Episcopal Bishops: Dealing with Revolt

These are unsettled times for the issue-tormented Episcopal Church. There are nasty confrontations and court skirmishes over parish control and property matters at the local level involving the small but noisy breakaway movement that was spawned by the denomination’s decision last year to open the priesthood to women. Many more who have not left the 2.9-million member church are nevertheless still vexed by that decision, and there is lingering resentment on the part of some toward changes in the Episcopal prayer book designed to make it more contemporary. And, increasingly, many church members are troubled by the mounting pressures to permit ordination of avowed homosexuals.

About half of the church’s 240 bishops gathered for a week at a resort at Port St. Lucie, Florida, to try to sort things out and maybe pour oil on the troubled waters. Some of the oil landed in the fire instead. When the deliberations ended last month, still more controversy had flared up.

In an opening state-of-the-church address at the House of Bishops meeting, Presiding Bishop John Maury Allin stunned his brother bishops with a confession of his own negative view toward women’s ordination, and he offered to resign.

“Can you accept the service of a presiding bishop who to date is unable to accept women in the role of priests?” he asked. “To date I remain unconvinced that women can be priests,” he stated. Then he said: “If it is determined by prayerful authority that this limitation prevents one from serving as the presiding bishop of this church, I am willing to resign the office.”

At a morning session later in the week the bishops gave Allin a unanimous vote of confidence. There were, however, expressions of concern. When pressed, Allin explained that although he would not personally ordain a woman he would arrange for someone else to do it. He also indicated that as a matter of conscience he could not receive communion from a woman priest.

Several bishops said there had been a deluge of telegrams and phone messages from people back home protesting what Allin had said. Bishops Paul Moore, Jr., of New York and Robert C. Rusack of Los Angeles told Allin he had inflicted “hurt” on many of their people by his speech. Rusack said some of his members were asking: “Cannot the presiding bishop support the faithful even as he has those who have left us?”

Allin said he in no way had suggested that what the denomination had done in voting for women’s ordination was wrong.

The resolution of confidence reaffirmed Allin’s leadership and noted his “right … to hold a personal conviction on this issue, trusting him to uphold the law of this church and the decision of [the denomination] in its official action.”

In a bid to calm opponents of women’s ordination, the bishops adopted by a near-unanimous vote a conscience clause that specifies no one should be “coerced or penalized in any manner” for not recognizing women priests. The action permits a bishop to refuse to ordain women, and it also allows him to bar women ordained elsewhere from serving in his diocese—even if a parish in his diocese wants to employ one. (So far, about sixty women have been ordained.)

The statement was adopted after Bishop Clarence R. Haden of Sacramento, California, warned that he was “willing to pay the penalty” and join the dissidents if the church did not show that it was sincere about healing the deep theological division that exists. (The bishops themselves are badly divided on the issue. Their vote was split 95 to 61 for ordination at the church’s convention last year.)

Bishop Thomas Fraser of Raleigh, North Carolina, expressed concern for long-range implications of the action: “If we are not careful … we’ll abdicate our leadership to the conscience clause.” Suffragen (assistant) bishop J. Stuart Wetmore of New York warned: “We are on the edge of lawlessness. Never again will this house be able to discipline any of its members on any question.”

That prediction was put to a test of sorts in the cases of retired bishop Albert A. Chambers of Springfield, Illinois, and Bishop Moore of New York. Chambers, 71, has been entering the dioceses of other bishops without permission to administer confirmation in parishes of the breakaway movement, which plans to organize a new denomination to be known as the Anglican Church in North America (see October 7 issue, page 60). Moore has been in hot water for ordaining a professed lesbian to the priesthood last January (see February 4 issue, page 55).

A motion to “censure” Chambers was defeated, but the house did pass a stiff resolution saying it “deplores and repudiates” his actions. The measure appealed to Chambers and “other members of this house” to refrain from performing any episcopal acts in any diocese without the clear approval of the bishop of that jurisdiction.

Chambers replied that he had not changed his mind. “There is no doubt about it—I have broken the constitution and canons of the church,” he acknowledged. He indicated he would continue his activities: “I am at your mercy. I accept your judgment. But I have my vocation to fulfill. I cannot go back on that. I am sorry.”

Chambers could face a church trial on the charges. The church, however, did not discipline three other retired bishops who persisted in breaking ecclesiastical laws by ordaining women at a time when the church had not yet opened the priesthood to women. To prosecute Chambers but not the others would seem unfair to many conservatives in the church, and it would no doubt create further controversy.

A number of bishops—including Moore—wanted the house to take firmer action against Chambers, but others counseled that he could be used as a “bridge” to meet with the dissidents, and they warned that stern action against him would only harden the revolt.

At Allin’s suggestion, the house set up a committee to seek to restore relationships with the estranged parishes. (About twenty parishes have voted to leave the church. There are dozens of other dissident congregations made up mostly of persons who have left individual churches in various dioceses. A West Palm Beach parish not far from where the bishops were meeting voted to secede. Bishop James Duncan of southern Florida tried to intercede at the last minute, but he was sent packing back to the bishops’ meeting without having been able to speak.)

At one point Allin entertained the possibility of the House of Bishops itself helping the new denomination to get started as a good-will gesture. In order for the dissident Anglican body to be formally organized, it must have a bishop, and it takes three recognized bishops to

consecrate one, according to Episcopal teachings about apostolic succession. Allin’s colleagues quickly dismissed the suggestion. Time later reported that Chambers and two unnamed bishops are now willing to perform consecrations.

In a long pastoral letter, the bishops appealed to the dissidents to return to the church. “It is not necessary for you to leave the Episcopal Church in order to live with your Christian conscience and witness,” they said. The letter points out that there have been many struggles over change throughout the history of the church. It quotes from the house’s conscience statement and says: “We do affirm that one is not a disloyal Episcopalian if he or she abstains from supporting the [women’s ordination] decision or continues to be convinced it was in error.”

On the homosexual ordination issue, the bishops adopted a report by a theology committee headed by Ohio bishop John H. Burt. The report emphasized that “biblical understanding rejects homosexual practice.” Ordaining a practicing homosexual, it said, would “require the church’s sanction of such a life-style not only as acceptable but worthy of emulation.” The paper distinguishes between “advocating and practicing” homosexuals who could not be ordained to the priesthood and persons with a “dominant homosexual orientation” who could be priests if they remained celibate.

The paper also said the church must restrict its “nuptial blessing” to heterosexual marriages, thereby forbidding priests to officiate at unions of homosexual partners. It did advocate better treatment of homosexuals by the church and society in general.

The bishops decided by a vote of 62 to 48 not to censure Moore for ordaining avowed lesbian Ellen Barrett, and they also voted 68 to 49 not to advise California bishop C. Kilmer Myers to refrain from licensing her to minister in his diocese, where she now lives.

At times, the debate surrounding the proposed censure of Moore was bitter. Moore insisted his ordination of Ms. Barrett was “a sign of hope” to the homosexual community. He and others maintained that there are many homosexuals among the Episcopal clergy, and a vote to censure him could lead to a witch hunt.

Other bishops charged that Moore’s action had touched off the worst uproar in the church’s history, and Bishop William C. Frey of Colorado told Moore: “I thought you acted with aristocratic disdain for the rest of us in the church.”

Myers indicated he would proceed to license Ms. Barrett. He said he disagreed with the report of the theology committee, on which he serves. “I strongly object to the notion that celibacy must be enforced upon homosexuals,” he said, adding that he does not think the practice of homosexuality is a sin.

Burt has had to battle with an eight-member task force in his own northern Ohio diocese over the issue. On the eve of the House of Bishops meeting, the task force released its report recommending that practicing homosexuals be ordained and married in the church. It implied that homosexual practice is not sin, saying that “not every word of Scripture can, should, or must be taken literally. Scripture must be viewed in the light in which it is offered and in the context of a culture which we cannot thoroughly understand.”

The group refused to reconsider its findings, as Burt had requested. He challenged the report’s conclusions, arguing for the concepts contained in the statement later adopted by the House of Bishops.

Reactions in the aftermath of the bishops’ meeting in Florida have been mixed. For example, Bishop Rusack of Los Angeles said that what happened there had “opened some doors” to put him in better touch with disgruntled church members who are “on the brink” of joining the breakaway movement. He also said the conscience statement was “a help” to him in dealing with priests in four parishes that have voted to secede (the cases are in civil court).

Allin’s views, however, have prompted a loud outcry from many people in the women’s ordination camp, and some are calling loudly for the presiding bishop’s resignation.

Not so loudly, a number of church members are disappointed with the bishops’ failure to censure Moore. As for Moore himself, he told a diocesan convention after he returned home that he would not ordain any “publicly avowed, practicing homosexual” until further study by a special diocesan commission. He thus cooled some tempers for now but left open the door to challenge later the stand on homosexuality taken by the bishops in Florida—a position on which he abstained from voting.

To The ‘Rescue’

An American Episcopal woman priest, Alison Palmer of Washington, D.C., stirred up a storm in the Church of England last month by administering communion in two Anglican churches without obtaining the permission of Anglican bishops. She is the first woman to administer the sacrament at a public service in Britain.

At the invitation of clergyman Alfred Willetts, rector of the Church of the Apostles in Manchester, and his wife Phoebe, a licensed deaconess, Miss Palmer celebrated communion before a congregation of seventeen men and women at the Manchester church. Later she did the same thing at St. Thomas the Martyr University Church in Newcastle on Tyne, where 100 had gathered.

In letters to several bishops, including Archbishop of Canterbury Donald Coggan (who favors opening the priesthood to women), the Willettses took “full responsibility” for inviting Ms. Palmer to administer communion. Coggan and others were said to be unhappy over the act, and Bishop Patrick Rodger of Manchester said he was considering “what action is to be taken as I view this unlawful proceeding.”

Ms. Palmer, 46, was invited to St. Thomas by the church council, which put what it called “natural justice” ahead of obedience to authority, according to news accounts.

The official position of the Anglican Church on women’s ordination is that it has “no fundamental objection,” but the House of Bishops ruled last year that women ordained abroad in the worldwide Anglican communion—to which American Episcopalians belong—may not officiate in the mother church. The ordination issue is to be considered at next year’s Lambeth Conference, a meeting of all bishops in the Anglican communion held every ten years. Some fear Ms. Palmer’s action may add to the controversy surrounding the question.

Another fear among church officials is that the development may affect ecumenical discussions with church bodies opposed to women priests.

Some of the strongest criticism of Ms. Palmer’s action came from vicar Anthony Duncan of St. John’s Anglican Church in Newcastle. He posted his statement of protest on his church door. He declared that “not only has grave scandal and offense been caused by an act done in flagrant canonical disobedience, but also the whole integrity and certainly the unity of the fellowship of the Church of England in this city has been most wantonly compromised.”

Ms. Palmer was reported to have said she was committed “to rescue my sisters whose call to the ordained ministry is impeded by discrimination.”

Winners

God may have been rooting for both sides in the World Series.

Members of both the Dodgers and the Yankees took time out from crowded schedules and clamoring reporters to attend pre-game chapel services as they had on weekends all year. The Dodgers held their service before game-time on Saturday in Los Angeles. Pastor David Hocking of First Brethren Church in Long Beach spoke on Isaiah 41 and sources of spiritual power. The Yankees met before the game on Sunday and listened to Bill Pannell of Fuller Seminary cite the story of the Good Samaritan to drive home points on acceptance and togetherness. About twenty were at each service.

The meetings were coordinated by Baseball Chapel, an evangelical ministry that assists chapel leaders on each major-league team to line up speakers and offers spiritual-training conferences in the off-season. Cumulative chapel attendance for all the teams this year exceeded 10,000, up 30 per cent from last year, partly because of two new expansion teams, partly because of increased interest.

Chapel leaders for the Dodgers are pitcher Don Sutton and leftfielder Dusty Baker. The regulars include first baseman Steve Garvey, pitchers Tommy John, Doug Rau, and Elias Sosa, shortstop Bill Russell, coach Red Adams, and manager Tom Lasorda.

The sanguine Lasorda, a turned-on Roman Catholic, says he’s found the prime ingredient in managing baseball to be the same thing Solomon sought from the Lord: an understanding heart. After an outstanding inning in a tight game, Dodger players can often be seen in the dugout hugging each other and dancing up and down like a group of bubbling charismatics—with Lasorda in the middle of it all. The manager says he’s “never once regretted loving God.” On the eve of the series he affirmed: “The whole pattern of life is mapped out for us by Jesus Christ. If he wants us to win, he will make it possible.” Whatever, said he, the Lord has brought him to where he is in baseball, and he is forever grateful.

For the Yankees, first baseman Chris Chambliss and pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter are the chapel leaders, assisted by pitcher Don Gullett, shortstop Bucky Dent, second baseman Willie Randolph, leftfielder Lou Piniella, rightfielder Reggie Jackson, and others. When Jackson was with the Oakland A’s, the witness of then manager Alvin Dark—an outspoken Christian—made a strong impact on him as he tried to get his life together, a struggle that still is going on. Jackson sometimes says things he later regrets, but millions of series fans last month heard him put in a good word for the Lord to radio and television newspeople too.

The grudges, moods, and troubles were forgotten for the time being when Jackson socked three successive pitches out of the ballpark, etching his name in the record books and helping to sew up the series for the Yankees.

Perhaps there was cheering even in heaven.

Center Secured

The Center for World Mission, headed by evangelical missiologist Ralph Winter, raised $850,000 in its marathon appeal for funds to purchase the seventeen-acre former campus of Pasadena (Nazarene) College in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

That was enough of the $1.5-million down payment to secure the center’s option to purchase the site. Winter told reporters he expects to have the balance of the down payment on hand by the time escrow closes in April. The successful fund appeal staved off attempts by a syncretistic sect, the Church Universal and Triumphant (also known as Summit International), to purchase the property (see September 23 issue, page 47).

Winter still has a long way to go. The price-tag on the campus is $8.5 million, and he wants to raise an additional $6.5 million to upgrade the facility and to establish an endowment fund. His intention is to create an institution known as William Carey International University with graduate on-campus and extension programs to service the needs of world evangelization. Plans also call for the formation of a network of five evangelical mission centers around the world that would be linked to the university. Efforts, said Winter, would be made not only to help missions and churches around the world but also to integrate the global activities of his organization with those of governments, voluntary organizations, and philanthropies involved in economic development.

Meanwhile, leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the Church Universal and Triumphant announced her group has purchased a 218-acre parcel in Malibu Canyon north of Hollywood for her group’s Summit Lighthouse University and church headquarters. The property was bought from a Roman Catholic order for $5.6 million. Mrs. Prophet, known to her followers as “Mother,” says the site will be called Camelot and be “a place where people can study Christ and Buddha and realize their potential.”

Both Winter’s and Mrs. Prophet’s organizations have been renting space on the Pasadena campus from the Nazarenes, who moved to San Diego.

A Campaign For Inerrancy

A ten-year effort to study and defend the doctrine of biblical inerrancy was launched in late September with the formation of The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy at a meeting of thirty prominent evangelical leaders and scholars in Chicago. According to published reports, the group intends to educate the evangelical community about the doctrine’s importance, to show that those who deny inerrancy are “out of step” with the Bible and the historic evangelical mainstream, and to effect “institutional changes within seminaries, denominations, mission agencies, and other Christian organizations.” Council members were said to fear that evangelicals could drift into neoorthodoxy by “default” in the absence of information and “clear thinking.” The authority of the Bible rests upon inerrancy, the members contend.

Pastor James M. Boice of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, a noted evangelical scholar and preacher, spearheaded the drive to form the council, and he is its chairman. The Chicago meeting was held without fanfare, and no press releases were issued. Boice, however, briefed Eternity, which published a major report on the council’s emergence in its November issue.

A well-known evangelical organization contributed $10,000 to help underwrite the council’s launching, and several $1,000 gifts came from noted evangelical leaders, said Eternity.

Among the leaders involved in the council are: Jay Adams, John Alexander, Gleason Archer, Bill Bright, Edmund Clowney, W. A. Criswell, Norman Geisler, Harold Hoehner, Donald Hoke, James Kennedy, Elisabeth Leitch, Roger Nicole, J. I. Packer, Harold Ockenga, Robert Preus, Earl Rademacher, Francis Schaeffer, Ray Stedman, R. C. Sproul, and Merrill Tenney. Evangelist Billy Graham has given “unofficial” support, according to Eternity.

Printer’S Error

A Texas newspaper was embarrassed by a printer’s error in a story on the church page. The title of a book that was to be reviewed at a Unitarian women’s meeting was reported as “How to Say ‘No’ to a Baptist and Survive.” It should have been “How to Say ‘No’ to a Rapist and Survive.”

The council plans to hold a summit conference on the inerrancy issue in Chicago next October and to sponsor dialogues on seminary campuses beginning in 1979. Both inerrantists and non-inerrantists are to be included in the dialogues, which will be aimed at clarifying issues and promoting better understanding. “Our desire is to maintain loving dialogue with [the non-inerrantists] rather than to cut them off from fellowship or discussion,” the council is quoted as saying.

Jay Grimstead, the council’s executive director, said his group hopes to avoid the mistakes that some conservatives made in the past. He cited the attitudes of such separatists as Bob Jones and Carl McIntire. “We are committed to speak whatever we speak in a way that will be considered loving, wise, and scholarly,” said Grimstead.

Not everybody is pleased by the council’s existence. Theologian Clark Pinnock, once an ardent inerrancy advocate, told Eternity: “The last thing we need is a ten-year inerrancy campaign. Our concern should be with the blatant liberals who demythologize parts of the Old and New Testaments. The battle needs to be fought, not at Fuller Seminary, but at places like Chicago and Harvard divinity schools.… A campaign for inerrancy will encourage people to avoid the real issues and serve to drive young, clearheaded students away from evangelicalism and into the liberal camp.”

Fuller Seminary is one of the storm centers of the current controversy over inerrancy. In his book, The Battle for the Bible (Zondervan), editor Harold Lindsell, who took part in the Chicago meeting, alleged that some Fuller teachers were loose on Scripture. A counterattack was mounted by Fuller’s faculty. It was led by the seminary’s president, David Hubbard, and resulted in the publication this year of the non-inerrancy-oriented Biblical Authority (Word), edited by Jack Rogers of Fuller.

“We need to spend our energies not in defending a particular theory [of inspiration],” commented Rogers to Eternity, “but on what the Scriptures say themselves and on the Lord of creation, adjusting our lives accordingly.” Hubbard said he welcomed the council’s campaign because “evangelicals should support anything that contributes to a better understanding of Scripture.” But he, too, suggested that the council might miss the “real” issue. Said he: “Rather than speculating on how God inspired the text, we need to explicate what we already find in the text.” He added: “I trust the campaign will be carried out so evangelicals don’t look foolish before the rest of the church and the world.”

Creamed

Singer Anita Bryant, who has gained national attention as a crusader against homosexual rights, was speaking at a press conference in Des Moines when a young man who identified himself as a homosexual hurled a banana cream pie at her from close range. It hit her square in the face and also splattered her husband, Bob Green, who was close by.

“At least it’s a fruit pie,” quipped Miss Bryant, her face and clothing covered with the gooey pie.

Green called on those present not to stop the youth as he dashed from the room. The couple began to pray aloud, saying they forgave the act. “We’re praying for him to be delivered,” said Miss Bryant. Then she lost her composure and began to cry.

Green later came on the youth, who said he was Jim Higgins of Minneapolis, and three friends talking to reporters outside. One of the friends was holding a pie. The singer’s husband grabbed it and shoved it into the face of one of Higgins’s other friends.

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