I’m a 51 year old (Episcopal*) priest (ordained for 21 years), wondering if it is possible to salvage TheEpiscopalChurch as a viable Christian entity and, perhaps more importantly in the present circumstances, striving to present Anglicanism as the (or even a) true and viable expression of western Orthodox Christianity. To get an idea of how I struggle with this, a friend recently nick-named me “Fr. Hosea,” which pretty much sums up my concerns… The very first thing God said to Hosea explains how Hosea’s unlikely marriage to Gomer is the same as His relationship with Israel: “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry, and have children of harlotry; for [the Episcopal Church] commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord” (Hos. 1:2).
Two quotes to illustrate my point:
“The first and burning question is, naturally, whether the Anglican Communion in anything like its present form can survive at all.” Anglican Bishop Stephen Neill, Anglicanism, Fourth Edition, Oxford University Press, New York, 1977, p. 388.
And where will I ever be able to say “I die in the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith, professed by the whole Church, before the disunion of East and West; and, more particularly, in the Communion of the Church of England, as it stands distinguished from both Papal and Protestant innovation, and adheres to the Doctrine of the Cross”? [Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells; Non-Juror (1637-1711)]
[*I once thought well of this term, "Episcopal." And when "Protestant" was officially demoted from the name, I imagined it to be a step forward. It seems however, "Episcopal" has come to be understood whatever the speaker imagines it to mean (in the grand tradtion of Alice in Wonderland: “When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.”) It would appear that everyone is free to say whatever they think it means--which is the very nature of the problem.]
