The year is 2012, as the joke goes, and two Anglo-Catholic priests in the back of National Cathedral are watching the Episcopal presiding bishop and her incense-bearing lover process down the aisle behind a statue of the Buddha, while the faithful sing a hymn to Mother Earth.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cYou know,\u201d one traditionalist whispers, \u201cONE more thing and I\u2019m out the door.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Yes, mainline Protestant conservatives have struggled trying to draw their doctrinal lines. After all, they may be ordered to cross them. Then what? No one has stated the problem more poignantly than Thomas Reeves, in \u201cThe Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cMillions of mainline Christians have spent all or much of their lives worshipping in the same congregation, and in many cases their ancestors also belonged,\u201d said the historian, a traditionalist Episcopal activist for two decades. \u201cFor better or worse, their faith is intimately linked with a specific denomination and a particular building within that tradition. To be cast from it could be personally devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Reeves called his final chapter \u201cRenewing the Mainline.\u201d The paperback edition comes out soon and he said he isn\u2019t making any changes \u2014 even though he escaped into Roman Catholicism on July 31. His conversion came days after the Episcopal Church\u2019s 72nd General Convention, which ordered traditionalist dioceses to begin ordaining women and rejected pleas to allow conservative parishes to freely form sacramental ties with sympathetic bishops. The convention also allowed dioceses to extend insurance coverage to clergy and lay \u201cdomestic partners,\u201d declined to forbid same-sex unions and elected as its next presiding bishop a key progressive on issues of sex and liturgy.<\/p>\n\n
The irony is that the famous historian exited just as the tiny Episcopal Synod boldly informed the Anglican Communion that it was starting an autonomous North American province to shelter those who reject recent doctrinal innovations. The conservative American Anglican Council pledged to stand with the synod. The AAC includes many that support the ordination of women, but believe the synod should not be crushed.<\/p>\n\n
This will soon lead to legal battles over millions of dollars worth of buildings and endowments. Meanwhile, it is only a year until Anglican bishops hold their once-a-decade global Lambeth Conference in Canterbury \u2014 a setting in which conservative Third World voices could speak out.<\/p>\n\n
While many continue to try to use positive, optimistic language, key leaders have made clear how the two camps view each other\u2019s doctrines and demands.<\/p>\n\n
The synod\u2019s executive director said the General Convention has \u201cpassed judgment upon itself\u201d and \u201cbecome the Unchurch.\u201d National church\u2019s leaders, added Father Samuel Edwards, now promote a worldview \u201cderived from the kingdom of sin and death\u201d and, instead of presenting the church as the bride of Christ, appear anxious to model something \u201coff the rack at Frederick\u2019s of Gomorrah.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In his swan song, Presiding Bishop Edmond said his church has been sidetracked on sex because of \u201cfear, and \u2014 let me name it \u2014 by hate. And I have wondered if this diversion does not come from the evil from which we pray daily for God\u2019s deliverance.\u201d Once, \u201cbiblical literalism\u201d was used to justify slavery and sexism, he said. Now, conservatives use \u201cthe Bible to create prejudices against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Reeves has seen and heard enough. \u201cThe key was the lack of tolerance. We have been banned in our own church,\u201d he said. \u201cI decided that it was time to go. \u2026 We were drowning and we\u2019ve been lifted safely into the bark of Peter and we\u2019re extremely grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The crucial question is not how the establishment will react to the synod. The question is whether Episcopal conservatives are truly serious and will hold their ground, when the legal wars begin. Reeves is convinced it would be better for Anglo-Catholics to simply swim the Tiber, rather than become another high-church splinter.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI know Roman Catholicism has its problems, today. But you are not dealing with anarchy,\u201d said Reeves, who lives in the progressive Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee. \u201cThere are rules. There is authority. You can defend the catechism and know you are not alone. \u2026 I don\u2019t have to be ashamed about being a Catholic, anymore. I\u2019m through hiding.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The year is 2012, as the joke goes, and two Anglo-Catholic priests in the back of National Cathedral are watching the Episcopal presiding bishop and her incense-bearing lover process down the aisle behind a statue of the Buddha, while the faithful sing a hymn to Mother Earth. \u201cYou know,\u201d one traditionalist whispers, \u201cONE more thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n