c. 2008 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) I doubt that much sleep was lost, in heaven or on earth, when the tiny Episcopal Diocese of Quincy, Ill., recently voted to secede from the national Episcopal Church for being too liberal.
With 1,800 members scattered over a large area bordering the Mississippi River, the diocese has long been a recalcitrant outpost of the fading Anglo-Catholic wing of the Episcopal Church. Its stern refusals _ No to women as priests, No to homosexuals, No to theological diversity _ have played poorly in Peoria.
Its 24 congregations have an average membership of 75, far below the 400 needed for economic viability, and far below, for example, the Diocese of Connecticut’s 368 members per congregation. At perhaps 0.2 percent, its local market share is well below the 1 percent that Episcopal congregations normally achieve. Its 7 percent decline in membership since 2006 is the worst among Episcopal dioceses in its region.
Even so, Quincy’s debate over leaving the national denomination was illuminating.
With the nation caught up in its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, focusing a church convention on denominational politics showed an odd detachment from reality. Unemployment is up some 30 percent in Peoria. Housing starts are down by half from a year ago. Governments in Illinois are slashing services. With Detroit imploding and farmers struggling, people are watching Caterpillar Corp., the area’s major employer, not a fringe church’s opinions on sexuality.
Quincy’s debate shows an odd detachment from the gospel, too. The debate’s final speaker is quoted as saying, “We need to make a choice. Is Jesus Christ our Savior or not?” Another speaker said, “We feel the Episcopal Church has been on a fast, major drift away from scriptural authority and historic Christian teaching.”
Jesus, of course, said nothing about homosexuality, ordination rules or church structures. An estimated two-thirds of his teachings concerned wealth and property and our need to be more generous and sacrificial. (Watch for the next battle in western Illinois over who owns the seceding congregations’ property.)
If a church wanted to walk the walk of Jesus as Savior, it wouldn’t be debating sexuality. It would be helping people to deal with economic deprivation and to correct the values that led to this morass. It would promote community and sacrifice.
A church that truly accepted the authority of Scripture would know that God “hates and despises your festivals” and condemns those who live “at ease” and exploit others. It would know that the more ancient Israel became effete and self-focused, the more God welcomed invading Assyrians and Chaldeans.
A truly evangelical church would embrace all of Scripture and not just cherry-pick the few verses that confirm a cultural stance on homosexuality. It would risk seeing why Jesus was rejected by the religious establishment and stop seeking to be the religious establishment.
A church truly concerned about “historic Christian teaching” would look at Christian history _ the gap between Jesus’ circles of inclusion and the early Church’s hierarchy and exclusion; the gap between Jesus’ call for peace and Church-sponsored wars; the gap between Jesus’ humility and prelates’ pride _ and conclude that, yes, perhaps it’s time to take a fresh look at what they claim and what they are.
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)
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