It appears increasingly likely that there will be a schism between the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion, the umbrella under which the Episcopal Church is organized. From the Washington Times:
Episcopalians passed a resolution expressing “regret” for consecrating a homosexual bishop in 2003, but not “repentance” as many of the world’s Anglican archbishops have urged.
The resolution that apologized to other Anglicans for not taking into account “the impact of our actions” was passed the same day as the newly elected presiding bishop played up the divisions within worldwide Anglicanism by saying homosexuality is not a sin.
Meanwhile yesterday, a key conservative bishop responded to the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori by asking the worldwide head of the Anglican Communion for “alternate oversight” under a foreign archbishop who holds the traditional church teaching on homosexuality and female ordination.
When the Episcopal Church ordained openly gay Rev. Gene Robinson (who left his wife and children to live with his male lover) as a bishop, there were some faithful congregations that petitioned African bishops to formally lead them in faith. Those calls for relief from the oppression of apostate bishops continue. Again from the Washington Times:
Meanwhile, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, which opposes women’s ordination, appealed to Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury for an alternative to Bishop Schori of Nevada, who was chosen Sunday as the denomination’s new presiding bishop.
Their request, for “immediate alternative primatial oversight and pastoral care,” asks Archbishop Williams to provide a substitute male archbishop for Fort Worth’s 18,000 Episcopalians. If granted, it would be unprecedented in the 70-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion.
Fort Worth Bishop Jack Leo Iker said that Canterbury had acknowledged receiving his request and that he was confident it would be granted.
”If a congregation can get a substitute bishop if they have a substitute in the event of a dispute with their diocesan bishop, why can’t a diocese?” he said in an interview. The choice of Bishop Schori to head the U.S. church “was an in-your-face gesture to the entire Anglican Communion.”
The election of Bishop Schori is in itself a point of contention with the Anglican Communion, in that the ordination of women is viewed as invalid by many within the greater church.
The issue is that of authority. If there is no absolute authority, then there can be no discipline and schisms will continue as new issues arrive. Without authority and authentic teaching, interpretations of Scripture become opinions and subject to endless fracturing. The truth becomes a matter of politics and “fellowship.”
A nice summary of papal authority in the Catholic Church can be found here and here. I believe that Christ understands the nature of fracture within the Christian faith and organized his mystical body on Earth under the authority of Peter, his successors and his faithful bishops.
