The need for clarity

Magnificent article from an Episcopal priest who now regrets his vote to confirm Katherine Schori as Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church.

So Much in a Few Words
By James B. Simons
rector of St. Michael’s of The Valley Church, Ligonier, Pa.
Jan 2, 2007
The Living Church Foundation

" "Q. How many members of The Episcopal Church are there in this country?

A. About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise (sic), but Episcopalians tend to be better educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than other denominations."

New York Times Magazine. Sunday Nov. 19, 2006 The New York Times was lobbing soft balls to the new Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, when this exchange took place. The more I have thought about her answer to this simple question, the more I am convinced that in a single sentence the Presiding Bishop illustrates rather dramatically the crisis that faces The Episcopal Church. She does so in three ways.

First, she confirms our sense of cultural elitism. In an essay reflecting on his short sojourn into The Episcopal Church, Garrison Keillor described us as the “church in wing-tips, the church of the scotch and soda, worshipping God in extremely good taste.”

Apparently in this case, caricature is reality. We see ourselves as better than other Christians, more privileged, more enlightened. What’s even more amazing is that we are apparently willing to announce this publicly. “We’re better educated than other denominations” would seem to me to be in the class of statements such as “You look pregnant.” Even if it were true, why would you say it out loud, let alone to The New York Times?

I think the answer has to do with mistaking hubris for honesty.This statement is also a slap at our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion where the church is growing rapidly. The clear inference is that those in the global south are less educated and so they have more children, hence the enormous growth of those provinces. This understanding is of a whole cloth with The Episcopal Church’s continued insistence that we know better than the rest of the Communion about issues of sexuality and doctrine. We can dismiss the primitive musings of an uninformed, if growing, Communion. We are, after all, better educated.

Second, the statement illustrates the enormous denial of our church leadership regarding the denomination. People are leaving congregations, congregations are leaving dioceses, and dioceses are seeking a way to be Anglican without being Episcopalian. Even a cursory reading of the pages of this publication will reveal that controversies over issues of sexuality, biblical interpretation, and doctrine are among the primary issues causing this flight. ..."