Episcopalians Vote to Deny that Jesus Is the Only Savior     6/28/2006
By Robert Knight and Molly Hamrick

Liberal woman chosen as presiding bishop; Presbyterians vote against measures to hold churches to Biblical morality.

Episcopal Church leaders at the National Convention in Columbus, Ohio, last week voted to seat a liberal woman as presiding bishop and they refused to affirm Jesus Christ as the only Savior of humanity. They also voted down a resolution halting the appointment of homosexual bishops and blessing homosexual unions.

Meanwhile, delegates to the national convention of the Presbyterian Church USA, meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, voted to leave it up to individual churches whether to have openly homosexual pastors and to perform homosexual ceremonies.

At the Episcopal convention, Canon Dr. Kendall Harmon, a principal conservative in the denomination, fought for a resolution that would constitute a “reaffirmation of what some have called 'the scandal of particularity' of the Cross.”

The resolution was hotly debated, with one member even evoking the Nazis’ genocide of the Jews.

“This type of language was used in the 1920s and 1930s to alienate the type of people who were executed. It was called the Holocaust. I understand the intent, but I ask you to allow the discharge to stay,” said the Rev. Eugene C. McDowell, a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Canon Theologian for the Diocese of North Carolina, as quoted on Virtue Online, a conservative Episcopal Web site, on June 21.

Judy Mayo from the Diocese of Fort Worth supported Dr. Harmon’s resolution. “My friends, this is a church convention, and this is the very essence of our faith,” she said. “This may be the most important thing we deal with at this entire convention. … Surely we can say together that Jesus Christ is Lord. And if we can't, we have no reason to be here.”

But liberals won the day as the House of Deputies voted overwhelmingly against the resolution that would affirm Jesus Christ as the “only name by which any person may be saved.”

At the same convention, clergy and lay leaders voted against a resolution that would deny ordination to homosexuals. They also elected as Presiding Bishop a woman, Katharine Jefferts Schori, to lead the denomination for the next 12 years.

Rector John Yates of Virginia’s historic and large parish The Falls Church pointed out that Jefferts Schori has served as Bishop of Nevada, with a flock about the same size as the Falls Church alone. Ordained for 12 years, she has never served as rector of a church.

Jefferts Schori preached earlier in the week about trusting in “our Mother Jesus [who] gives birth to a new creation.” Jefforts Schori, a Nevada bishop who supported the effort to seat openly homosexual New Hampshire Bishop Vicky Imogene “Gene” Robinson (a man), is considered a leading advocate for homosexual clergy and the blessing of homosexual unions in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America (ECUSA).

When asked by a CNN interviewer whether homosexuality was a sin, she replied, "I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. ... Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender.”

Hans Zeiger, a correspondent for the Webzine Virtue Online Digest, run by conservative Episcopalian David Virtue, wrote, “With Jefferts Schori as the leader-to-be of the Episcopal Church, it seems that the church will move beyond gender-inclusive language to transgender-inclusive language.”

According to Virtue On Line, ECUSA’s decision to name Jefferts Schori as presiding bishop had immediate repercussions, all the way to Australia.

Dr. Mark Thompson, president of the Anglican Church League in Sydney, had this to say:

The Episcopal Church of the United States of America, already under a cloud following the election and consecration of a practicing homosexual as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, has now elected a woman to be its Presiding Bishop.

… This was done in the full knowledge that such a move would further outrage those who are struggling to maintain biblical ministry within the Anglican Communion, and especially within the American churches. Already it is reported that one American diocese has appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Panel of Reference for alternative primatial oversight and pastoral care. It seems clear that this new departure from biblical teaching will only further deepen the rift within the Anglican Communion.

Why should this be of interest to us here in Sydney?

The Episcopal Church of the USA is an object lesson in what happens when our decision-making is not shaped by the teaching of Scripture. Unless we are informed about what God has to say on such matters as how men and women should serve each other in Christian congregations, human sexuality more generally, or the unique value and dignity of human life even prior to birth, we are left vulnerable to powerful rhetoric and the attitudes of the world at large, a world which stands opposed to the teaching of Scripture.

The Episcopal House of Deputies, which convened for the General Convention, voted on June 20 to continue to allow homosexual bishops and the sanctioning of same-sex unions.

At the convention, 843 clergy and lay delegates defeated Resolution A161, which would have stopped same-sex “blessings” and the election of homosexual bishops for at least the next three years. The resolution also included an apology to homosexual Episcopalians who would be “hurt by these decisions.”

Later, the delegates approved another resolution called B033 at the request of departing Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, who warned of a schism with the rest of the wWorldwide Anglican Communion if they failed to address the problem with homosexual bishops.

That resolution, which was approved by the House of Bishops with a voice vote and by approximately 72.9 percent of the 111 dioceses in the House of Deputies, states,

On the Election of Bishops

Resolved, the House of Deputies concurring, that the 75th General Convention receive and embrace The Windsor Report's invitation to engage in a process of healing and reconciliation; and be it further Resolved, that this Convention call upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.

The Windsor Report is a document solidifying the churches under the Anglican Communion. The resolution does not halt the advance of homosexuality but rather compels each church to consult the wider Communion when making significant decisions.

Presbyterians Opt for Autonomy

The Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) national assembly voted on June 20 to allow congregations to decide individually on the issue of homosexual clergy and same-sex unions.

The 217th General Assembly voted 298-221 in favor of “authoritative interpretation” of the denominational constitution. This decision does not officially eliminate the PCUSA ordination standards established in 1997 that require fidelity for married clergy and chastity for single clergy. But it lifts that standard’s authority over local congregations. Individual churches, in effect, will be free to celebrate homosexuality and to overlook clerics’ pre-marital or extra-marital sex.

“It amounts to de facto local option, or local license, on ordination standards,” writes Robert Gagnon, a New Testament professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and one of the elder commissioners at the General Assembly.

“When the constitution is set aside and something mandatory is reduced to something optional, it destroys the constitution.” Gagnon said.

Attendance Drops at Liberal Denominations

The Episcopal Church has been losing members for several years. The Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism cites an “alarming decline in attendance.” Between 2002 and 2003, average Sunday attendance fell by 23,000. Between 2003 and 2004, average Sunday attendance fell by another 27,000, to a mere 795,765. President of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies, the Rev. George L.W. Werner, reported that the Episcopal Church claimed approximately 3 million members in the United States at its high water mark in the 1960s, although Gallup reported figures as high as 5 million. A recent Gallup survey shows that Episcopalians are the least likely to actually attend church.

Membership in the Presbyterian Church (USA) dropped by 48,474, or 2 percent, in 2005, the most significant decline since 1975. This left the country’s largest Presbyterian denomination with 2,313,662 members in 2005. Membership has steadily declined by at least 1 percent every year since 1966.

In 1973, the denomination split, with the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA—originally called the National Presbyterian Church), which had a membership of 330,182 in 2004. The PCA opposes ordaining open homosexuals and the blessing of homosexual unions.

Robert Knight is Director of the Culture & Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America. Molly Hamrick graduated recently from Bryan College with a degree in Political Communications, and is an intern for CFI in the Ronald Reagan Memorial Internship Program at CWA.

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