c. 2000 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) In an unprecedented move, a group of Anglican bishops consecrated two American priests as bishops at a Singapore ceremony Saturday (Jan. 29) in an effort by traditionalists to “lead the Episcopal Church back to its biblical foundations.”
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, leader of the American arm of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said he was “appalled by this irregular action.”
Because the ordinations were performed by bishops they are valid but because they were performed outside of the United States they are considered irregular and unlikely to be recognized by the Episcopal Church. In recent history, the closest similar incident occurred in 1974, when a retired bishop of the U.S. church ordained a group of women deacons as priests in what were also valid but irregular ordinations.
The international group of Anglican archbishops and bishops consecrated the Rev. Charles H. Murphy III, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pawley’s Island, S.C., and the Very Rev. John H. Rodgers Jr., dean emeritus of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa., at Singapore’s St. Andrew’s Cathedral.
Murphy is the leader of First Promise, an organization that began in 1997 with an aim to reform the Episcopal Church, which it believes has grown much more open to the ordination of sexually active gays and the blessing of same-sex unions.
First Promise issued a news release saying the goal of the consecration is to address a 30-year membership decline in the denomination.
“The sending of these bishops back to the United States is offered as an interim step in an ongoing effort to lead the Episcopal Church back to its biblical foundations,” the organization stated. “It is an action to re-establish the unity that has been violated by the unrebuked ridicule and denial of basic Christian teaching.”
The action also was intended to get the attention of Anglican archbishops as they prepare to meet in Lisbon, Portugal, in March.
“This crisis of decline is a crisis of the Christian faith that has left the Episcopal Church divided,” said Rodgers, a leader of the Association of Anglican Congregations on Mission. “Our calling is to minister to those congregations who believe that the authority of Scripture and the historic creeds are central to our faith, conduct and unity as Anglicans.”
The bishops intend to start Anglican churches in communities where they say the Episcopal Church has “little faithful witness.”
“We are committed to lead the church, not leave it,” Murphy said.
Griswold responded strongly to First Promise’s comments in a letter to Episcopal bishops about the consecration, which was performed by archbishops from Rwanda and Southeast Asia.
“I am appalled by this irregular action and even more so by the purported `crisis’ that has been largely fomented by them and others and which bears very little resemblance to the church we actually know, which is alive and well and faithful,” Griswold wrote in the Jan. 31 letter.
Griswold added that although there are “significant disagreements among us regarding human sexuality,” he hopes the “unsettling” Singapore action will galvanize Episcopal bishops to work more toward unity.
The American presiding bishop also sent a copy of the letter to his fellow primates in the Anglican Communion along with an additional letter calling the consecration “singularly unhelpful.” He urged the Anglican leaders to not let internal debate within the Episcopal Church become the main topic of their upcoming meeting in Lisbon.
“Let us not be deflected from the larger concerns of genocide, crushing poverty side by side with inordinate affluence, and the dangerous fundamentalism _ both within Islam and our own Christian community _ which threatens to turn our God of compassion into an idol of wrath,” Griswold wrote.
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