What really happens at Bishop's Meetings

I always wondered about this...

Thanks to Dave Walker at CartoonChurch.com for enlightening us on these deep mysteries.

Archbishop Venables and works righteousness

I was sent this article from Episcopal Life this morning:

SOUTHERN CONE: Archbishop Venables responds to House of Bishops resolutions

For those of you who don't know Archbishop Venables, it will be quite clear from reading his response to the HOB resolutions that he is very conservative and has a literalist hermeneutic of Biblical interpretation. He has also been involved with the group of African bishops, led by Archbishop Peter Akinola, who have continued to violate diocesan boundaries under the guise of providing "pastoral oversight" to Episcopal congregations who disagree with our national church (which, I might add, is also a violation of the recommendations of the Windsor Report).

What caught my eye in his response was the following quote:

"We are concerned because the Church has always taught and understood that the content of belief and behaviour impacts salvation."

So the "content of belief and behaviour [emphasis added]" impacts salvation? Perhaps I've been studying at a Lutheran seminary too long or perhaps because I have always understood the Anglican Church as being of a reformed tradition, but doesn't this talk of our behaviour impacting our salvation smack of works righteousness theology? What happened to Jesus dying "once for all" as a "full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world?" (BCP, p. 334)

We are called as Christians to repentance and amendment of life, but not as a precondition to our salvation! "For all sinned and lack the glory of God" (Rom. 3.23) - including Archbishop Venables. If he can show me exactly where the Holy Scriptures list a hierarchy of which sins are worse than others in the eyes of God and which are going to impede my salvation, I'd love to see it.

Last time I read our Holy Eucharist Rite I service, it said:

"by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we, and all thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins ..." (BCP, p. 335)

Hmmm, no mention of our "behaviour" there.

Sie spracht die HOB

The House of Bishops has finished their meeting at Camp Allen and I, for one, salute them. After months of hand wringing over what our church would do post-Windsor, post-General Convention '06, post-Dromantine, post-Dar Es Salaam, we now have a statement that clearly says we are not willing to sacrifice the freedom of the generous orthodoxy which has characterized the Anglican way for some 500 years. Requiring the Episcopal Church to enact a "Primatial Pastoral Scheme" which would put our Church under the authority of a board made up dominantly of foreign bishops is absurd. No other church has ever been asked to submit to this kind of foreign oversight before and it is not the Anglican way.

Most certainly, the more conservative members of our Church need alternate pastoral oversight; however, we can, and should, work this through internally. I do not believe our PB is unreasonable and she is aware that there are those who cannot accept her leadership either because of her theology or her gender. We do not need the incursion of foreign bishops deciding what we should or should not do in the American context. What might that look like if we demanded a "Primatial Pastoral Scheme" be put into place for the GLBT community persecuted in the Church of Nigeria? Can you imagine Archbishop Akinola accepting that for the Nigerian church? How about we nominate +Gene Robinson to chair that "Pastoral Scheme?" Wouldn't that be received well!

We continue to pray for our church and its leaders. Thankfully, there is a line in the sand they are not willing to cross.