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Unity in diversity
Canon Michael Kennedy eloquently warns us of the dangers of schism and the triumph of the "unity in diversity" of our Church.
However, as the broad spectrum of our diversity becomes increasingly polarised between modernist liberalism and traditional fundamentalism, it is surely only logical that there is a point when unity no longer exists, and unity for unity’s sake is logically no unity at all. However distasteful, there equally comes a point where schism is the only means of remaining true to scriptural Christian doctrine.
The recent Lambeth Conference merely highlighted first, by virtue of its absentees, that the Anglican Communion exists in name only, and second, that the episcopacy, in its failure to engage in any meaningful doctrinal discussion, exposed Anglicanism to the secular accusation of being a meaningless, anachronistic irrelevance.
Homosexuality is the fundamentally dividing issue in current Anglicanism. Those who dare oppose open homosexuality in the Church are immediately vilified as homophobes and narrow minded bigots stuck in the Dark Ages, whereas the self styled liberals would present themselves as the hip happening modern future.
Two Gazette columnists now seem to have jumped aboard this partisanship, for whilst Ted Woods was merrily down at St David’s vilifying GAFCON and the bigoted fundamentalists, Gareth Higgins was strutting his stuff with the GLBTs at Belfast Gay Pride .
Thankfully, Edward Vaughan was trying to offer some balance and even referring to Scripture in the process. This divisive issue is not going to disappear and ultimately the only means of its being resolved will be the painful but necessary step of the Church finally taking a clear and unambiguous doctrinal stance, since otherwise we descend only into the Church of Anything Goes.
William Cardwell
6 Pinecroft Park
Lisburn
BT28 3LG
Can I thank Canon Michael Kennedy for his recent letter on the current crisis in the Anglican Communion, with its wisdom about preserving unity and charity also within our Irish Church. I heartily concur with his sentiments.
Sometimes especially those of evangelical churchmanship like myself have not always preserved charity with regard to the issue of homosexuality, while maintaining, as the recent Lambeth Conference 2008 affirmed, that the only appropriate context for sexual intimacy is within heterosexual marriage and in welcoming with warmth churchpeople of gay and lesbian orientation into our pews. If this has been the case, for this we repent.
‘Unity in diversity’, of which Canon Kennedy wrote, is, indeed, a proud ideal for which the Anglican Communion has always rightly striven. Looking at the issue through the lens of the Church historian, the era when the ‘unity’ part of ‘unity and diversity’ was emphasised most amidst our reformed Episcopal Churches was after the 1888 Lambeth Conference, when the famous ‘Quadrilateral’ of the basis of Anglicanism was agreed – the Bible, the Dominical Sacraments, the Creeds Catholic and the historic episcopate – until the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. Before that, the ‘diversity’ of our Anglican Churches prevailed in the partial attendances and imperfect communion of the Lambeth Conferences of 1867 and 1878.
The monolithic Anglicanism of the twentieth century has now, in my view permanently, given way to an Anglicanism of looser structures and impaired communion, since the GAFCON Jerusalem Declaration and the establishment of the FCA (Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans) with its seven primates and 230 bishops.
The challenge for us in the Church of Ireland, as Canon Kennedy states, is to maintain fellowship and maximise unity within our own Church in these rapidly changing times. It is a time for clear heads, generous hearts, practical commonsense and much prayer.
As one of the six Church of Ireland participants in the process in Jerusalem which launched FCA, let me state that our aim is to work within Anglican structures, with no divisive intent, to set forward the principles of the Jerusalem Declaration.
These principles are based on the foundation stones of the apostolic faith and, as the title ‘Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans’ suggests, are to forward the confessions and formularies of Anglicanism, for example, in relation to the present controversies in the Americas over the episcopal New Hampshire appointment and other unrelated liturgical and credal irregularities outlined by the Bishop of Down and Dromore in an important article in last year’s Gazette, calling attention to the 18th article on the uniqueness of Christ and the 20th defending the supremacy of Scripture.
Let not your readers doubt that we in FCA, which already has a goodly number of members in the Irish Church, are more than willing to speak to anyone and work with everyone to find the best way forward with God’s help.
Eric Culbertson (The Revd Dr)
Secretary, Reform Ireland
Tullanisken Rectory
Newmills
Co. Tyrone
Bishop Harold Miller is reported in the Gazette as suggesting the deposing of Bishop Duncan [Diocese of Pittsburgh, USA] is an attempt to "deal harshly with conservatives" (issue, 3rd October). I am not sure that this is an entirely balanced reading of the situation. Eighty-eight voted to depose Bishop Duncan (some of them leading conservatives) for contravention of Church canons, for a publicly-proclaimed intention to abandon the Church and for the intention to stake a claim on diocesan assets (which was a great cause of concern to many within his own diocese).
According to all reports from the Church, this was a legal matter and not a matter of a hidden ‘liberal agenda’. I don’t find the presentation of what must be an extremely complicated, difficult and painful situation to be helped by portraying it along the lines of a conservative vs liberal agenda.
Of course, it is to be regretted whenever we lose people of differing views, for in doing so we lose something of our uniqueness and broadness as a Church, but I doubt that all involved took this decision lightly and without careful reflection and prayer.
Andrew McCroskery
(The Revd)
12 Merlyn Road
Ballsbridge
Dublin 4