In Advance Of Clergy Day

Lots of hand-wringing amongst too many in the larger Episcopal world over the”catholic” nature of church vis-a-vis staying/going.  Besides the fact of an exceptionally poor 

working definition of “catholic” I think it truly masks a lack of courage to act upon both biblical witness and conviction. 

Here’s a nice synopsis from the great Wolfhart Pannenberg on the very issue of “catholicity” and homosexuality.  We would do well to read, mark learn and inwardly disgest this prior to our diocesan clergy day this Thursday:

“If a church were to let itself be pushed to the point where it ceased to treat homosexual activity as a departure from the biblical norm, and recognized homosexual unions as a personal partnership of love equivalent to marriage, such a church would stand no longer on biblical ground but against the unequivocal witness of Scripture. A church that took this step would cease to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” (emphasis added)

Wolfhart Pannenberg, “Revelation and Homosexual Experience” Christianity Today (November 11, 1996).

Read it all.

So then, how in the wide, wide world of sports is the departure of a diocese or a local congregation from TEC – while remaining a part of the larger Anglican Communion – in anyway thought of as schismatic (except in the tortured rationalizations of the stay-at-all-costs crowd)?