The former Archbishop of Canterbury is urging Presbyterians in Scotland
not to split over gay ministers. Dr. Rowan Williams is counseling the
Kirk to stay together.
The
Church of Scotland has been decisively shaped by the Scottish
Reformation and traces its roots back to the beginnings of Christianity
in Scotland, but its identity is principally shaped by the Reformation
of 1560.
Its current pledged membership is about 9% of the Scottish
population-though according to the 2001 national census, 42% of the
Scottish population claim some form of allegiance to it.
Williams
is urging evangelical congregations within the Church of Scotland not
to "walk away" over the ordination of gay ministers. Some 50
congregations have said they might.
VOL: And Williams did such a
sterling job holding the Anglican Communion together that he quit 9
years before he had to precisely because he could not see, or refused to
see, the enormous damage he and his homosexual views and its attending
sexualities are doing to Western Anglicanism while the Global South
firmly aligned itself against him to the point that many of its leaders
would not even be seen in the same room with him and US Presiding Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori.
The former Anglican leader was so
conflicted over homosexuality that his schizophrenic views brought about
realignment in the communion and the formation of FCA/GAFCON, forcing
him into the liberal/revisionist camp from which he could never
extricate himself. He drove Global South Primates crazy over his
wobbling views on sodomy.
Early on, following his elevation to
the highest post in the Anglican Communion, Williams made it clear that
his personal views on homosexuality would be kept separate from his
public stance saying he would uphold the Church's received teaching that
homosexual behavior could not be condoned.
However, that bipolar
position was unsustainable. The Global South never bought it. Under
Williams, an already divided Anglican Communion became even more
divided. He proposed a Covenant to keep the communion together. It now
lies in tatters. The long struggle to prevent a schism over women and
gay bishops and same-sex unions has gone badly, making realignment of
the Anglican Communion inevitable. His Affirming Catholicism failed to
take hold in the communion. His speeches and sermons, couched in riddles
and convoluted language structures, only frustrated orthodox Anglicans.
The
77-million-strong worldwide Communion had been threatened with division
for several years. Progressives, liberals and revisionists were pushing
the boundaries on sexuality and women bishops, while conservatives
pushed back forming new alliances. Williams's book, The Body's Grace,
only cemented orthodox Anglicans claims that he was truthfully on the
"other side" on sexuality issues. Williams never fully embraced the
Biblical prohibitions on sex outside of marriage between a man and a
woman.
His prevarications and failure to safeguard his Anglo-Catholic wing of his church resulted in the Pope offering a safe harbor Ordinariate
for traditionalists who could no longer stomach the theological
innovations of the Church of England and, more specifically, the
Episcopal Church. Ironically, a former Episcopal bishop was selected to
lead the worldwide movement for Anglicans wishing to become Roman
Catholic while retaining some of their liturgical traditions.
One African Anglican leader hammered Williams' leadership.
In
a blistering attack, not seen in modern memory, the Metropolitan and
Primate of the Anglican Province of Nigeria ripped the Archbishop of
Canterbury saying his sudden resignation announcement would leave behind
a Communion in tatters, with highly polarized, bitterly factionalized,
issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, and human
sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness.
Archbishop Nicholas D.
Okoh noted that when Dr. Rowan Williams took over the leadership of the
Anglican Communion in 2002, it was a happy family. He is leaving it with
decisions and actions that are stumbling blocks to oneness, evangelism,
and mission all around the Anglican world. Okoh went so far as to say
that it was like being "crucified under Pontius Pilate".
The
leader of the world's most populace Anglican Province - over 20 million -
said the lowest ebb of this degeneration came in 2008, when there were
two "Lambeth" Conferences -- one in the UK, and an alternative one,
GAFCON in Jerusalem -- that saw more than one third of the Anglican
Communion's bishops as "no-shows" at Canterbury. The trend continued
recently when many Global South Primates decided not to attend the last
Primates' meeting in Dublin, Ireland.
Now, speaking on the eve of
a visit to Scotland as the new chairman of Christian Aid, Williams said
he understands that some congregations might threaten to break away if
the Kirk's General Assembly votes to allow the ordination of gay
ministers later this month, but warned against such a divisive move.
"The
impulse to walk away, while deeply understandable, is not a very
constructive one," he said. "The things which bind Christians together
are almost always more profound and significant for themselves and the
world than the things that divide them. When you do walk away from other
Christians you are in effect saying well, either I can do without you
or I've got nothing to learn from you. That can't be good for us. You
may disagree, you may think somebody else is tacitly perverse, but you
might want to hang in there with them."
Williams' remarks after
Scotland on Sunday revealed that up to 50 congregations could leave
the Church of Scotland if ordaining openly gay ministers is passed. Two
congregations and a number of ministers have already left over the
issue, which they believe goes against Biblical teachings.
VOL:
So, after a decade of disastrous leadership of the Anglican Communion,
Williams now seeks to lecture the Kirk on what they should do. Oh the
hubris of it all.
Although he said it would be "inappropriate to
comment on a sister church with its own issues", Williams said the
church community was part of a wider family and there was a case for
keeping it together. "We are stuck with each other, in a very important
way. If we believe as I do that God calls us into the church, rather
than choosing to sign up, then God's calling us to find our way in the
company of these people however obnoxious some of them may seem. You
don't agree with all the members of your family, but it's a family."
VOL:
We are not "stuck with each other." The formation of FCA/GAFCON, the
formation of the ACNA in North America, the intrusion of CANA in North
America, the CEEC and multiple other Anglican jurisdictions is living
proof that we are not stuck with each other. It is further proof that
heresy is worse than schism. There are multiple New Testament
passages that speak of separating oneself from open unbelief and the
need to discipline erring church leaders. Why did he never speak up when
New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham got the ball rolling in 2002 by
issuing a rite for blessing same-sex relationships. And we must not
forget that in the OT, God divorced himself from Israel for the purpose
of bringing about repentance and reconciliation. Williams never once
talked about active homosexuals needing to repent of their behavior.
Williams
flip flops continue when he said he is "not convinced" of the case for
gay marriage, having opposed legislation to introduce it in England, but
added, "Because we are all breaking up over issues of sexuality these
days, can we all stop and think why it is, this issue, sex is the great
divider, given that we have lived with radically different approaches
over the years, for example to pacifism."
VOL: Because scripture
is abundantly clear that "fornicators, adulterers and homosexuals will
not inherit the Kingdom." (I Cor. 6: 9 -11). Ya think? Pacifism and just
war theories are not remotely in the same category. Christians can
disagree on the latter because their salvation is not at stake.
To
demonstrate how conflicted he was over homosexuality, in 2003 Williams
approved the appointment of Canon Jeffrey John, the gay Dean of St.
Albans, as suffragan bishop of Reading, but later backed down in the
face of a conservative revolt. Now the openly homosexual dean who is in
line for Bishop of Durham has threatened to sue his employer, the Church
of England, under the Equality Act 2008, if it fails to make him a
bishop in fairly short order. This is what happens when you have no
clear stated position. The other side pushes their agenda to the point
that if the orthodox don't cave, they are accused of homophobia and hate
and ultimately vilified, sued and lose their properties. Look at what
has happened over the last 30 years in the Episcopal Church.
Williams'
prevarications only weakened his position not strengthened it to the
point that the Global South, who are the majority of the Anglican
Communion, eventually came to despise his authority and walked away from
him at Lambeth and again in Dublin.
Andrew Goddard's sympathetic book His Legacy
on Williams described his views as "expansive" based on the notion "I
have no need of you" and looking for the "authentic, genuine and good"
failed to deal with liberals like those in the Episcopal Church who
berated him for not doing enough to promote the cause of gays and
lesbians. At the same time he viewed conservatives as narrowly fixated
on one issue, lacking in expansiveness and generosity. In the end
conservatives had no use for him, with one noted Anglican theologian Dr.
J.I. Packer calling for his resignation.
But the Law of
non-contradiction, one of the basic laws in classical logic, states that
something cannot be both true and not true at the same time. Either
homosexuality is good and right in the eyes of God or it is not.
Williams never resolved that to the satisfaction of both sides, and he
left office a failed leader.
His speaking up in Scotland about
the issue only undermines Archbishop Justin Welby, an Evangelical, who
probably wishes Williams would just shut up. The truth is it is none of
Williams' business what the Kirk decides; he should mind his own
business. His views on homosexuality nearly destroyed the Anglican
Communion. One hopes Welby can put it back together again.