Trial of a Bishop

"EPISCOPAL NEWS SERVICE" by IAIN on Sept. 20, 1992 at 18:12 Eastern, about ENS
IS PUBLISHED BY THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, USA. (1485 notes) (15266 byte
attachment).

Note 1485 by JAMES THRALL on May 28, 1996 at 19:02 Eastern (9540 characters).

The following is the text of the statement issued by the 10 bishops who
brought a presentment against Bishop Walter Righter. The statement was
released at a press conference in Dallas, Texas, May 28.


             A Response to the Opinion of the Court
                    for the Trial of a Bishop

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who
called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different
gospel - not that there is another gospel, but there are some who
are confusing you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ."
Galatians 1:6-7

We live in a day of moral confusion and widespread attack upon the 
Church's received teaching in many areas, including that of human
sexuality.  For the past twenty years the most hotly debated issue
in the Episcopal Church has been that of homosexuality.  This pre
occupation has diverted resources and energy from the Church's
primary task of calling all people to repentance and discipleship
in Jesus Christ.

While the Church has expressed and reaffirmed its pastoral care for
homosexual persons, two related questions have been the focus of
debate and occasioned our present disorder:

     . whether the Church can "bless" same sex unions, and
     . whether non-celibate homosexual persons can legitimately be
       ordained to the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopate of   
       this Church.

It is not as if the Church has failed to address these questions. 
Repeatedly and consistently, through Resolutions of the General
Convention, Statements of the House of Bishops, and most recently
in the publication and release of the pastoral study document
Continuing the Dialogue (1994), the Episcopal Church has affirmed
and reaffirmed that:

     "the teaching of the Episcopal Church is that physical sexual
      expression is appropriate only within the lifelong monogamous
      'union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind intended
      by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given
      one another in prosperity and adversity and, when it is God's
      will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in
      the knowledge and love of the Lord" as set forth in the Book
      of Common Prayer...."

and therefore,

     "it is not appropriate for this Church to ordain a practicing
      homosexual, or any person who is engaged in heterosexual   
      relations outside of marriage."

Indeed, in approving the pastoral study document, the House of
Bishops voted its commitment to:

     "Continue in trust and koinonia ordaining only persons we   
believe to be a wholesome  example to their people, according to
the standards and norms set forth by the Church's teaching."

     Until now, the problem has not been a lack of clarity
regarding the Church's understanding of these matters.  Rather it
has been the growing number of bishops and dioceses that have
chosen to disregard and contradict this understanding both by their
teaching and in their actions.

     In an attempt to restore order in a Church where it had all
but disappeared, we have engaged in a lengthy legal process within
the House of Bishops over the past year and a half.  Unfortunately,
that process has been deeply compromised from its very beginning. 
We cite as only one example the fact that three out of nine judges
authorized or performed ordinations identical to the one in
question - and a fourth declared his willingness to do so; yet,
only one recused himself, and then only after the majority Opinion
had been determined.  
     
     Nevertheless, the Court has spoken.  On May 15, 1996, the
majority held that - all of our previous statements notwithstanding
- the Episcopal Church has no "Core Doctrine"in the area of human
sexuality; and therefore neither the doctrine nor the discipline of
the Church has been violated.

     We decry this Opinion as deeply flawed and erroneous.  The
Court's disclaimer notwithstanding, its decision has swept away two
millennia of Christian teaching regarding God's purposes in
creations, the nature and meaning of Christian marriage and the
family, the discipleship in relation to sexuality to which we are
called as followers of Jesus, and the paradigm of the Church as
Bride and Christ as Bridegroom.  The distinction of "Core Doctrine"
from other doctrinal teaching" is without precedent of foundation
in the Book of Common Prayer, the Resolutions of General
Convention, or the Canons of the Church.  The very term, "Core
Doctrine," is a specious invention of the Court.

     There is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, whose ministry the
Apostles proclaimed as the Gospel and enduring norm for the Church. 
There is but one Faith, which must rest on the foundation of this
apostolic teaching, and which must find clear and unified
expression in both coherent in its unity, and comprehensive in its
breadth, bringing every sphere of human life under the Lordship of
Christ.

In light of the foregoing, therefore:

1. Categorically reject the Opinion of the Court for the Trial of
a Bishop, and stand within the Anglican conviction that the Church
has "authority in Controversies of Faith: and yet it cannot ordain
any thing that is contrary to God's Word written , neither may it
so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to
another." (Articles of Religion, XX)

2. We remain committed to the declaration of the General
Convention, that "The traditional teaching of the Church that
marriage, Marital fidelity, and sexual chastity are the standard of
Christian sexual morality," and therefore declare that the
ordination of non-celibate homosexual persons and the blessing of
homosexual unions deviates and departs from the biblical norm.

3. We affirm, with Bishops White and Patterson in their concurring
Opinion, "that it is not permissible, if it is even possible, in
our polity for a bishop to teach or act on teaching which is
neither supported by the Holy Scriptures, the Church acting
corporately nor the Book of Common Prayer." We therefore declare
that bishops who knowingly ordain non-celibate homosexual persons
or who permit or endorse the blessing of homosexual unions do so
without the authority of the Scripture, of the unbroken apostolic
tradition, or of the Anglican Communion and are thereby 
threatening the unity and order of the Church.  As a sign of the
seriousness of this threat, we disassociate ourselves from such
"individually discerned teaching and preemptive action" by bishops,
other clergy, or dioceses.

4. We today propose the following Canon for Adoption by the General
Convention in 1997, and we urge its introduction and passage in
every diocese as well:

     All members of the clergy, having subscribed to the
     Declaration required by Article VIII of the Constitution of the
     Episcopal Church, shall be under the obligation to model in
     their own lives the received teaching of the Church that all
     its members are to abstain from sexual relations outside Holy
     Matrimony.

We call upon the Deputies and Bishops to recognize that all
previous objections to such a Canon as "not necessary" have been
rendered moot by the Court's Opinion.

5.  We declare our conviction that orthodox episcopal ministry must
be provided to clergy and laity in dioceses where the bishop has
departed from the standards and norms set forth by the Church's
teaching.  For their sake, we will take steps to create a
fellowship of Episcopal parishes and dioceses which uphold
Scriptural authority, and we will also network with other Provinces
of the Anglican Communion who share this stance.

     The time has come for the faithful members of this Church to
act together.  The task of the Church is to Bring every soul and
every sphere of life under the Lordship of Christ.  We call upon
all those who share these convictions:

     . to join us in repentance for our past inattention and      
inaction in teaching, proclaiming and upholding the apostolic and catholic
faith:
     . to express to their clergy and vestries, their bishops and
       diocesan leadership their commitment to biblical faith and
       practice; and

     . to direct their personal resources, as a matter of        
       stewardship, to those ministries that proclaim the historic
       and biblical Christian Faith.

     We are mindful that this matter is not limited in scope to the
Episcopal Church, but one with international and ecumenical
dimensions, as noted in this word by a renowned Lutheran
Theologian;

     Whoever pressures the church to alter the normativeness of its
     teaching with regard to homosexuality must be aware that    
     person promotes schism in the church.  For a church that would
     permit itself to be pressured to no longer understand
     homosexual activity as a deviation from the biblical norm and
     to recognize homosexual partnerships alongside marriage, such
     a church would no longer be based on the foundation of
     Scripture, but, rather in opposition to its unanimous witness.
     (Wolfhart Panneneberg, translated by Karl Donfried;
     Zeitwende, 65/1,January 1994)

SIGNED, 27 May 1996:

The Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman, Quincy
The Rt. Rev. Maurice Benitez, Texas (Ret)
The Rt. Rev. James M. Coleman, W. Tennessee
The Rt. Rev. John W. Howe, Central Florida
The Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Fort Worth
The Rt. Rev. Stephen H. Jecko, Florida
The Rt. Rev. Terence Kelshaw, Rio Grande
The Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, San Joaquin
The Rt. Rev. James M. Stanton, Dallas
The Re. [sic] Rev. William Wantland, Eau Claire