Christianity

Tom Wright on ECUSA Declaration of Independence

The Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA) has effectively declared its independence from the worldwide Anglican Communion. Yesterday, the House of Bishops of ECUSA voted overwhelmingly to allow practicing homosexuals to be consecrated and ordained. In taking this step, they knowingly defied the rest of the communion. Read about it here.

Bishop Tom Wright has written forcefully denouncing the move in the Times online, and his remarks are worth noting. He writes:

‘Both the bishops and deputies (lay and clergy) of TEC knew exactly what they were doing. They were telling the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other “instruments of communion” that they were ignoring their plea for a moratorium on consecrating practising homosexuals as bishops. . . They were formalising the schism they initiated six years ago when they consecrated as bishop a divorced man in an active same-sex relationship, against the Primates’ unanimous statement that this would “tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level”. In Windsor’s language, they have chosen to “walk apart”.’

Bishop Wright goes on to affirm what the Bible teaches about human sexuality:

‘Paganism ancient and modern has always found this ethic, and this belief, ridiculous and incredible. But the biblical witness is scarcely confined . . . to a few verses in St Paul. Jesus’s own stern denunciation of sexual immorality would certainly have carried, to his hearers, a clear implied rejection of all sexual behaviour outside heterosexual monogamy. This isn’t a matter of “private response to Scripture” but of the uniform teaching of the whole Bible, of Jesus himself, and of the entire Christian tradition.’

6 Comments

  • Derek Taylor

    Good for Tom Wright. His voice on this topic has been quite muted in the past, so this is helpful and significant.
    If any Christians of any stripe had questions about Bishop Schiori, her actions and statements over the course of the last month have certainly made it almost impossible but to view her as a false shepherd and teacher.

  • Larry S

    As an Anabaptist, a not a Calvinist, I’ve been impacted by Wright and his biblical theology (as apposed to systematics) which isn’t shy of dealing with the biblical materials regardless of reformational ‘holy cows.’

    Regardless of which branch from the Christian tree upon which we hang, imo we should embrace a biblical scholar who engages the material with the depth and clarity Wright displays. Merely because those immersed in systematics don’t always like (or perhaps understand) him imo he’s a trustworthy brother.

  • Brian Krieger

    Mohler also wrote on this (just today, though). It’s worth the read, but he quoted the ECUSA presiding bishop from TIME magazine some time back after her (the bishop’s) election:

    “We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.”

    I agree, Derek, it’s great to hear Wright speak up on the topic!

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