, they die for it. The Scriptures are the Word of God, no less than that. We don't throw out the bits we don't like or we find uncomfortable or don't conform with this present age. We need to rollback and dig deep to the foundation of our Christian faith as revealed in the Word and inspired by the Holy Spirit.
So we take to Columbus "The Three R's." The rest is yet to come.
–Mary Ailes is on the vestry of Truro Church.
-The Rev. Martyn Minns is Rector, Truro Episcopal Church, Fairfax, Virginia -- http://www.trurochurch.org
