Thursday 13 September 2007

Bishop Harold Miller: Not going where TEC is heading

(Ed: Bishop Harold Miller, of Down and Dromore, is one of the nicest and most easy-going people you could hope to meet, an Evangelical Charismatic of many years episcopal experience. So when he writes of how The Episcopal Church is going off the doctrinal rails, it is time to sit up and listen.)

[...] we need to be aware that change is incremental. It is only noticed after a period of time. I do not say this to ‘damn’ the Episcopal Church. Indeed, my own diocese is in a very happy link relationship with a diocese of the Episcopal Church. But changes are happening, and changes which are not peripheral, but central to our identity as Anglicans and indeed as Christians. The issue which we face, as has so often been pointed out, is not essentially one of sexuality but one of authority and doctrine. In so many ways, parts of the Episcopal Church have been losing deep aspects of their identity. If God is not Father, Jesus is not Lord, the Son is not unique, baptism is not necessary, the creeds are optional, repentance and sin are dated concepts and the atonement is marginalized or even rejected, where do we go from here? The faith remaining will be a very different faith from the Christian faith once delivered to the saints - and I, for one, am not going there! Read more
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is absolutely crucial - this is what the whole problem is all about.
Disputes over sexuality are just a symptom of something much deeper.
If ECUSA took a liberal view on homosexuality but was in all other respects orthodox, I would disagree with them - but I could live with that. But how can we be in communion with a church that denies that Jesus is Lord, cannot say the prayer that Jesus himself taught, regards Jesus as in no sense unique, regards the atonement as either unnecessary or barbaric,sees the bible as interesting but no more interesting than the Koran or the Hindu Vedas, and rejects baptism and the creeds out of hand?

Unknown said...

In case anyone is wondering, Fr Edmund is in Ilford. (See the posting policy.)