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A Resolution of the Vestry and Rector St. Martin’s Episcopal Church Houston, Texas WHEREAS, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church continues to uphold the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Diocese of Texas, and; WHEREAS, The Constitution of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, clearly states that it “…is a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, a Fellowship within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church…in communion with the See of Canterbury...”1, and; WHEREAS, the Vestry and...
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Noll, Evangelical Commentary on Draft Covenant 1 June 07 Sec. 6: The Unity of the Communion Proposed Amendment (6) We acknowledge that in the most extreme circumstances, where member churches choose not to fulfil the substance of the covenant as understood by the Councils of instruments of the Communion, we will consider that such churches have relinquished membership in the Anglican Communion. Explanation Throughout history, the Good News has caused division, and the church has faced the twin dangers of heresy and schism. Scripture warns against attacks from without and within. The Covenant...
Corruption as the “historical reality of sin”, it’s condition in human life: disappearing, dying, rotting The Corrupted Church: A Comment on the Pragmatism of To Set Our Hope On Christ Ephraim Radner David Brooks has called this the “Hobbesian Decade”. Looking at all the social, international, and natural disordering of lives in the present, and the responses we have collectively offered in return, he sees these years we are living in a special way as the throbbing image of our desperate and brutal humanity. It isn’t exactly clear why some decades deserve such characterization more than others...
Freedom and Covenant: The Miltonian Analogy Transfigured Ephraim Radner My purpose in what follows is to draw positive attention to the Windsor Report’s “Proposed Anglican Covenant”. It is a part of the Report that has received little attention, apart from initial media hyperbole; and what it has received has generally been negative. The proposed Covenant’s obscurity in discussion has perhaps been due to the fact that, on most accounts, it is in any case a long-term project, and what we really need to deal with are immediate concerns over North America’s place in the Communion and sexuality...
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The Windsor Report and the American Evasion of Communion Ephraim Radner Summary In the following reflection, I want to consider why it is that ECUSA does not have the right or the means to “do whatever it wants” in its local and provincial councils, most especially in General Convention. From a theological perspective, there are a number of avenues by which appropriately to address this question. But here I want to dwell on the character of ECUSA as a Christian “church”, and therefore on the character of the structures that order this church. Many American Episcopalians have, after all...
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I want to respond to Phil’s wonderfully clear and compelling set of questions regarding Alternative Oversight. I. Do we want to stay Anglicans and/or Episcopalians? The question of AO makes sense only if we wish to remain within the Episcopal Church and/or the Anglican Communion. Let us be clear on that. And let us each answer that for ourselves. The “alternative” part makes sense only within a functioning structure of “given” bishops under whom we now live and work. If we want to throw over or leave this structure, then we have no need of “alternatives”. Of course, answering this question is...
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How to think about Cross-Jurisdictional Episcopal Intervention in the ECUSA. A Proposal I admire the admonition to faithfulness and holiness coming from many voices in our list- serve discussions that, like the prophets, we might speak the truth in love, and from a place of suffering not wasted because our Lord’s provisions and promises are sure. I agree this is God’s way. Our earnest desire is that the Savior’s prayer, “That we all may be one,” may, in its deepest and truest sense, be speedily fulfilled. BCP p. 876 The Virtue of Staying Augustine called “schism” is a “damnable heresy”, and so...
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Development of Doctrine and Discipline in the Christian Church. One of the justifications frequently offered for the adoption of same-sex blessings and partnerships by the Christian Church is that this is a legitimate outcome to the way Christian doctrine “develops” over time. Just because such new practices go against consistent Church teaching for 2000 years, and even against explicit Scriptural injunction—so the argument goes -- that does not necessarily make them unfaithful, because, after all, “doctrine develops” and always has. Some of the precedents offered for such purported...
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Tobias Haller occupies an important position at General Convention through his role on the Marriage Taskforce. We have engaged Mr. Haller through comments on blogs, and that engagement has yielded interesting information about what he thinks General Convention is legally capable of doing with respect to liturgical revision. We believe his reasoning is flawed on these matters, and we have stated our concerns straightforwardly. More recently, on his own blog, he has attacked these statements of ours as being the product of simple “ignorance”. Not only does he disagree with our recent analysis...
