Florida Bishop Defies Episcopal Church
HeadThe consecration of a new bishop becomes
the latest battleground between Frank Griswold and the American Anglican
Council.By Douglas
LeBlanc | posted 10/10/2003
The American Anglican Council's conference, "A Place to
Stand," ended on Thursday with one bishop describing his resistance of the
Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, and with 2,700 people pledging other
forms of future resistance.
Bishop Stephen Jecko of the Diocese of Florida announced
Thursday that he will reschedule his successor's consecration rather than
allow what he described as a media circus. Jecko has been in conflict with
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold on whether Griswold should preside at the
consecration.
Griswold had planned to consecrate Samuel John Howard in
Florida—generally a conservative diocese—only one day before consecrating Gene
Robinson (the Episcopal Church's first openly gay man to be elected a bishop)
in New Hampshire.
Griswold sees those back-to-back consecrations as symbolic of
his pastoral care for the entire Episcopal Church, across theological
differences. Jecko said Griswold's actions belie any claim to such
comprehensive pastoral care.
Jecko read aloud from a letter to Griswold, telling
conference participants that it was his third request that Griswold not attend
the consecration. The service was scheduled to occur at St. Joseph's Roman
Catholic Church in Jacksonville. But Bishop Victor Galeone of the Catholic
Diocese of St. Augustine withdrew that welcome because of Griswold's media
remarks about the supposed limited knowledge of Scripture's authors regarding
the nature of homosexuality.
Jecko's letter did not specify a new date for the
consecration.
Jecko, who read the letter from a laptop computer, stressed
that his wording could change slightly when he circulated it via the Internet
and print.
Jecko's voice was steady but pointed. "Your self-perception
as a reconciler to the entire Episcopal Church is compromised and no longer
tenable," he wrote to Griswold.
Jecko wrote that Griswold must live with the consequences of
his support for Robinson's consecration and for blessing same-sex couples.
"The authority of the Scriptures, not merely their
interpretation, is the issue for Christians," Jecko wrote.
Jecko said he asks a question of all potential clergy under
his care—"Do you look good on wood?"—to convey the high costs (sometimes
including martyrdom) of Christian discipleship.
Regarding his own answer to that question, Jecko deadpanned,
"I have a feeling I'm about to find out."
Griswold did not respond immediately to Jecko's letter,
though he did offer a general statement on the AAC conference.
"Baptism establishes an indissoluble bond between those who
are baptized and the Risen Christ," Griswold worte. "So too baptism binds us
together in such a way that we cannot say to one another 'I have no need of
you.'
"It therefore concerns me deeply when Christians use
inflammatory rhetoric when speaking of one another or issue ultimatums. In
such a climate, mutual pursuit of ways to build up rather than tear down is
made more difficult, and the vast deposit of faith upon which we all agree is
obscured."
"Can this church be birthed?"
During a closing
ceremony filled with dramatic speeches, AAC president and executive director
David Anderson further explained why the group declined Griswold's plans to
send four observers to the conference.
Anderson, like Jecko, read his letter aloud. Anderson's
letter explained that the conference would welcome any observers who would,
like all other participants except for news media, sign the AAC's founding
document, also called "A Place to Stand."
"In a way we still left the door open," Anderson said. "Is
there no one on Executive Council [the church's board of directors] who could
in good conscience sign such a basic statement of Christian faith? Is there no
one at church headquarters?"
Participants roared with cheers and laughter at Anderson's
point.
Anderson repeatedly used the phrase "I have a vision" about a
church that places top priority on the Great Commission, that respects the
consciences of those who oppose ordaining women as priests (but also
recognizes ordained women), and that does not compel congregations to use only
the most recent Book of Common Prayer.
"Can this church be birthed?" he asked. "In one sense it is
here, right now, in this building."
Anderson repeated a workshop's earlier advice that
congregations learn the legal history of their property, prepare for possible
legal battles over property, and "build in disincentives" to discourage
hostile takeovers by their bishops.
"Don't ask, Can we do this? Ask, How can we do this?" he
said. "You are standing at the fulcrum of history. Press forward. Press hard.
Maximum leverage occurs just before the stick breaks."
Anderson added, amid cheers, "This is your hour. This is your
destiny. This is your church. We are the legitimate Episcopal Church of our
fathers and mothers."
Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh guided participants
through affirming each point of the conference's public statement, "A Place to Stand: A Call to Action."
In affirming the seven-point document, participants:
- Proclaimed the Great Commandment and the Great Commission
as their life's highest calling.
- Repudiated General Convention's approval of Gene Robinson,
a noncelibate gay man, as a bishop and of blessing same-sex couples.
- Repented of their part in the Episcopal Church's
sins.
- Called on Episcopal leaders to "repent of and reverse the
unbiblical and schismatic actions of the General Convention."
- Affirmed the 1998 Lambeth Conference's teaching on
sexuality and marriage, which said that homosexual behavior is incompatible
with Scripture.
- Pledged to "redirect our financial resources, to the
fullest extent possible, toward biblically orthodox mission and
ministry."
- Appealed to the primates of the Anglican Communion to
discipline those bishops "who, by their actions, have departed from biblical
faith and order"; guide the realignment of Anglicanism; encourage orthodox
bishops who help besieged congregations outside of their borders; and
"support isolated and beleaguered parishes [congregations] and individuals
in their life and witness as faithful Anglican Christians."
In a question-and-answer style similar to the Episcopal
Church's baptismal covenant, Duncan repeatedly asked participants, "Do you so
affirm?"
"I do," participants said in a collective voice that echoed
in the rafters of the Wyndham Anatole hotel's Trinity Hall.
Bishop Benjamin Kwashi of the Diocese of Jos, Nigeria, donned
an oversized white cowboy hat before offering some closing thoughts to the
conference.
The hat, Kwashi joked, indicated that he was a Texas
millionaire. "My currency is not dollars," he said. "My currency is the gospel
of Jesus Christ."
Kwashi called on conference participants to invest the gospel
in their children and grandchildren and to make their churches "accessible to
the lowest of the low."
And before delivering a passionate, tearful benediction of
several minutes, he offered a challenge: "Will you be humble enough to come
and study in Africa? Will you send an ordinand to spend a year with an African
bishop?"
Douglas LeBlanc is an associate editor for Christianity
Today.
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