Why We Left the Episcopal Church

The Rev. John Yates and Os Guinness explain why they left the Episcopal church in an article in today’s Washington Post. Yates and Guinness write:

“The core issue in why we left is not women’s leadership. It is not ‘Episcopalians against equality,’ as the headline on a recent Post op-ed by Harold Meyerson put it. It is not a ‘leftward’ drift in the church. It is not even primarily ethical — though the ordination of a practicing homosexual as bishop was the flash point that showed how far the repudiation of Christian orthodoxy had gone.

“The core issue for us is theological: the intellectual integrity of faith in the modern world. It is thus a matter of faithfulness to the lordship of Jesus, whom we worship and follow. The American Episcopal Church no longer believes the historic, orthodox Christian faith common to all believers. Some leaders expressly deny the central articles of the faith — saying that traditional theism is ‘dead,’ the incarnation is ‘nonsense,’ the resurrection of Jesus is a fiction, the understanding of the cross is ‘a barbarous idea,’ the Bible is ‘pure propaganda’ and so on. Others simply say the creed as poetry or with their fingers crossed.”

The authors accuse the Episcopal church in the U.S.A. of abandoning the fidelity, authority, continuity, credibility, and identity of the Christian faith. Thus they conclude:

“These are the outrages we protest. These are the infidelities that drive us to separate. These are the real issues to be debated. We remain Anglicans but leave the Episcopal Church because the Episcopal Church first left the historic faith. Like our spiritual forebears in the Reformation, ‘Here we stand. So help us God. We can do no other.'”

Read the rest of this article:
“Why We Left the Episcopal Church” – Rev. John Yates & Os Guinness (Washington Post)