Fact and fiction in public debate

Father Jake has posted and commented on some excellent responses from episcopalians in Pittsburgh to recent debate about the Episcopal Church in the USA, its General Convention and the tension in the Anglican Communion. These responses are attempts to respond to accusations levelled against the Episcopal Church that misrepresent what really happened. In particular, these two issues (of the acceptability of women as priests and bishops in the wider Anglican Communion, and the failure of a motion that mentioned Jesus’ position as the one way to God) struck me.

Claim: That only two or three of the autonomous churches of the Anglican Communion accept women as bishops.
Fact: A chart provided by the Anglican Communion Secretariat in 2003 lists three autonomous provinces of the Anglican Communion (The Episcopal Church and the Churches in New Zealand and Canada) as having chosen and consecrated women as bishops. However, Brazil, Central America, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Scotland, Southern African, and the Sudan ordain women as priests and have no canonical bars to women bishops. The Church of England is in the process of amending its canons to allow women to become bishops, and Australia very narrowly defeated a similar measure at its last Synod…
Claim: General Convention proved its lack of orthodoxy by defeating a resolution that declared an “unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved” and “the solemn responsibility placed upon us to share Christ with all persons when we hear His words, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.’”
Fact: The discussion about this resolution pointed out that the church had already committed to these concepts when it approved the Book of Common Prayer and Catechism, and, more importantly, raised objections to another section of the resolution that insisted on a specific (substitutionary) interpretation of the Atonement, noting that it was not in the Anglican tradition to insist on a single interpretation of basic doctrines.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 1:02pm on 12 July 2006
Category: Faith, Links