Diversity Within Communion

DIVERSITY WITHIN COMMUNION

(Preached at Weobley Epiphany 3, 2008)

The Church of England is often described as being a 'broad church'. In other words, it is a church with sufficient elasticity to be able to accommodate most shades of opinion and practice.

One has only to look at the job vacancies in the Church Times to become aware of its rich diversity. There you will find parishes described as being Conservative Evangelical, Open Evangelical and Charismatic Evangelical on the one hand, and Traditional Catholic, Modern Catholic, Liberal Catholic and Charismatic Catholic on the other hand.

However, that comprehensive character of the Anglican Church is under threat, both at home and overseas.

ooOOOoo

In England, the threat goes back to November 1992 when the General Synod of the Church of England decided to ordain women to the priesthood.

As a result of that decision, both the extreme Evangelical and extreme Catholic wings of the Church now find themselves united in opposition.

The evangelical wing base their objection upon the concept of headship, whereby they maintain that in scripture man is head of the woman, and therefore the woman cannot enjoy equal status in terms of priesthood.

The catholic wing base their objection upon tradition, whereby they maintain that since the days of the apostles, it has always been the practice to ordain only men to the priesthood, and that that tradition can only be changed by an ecumenical council of all the major churches.

To enable such objectors to remain within the Church of England, an Act of Synod was passed. This provides for parishes to opt not to invite women priests to celebrate the Eucharist, or to be appointed as incumbents, and if necessary, to place themselves under the jurisdiction of a bishop with similar views. These parishes are commonly known as 'A', 'B' and 'C' parishes respectively, depending upon which resolutions they have passed.

Such bishops have became known as 'flying bishops' since their episcopal oversight extends beyond the usual diocesan boundaries. Three such Bishops have been appointed, namely the Bishops of Beverly in the north, and Ebbsfleet and Richborough in the south.

The original outcry has quietened down as more and more women have been ordained. However, there are signs that this is about to change as General Synod moves towards enabling women to be ordained to the episcopate.

There are at present four major pressure groups at work.

The two groups opposing the ordination of women to the episcopacy are called 'Forward in Faith', which represents the catholic wing of the church, and 'Reform', which represents the evangelical wing.

The two groups pushing for the ordination of women to the episcopacy are 'Women and the Church', commonly known as WATCH, and the 'Group for the Rescinding of the Act of Synod', commonly called GRAS. The latter goes further than WATCH, in so far as they want to remove any provision for opponents to remain within the Church of England.

The House of Bishops has so far commissioned three different reports over the past three years, under the chairmanships of the Bishops of Rochester, Guildford and Manchester, to see how opponents can continue within the life of the church, whilst at the same time proceeding with the ordination of the women to the episcopacy. To date, no satisfactory solution has been found.

ooOOOoo

The overseas threat to the unity of the Church of England goes back to the ordination of Gene Robinson to the episcopacy in the United States of America in 2003. Gene Robinson was a former married priest, with a wife and children, who had recently 'come out' and was then living with a male partner. About the same time, the Anglican Church of Canada began discussing the blessing of same sex couples in church.

Such a radical departure, from the normal Anglican church life has proved too much for some, and as a result, the church finds itself being divided between 'conservatives' and 'liberals'.

As far as the 'conservatives' are concerned, homosexuality is forbidden in scripture and therefore the church is acting contrary to scripture. Their objection often extended to the banning of all homosexuals to the priesthood.

The most vocal of these 'conservatives' are, the Presiding Bishop of the South Cone, Gregory Venerables, the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, and the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, where the Anglican Church is growing faster than anywhere else. They possibly represent as many as 30 million out of a total 70 million Anglicans.

This has forced some conservative minded dioceses in the USA, to contract out of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, and place themselves under the jurisdiction of like-minded provinces elsewhere.

This difference of opinion is now coming to a head as the bishops of the Anglican Communion prepare to meet at the Lambeth Conference this year. This conference is held every ten years at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Gene Robinson has not been invited. Others have yet to commit themselves to attend, whilst others are planning to attend a 'Global Anglican Future Conference' in Jerusalem in June. Meanwhile, the church in the

Province of South Africa believes that the problems of poverty and AIDS are much more important within the life of the church than those of sexuality.

ooOOOoo

Now I am sure that the Archbishop of Canterbury must want to bang together the heads of his fellow bishops, in the same way as St Paul wanted to bang together the heads of some of the leaders of the Christian church in Corinth, when he wrote his epistle in AD54.

There, the problem of disunity within the church was centred around three or four personalities who attracted their own particular followers.

First, there were those who claimed to be followers of Paul himself. This was probably a Gentile party. Paul himself had stressed freedom from the Jewish Law and therefore they were probably followers who were seeking to turn their new-found freedom into licence, using Christianity as an excuse to do what they liked.

Secondly,there were those who claimed to be followers of Apollos. Now Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria in Egypt. He was a most eloquent and persuasive speaker. Since Alexandria was the intellectual centre of the ancient world, it could be that these followers were trying to turn Christianity into a philosophy rather than a religion

Thirdly, there were the followers of Cephas. Cephas is the Aramaic form for the name of Peter. Whether or not the Apostle Peter himself ever visited Corinth is unclear. It could be that some of his followers visited this Roman colony on Greek soil. Like the Jews, they were brought up to emphasise the law. So these followers could have been trying to express their faith in a legalistic manner.

Finally, there were those who claimed to be followers of Christ. This was probably a small self-righteous sect who claimed, unlike the others, that they were true Christians, and probably acted as if Christ belonged to them, rather than they belonged to Christ.

In his impatience, Paul asks the rhetorical questions, "Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptised in the name of Paul?"

Like the Church of England today, at home and overseas, the unity of the church at Corinth was being threatened by those who, in their enthusiasm for promoting their own particular points of view, were intolerant with those with whom they disagreed.

So St Paul's advice to the Christians living in Corinth is as relevant today as it was in the first century.

He writes, 'Now, I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no division among you, but that you may be united in the same mind and purpose.'

Now the Greek word which Paul uses for 'division' is 'schismatic' from which we get the noun 'schism'. It means 'to rent a garment'. In other words, the Christian church was in danger of becoming 'an unsightly torn garment'.

And the same could be said to be happening today in the Anglican Church, with our current focus upon women being ordained to the episcopacy and homosexuality. Despite being known as a "broad' church, the Anglican church is in danger of becoming 'an unsightly torn garment'.

ooOOOoo

Whilst there is little you and I can do about such a threat, except to keep ourselves informed so that our prayers for the leaders of the church may be relevant, we can at least ensure that our local church is not torn apart by disunity.

After all, unity begins where we are. It demands tolerance and understanding towards those with whom we may disagree. It demands that we work together to resolve our differences in an amicable way. It demands that we respect each other. Above all, it demands that whilst being true to ourselves, we are also true to the One who has called us to follow Him and live in communion with him and each other within the church, which is his body on earth today.

So, like St Paul: 'l appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no division among you, but you be united in the same mind and purpose.'

Only then, will the church cease to be seen as an 'unsightly torn garment', and become a garment that others will wish to put on.