An excellent letter from a bishop whose diocese, as far as I can see, would be more at home in ANiC than the ACoC:
The Diocese of The Arctic
ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
Word from a bishop’s heart June 22, 2019
An open letter to my fellow Canadian Anglicans
Dear Friends in Christ,
I am writing to you out of love for Christ’s church, and because I feel a heavy burden of concern for the Anglican Church of Canada as we prepare to meet in just a few weeks in Vancouver at General Synod. I also write in the sincere hope that our church will rediscover and return to its purpose for existence.
As I begin, I want to say that I affirm my commitment to Jesus Christ and to upholding the biblical doctrines of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Anglican Communion, and the Holy Catholic Church. I also confirm my commitment to the biblical, traditional, and catholic definition of marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman, as set out in the Book of Common Prayer.
First, allow me to share some of my story as a disciple of our LORD Jesus Christ. Although I was raised in a faithful Christian home, I still had a hunger to know God more deeply. But it wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I became a serious disciple. Forty-six years ago, I said something simple: “God I’m giving up my life to follow you. I want to do what I said I would do when I was confirmed.” It was a serious prayer. I certainly didn’t understand what was happening but what I did know is that something had changed. Even my family realized I was not the person I used to be. At times my family was frustrated with me, and even my wife Rita was very concerned. She said, “David is not the man I married. I don’t know who he is.”
I was working as a logger with a pulp and paper company at that time and started taking a New Testament to work in my back pocket. At first, I didn’t have time to read it between skidder loads, but as my logging skills improved, I was able to cut enough trees before the skidder arrived that I had time to read my Bible. The forest became my theological school, with co-workers presenting me daily with Biblical criticism while the Holy Spirit guided me in how to lovingly answer them. Through reading Scriptures, God the Holy Spirit revealed to me the pre-eminence of Jesus who fulfilled the Old Testament’s covenants by His blood sacrifice on the cross. Jesus is the one and only Saviour. All of this is revealed clearly in Hebrews chapters 8, 9 and 10.
And so, my walk as a serious disciple began with God’s word becoming real to me and turning my life upside down, making me into a different person. Many years ago, it was very difficult to accept the revelation that my way – doing whatever seemed right to me, living according to my own desires and goals – was leading me to destruction. Today, many are asking me to turn away from God’s Way and accept something that His Word clearly prohibits. This is “my way” all over again. I just cannot.
Often, I have heard that the “spirit” is leading us to a new thing in changing the Marriage Canon to include same-sex marriage. But by what authority do we know this? As a bishop, I’ve thought a lot about authority. By what authority do I speak? By what authority do I remain silent? I certainly do not want to sound condescending or simplistic, as there is nothing simplistic about wrestling with Scripture. But there are some things that are very plain, and one of those is that we can find no approval of same-sex marriage or same-sex sexual relationships in holy Scripture.
However, our conversations, especially since 2013, have not been marked by serious wrestling with Scripture, but by the opposite. For the sake of having good “Christian disagreement,” the prerequisite seems to be that the Bible cannot be part of the conversation. The Primate’s Marriage Commission produced a document called This Holy Estate, but it is a document that certainly does not provide any serious engagement with Biblical texts on sexuality. Instead, it tells us that the Biblical texts prohibiting same-sex sexual expression don’t really mean what they say, and it goes on to selectively use other texts to oppose the clear teaching of Scripture. We would do well to remember Article XX: “Of the Authority of the Church” from our Anglican Articles of Religion, which warns, “…And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.”
In Isaiah 66:2,5 God said, “This is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word… Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word.” I believe that we are in a very dangerous place when we no longer “tremble at his Word.”
I see in many Anglicans a loving passion for all, and a desire to eradicate the injustices people have inflicted upon one another. I also share this passion and I realize that the hatred, isolation and prejudices experienced by so many people because of how they identify themselves sexually is both tragic and heart breaking. Although I will not support changing the national Church’s Marriage Canon, it is important to know that all people are welcomed and valued, and I will treat all who have bowed their knee to Jesus and confess Jesus as Lord God Almighty as my brothers and sisters in Christ.
However, in their zeal to correct injustices, some church leaders promote personal opinions that are profoundly at odds with biblical teaching and what is generally accepted as Christian doctrine. Now they have been emboldened to act in defiance of biblical authority, and in defiance of the traditional teaching of the Holy Catholic Church, and the counsel and permission of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Communion. As sad as it is for me to say it, I must call the promotion, teaching, and endorsing of same-sex marriage false teaching and heresy.
There is a conflict that cannot be reconciled: The Bible teaches against same-sex sexual activity, and does not endorse same-sex marriage. But our society does endorse these things and thus ignores the Bible’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. And so the church, the people called “out of darkness and into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 1:9), must choose whether to follow the world’s way, or God’s way.
I lay these questions before all delegates at General Synod:
- Who is this spirit who is leading some to reject Holy Scripture, the Word of God?
- By rejecting the Word of God from which faith develops, what “faith” do we defend?
In my ordination as priest I was charged with caring for Christ’s sheep, and as bishop I pledged to “banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s Word.”
I would be rejecting my ordination vows if I were to agree to redefining marriage and comply with the erroneous decision made at General Synod in 2016. Synods may change the definition of marriage, but that doesn’t change God’s definition of marriage. Synods may choose to walk without the wisdom of scripture, but that doesn’t make those synods wise decision-makers. It would not be wise to think that General Synod and the 68.4% of bishops who voted in favour of changing the church’s Marriage Canon are a majority. The Anglican Church of Canada is marginal in size, representing only 0.65% of the Anglican Communion and only 0.025% of the Christian church worldwide. It is spiritually dangerous to follow this marginal segment of the Christian church, those who think they alone have this prophetic message from God–a message that calls us to turn from Scripture and follow them.
As for me, I choose to remain with the Word of God and represent the gospel in the confines of the traditional Biblical doctrines of the Diocese of The Arctic, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Anglican Communion, and the Holy Catholic Church and to walk with those who choose likewise. As for those who choose to reject the Word of God and the doctrines of the Anglican Church of Canada in our Book of Common Prayer, and the Doctrines and precepts of the Anglican Communion, and choose instead to develop their own worldly doctrines and humanistic theologies, they must do so on their own. I will treat them with love and respect but as those who have walked away from the doctrines of the Christian faith. I will pray for their repentance, but I will not walk in rebellion with them.
It gives me no joy to write what I have written, nor do I write with a self-righteous attitude but with much concern, and as one who knows well his own sinful nature. I end with what I said at the beginning: I write this letter in the hope that the Anglican Church of Canada returns to its purpose for existence, offering the freedom that comes from being forgiven, and being made faithful disciples of our Lord.
Faithfully yours by grace,
Rt. Rev. David W Parsons
Bishop of the Arctic
Yes. A very good letter!
Yes. I wonder if those faithful clergy of the Arctic know what a source of encouragement and inspiration they are to those of us in the south who feel abandoned and betrayed by our local shepherds.
Especially commendable when they themselves, who do a hard, lonely job, have been consistently abandoned and betrayed.
Considering the ACoC under the leadership of apostate so-called bishops including the Primate I would strongly suggest that Bishop David Parsons take whatever action is necessary to bring his diocese into the ANiC where true adherence to THE WORD is upheld. Undoubtedly the ACoC would seek to legally steal properties and evict true genuine Christians as this has been the history of the ACoC. There is only ONE true Gospel and a true Christian cannot stand in the middle.
When we last heard Bishop Parsons speak, he said,” . . . .(if I leave) what happens to my clergy and my people?” Nearly broke our hearts.
We have often wondered whether the revisionists have any idea of the pain being inflicted.
The revisionists are nothing but APOSTATES and have proven to be nothing but servants of Satan. I sincerely pray that Bishop Parsons will prove to be a servant of the GOSPEL and that he will bring about true faith within the ACoC.
I am deluged with responses to my own Open Letter, some from isolated lay people who feel unsupported indeed beleaguered and have for years.
Revisionists care for themselves, only.
Indeed, a very good open letter from Bishop Parsons. If I were to criticize it at all, it would be to say that it leans a bit too charitably in consideration – “treat with love and respect” – of those who claim both adherence to Christianity and at least tolerance, if not outright promotion, of the homosexualist agenda (I intend that term neutrally to denote what I call the homo/hereto parity argument, and not with any derogatory connotation). I would prefer a more, thunderous if necessary, confrontational challenge of asking what on earth (and in heaven) they think Our Lord meant when he spoke of “they shall be one flesh”, reported in Mark 10:6-8, referring back to a story of the complimentary nature of male and female in Genesis 2:20-24, and, further, what they think Paul meant, using the agape sense of “love” and not the eros sense, in Ephesians 5:25-31. In that vein, do they seriously think, and can support with balanced argument (rather than personalized anecdotal experiences), that two men or two women (and possibly, in a future extension of diversity and tolerance, more than two) can be “one flesh” in the sense intended by Jesus, the Incarnate God ?
I have my biases, but profess a mind open to rational argument. I consider it possible, if less so plausible, that a significantly rational view for 2000 years has been wrong, and that it should give way to a more enlightened view from the homo/hetero parity position. If so, let’s hear it. I have not so far. Only emotive mush in unbalanced politicking.
I prefer, and commend her for it, the Open Letter to Archbishop Melissa Skelton from Dr. Priscilla Turner, where she writes of “the fact that a majority both clerical and lay have voted out of a profound philosophical, theological and biblical naivety” and then continues to list a series of falsehoods that people believe, contra informed and non-advocacy scholarship. Her more recent reporting of lay people disturbed by the push from the homo/hetero parity position and feeling “isolated .. unsupported indeed beleaguered” is telling, and reflects what some parishioners told me in private when I resigned and walked away from a Warden position at an Anglican parish just under three years ago, when it became clear that that parish was going to do nothing about the interim same-sex marriage decision about to be, likely, ratified; and, further, when it became clear that a significant coterie of influential parishioners, including some fellow Wardens, whom I considered lightweights on philosophical, theological and biblical matters, were in favour of same-sex marriage.
Thinking of the good Bishop and me as complEmentary (note the spelling!) in both our training and our vocations, I have written him the following complimentary note:–
“Dear Bishop Parsons,
I am thrilled to read your Open Letter. We shall overcome!
I very much hope to be able to see you at GS, where I intend to be in the ACA room for at least some of the time.
I should be glad to give you any number of copies of my books mentioned in my own recent Open Letter. I shall have them available in bulk in our Holy Trinity Vancouver collection. In addition to the three now posted for free download, reading and printing here:
https://www.anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/dr-priscilla-turner/?fbclid=IwAR1MBeDj6z-Lsq2JXSKw9Y03CZiB6oW8ayr1wCHTpgFdSfkB6uF4XOA1R_M
I shall make available my Rector’s recent book on Mark also published by me.
By “give” I mean “give”: so that I am not out of pocket either Holy Trinity will subsidise any gift, or something in the way of a tax receipt may perhaps be worked out with you.”
Priscilla, where did you post your letter to Bishop Skelton? I would like to read it.
It’s just a few postings back from this one. Let me know if there are any unclarities.
I’m especially grateful to David for hosting three of my books for free download, reading and printing here: https://www.anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/dr-priscilla-turner/?fbclid=IwAR1MBeDj6z-Lsq2JXSKw9Y03CZiB6oW8ayr1wCHTpgFdSfkB6uF4XOA1R_M
Printing with the ‘Fit’ setting on Letter or A4 in Acrobat gives you larger typeface than in the published books you can buy. If your printer will do double-sided and flip on the long edge,all you are missing is the pretty covers.
It is a tragic thing that people should be voting on so momentous a matter whose ‘study’ has apparently consisted of sitting round a table exchanging opinions with like-minded friends
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I appreciated reading this letter, from the Bishop of the Arctic. David, I would be interested to know where this letter is posted? Was it on the Diocese of the Arctic website? The idea of a Canadian Bishop trying to communicate to all Anglicans is intriguing. I observed the House of Bishops has been paralyzed and silent mostly, during the last 15 years. Bishop McKenzie speaks clearly and cogently. I liked his comment “a hope the church redicovers and returns to its purpose for existence”
The Anglican Communion Alliance posted it.
The paralysis is of longer standing, I fear. My late spouse and I were writing to the HoB in the1990s when they ought to have been scotching the evil while it was still local, but to no avail. He at least had more theology in his little finger than most of them laid end to end.
I have been thinking about the two poles of Christianity — justification as sinners in Adam and Christian perfection in Christ. It is the genius of the apostles that they never slacken the demand for the latter while making abundant provision for the former. Proponents of sexual libertarianism slacken the call to Christian perfection, i.e., holiness and Christ-likeness, to the point where they suggest God is pleased with us pretty much the way we are; they drop the 2nd pole and rally ’round the first. Conservatives, on the other hand, have the 2nd pole as their focus and target, and lament their shortcomings.
As I have stated previously the words liberalism and conservatism do not properly state the situation. One can indeed be liberal or conservative in the style of worship but when it comes to the TRUTH one can only be orthodox or apostasy. Tragically we see the ACoC rapidly going down the road to apostasy under the leadership of an apostate primate and his colleagues.
Wonderful letter-comforting to know there is someone left in the Clergy that didnt drink the Kool-aid….And brave as well- But I’m thinkin’ you may want to update your resume
I have spent time working up north beyond the Arctic Circle recently. The orthodox faith of the Inuk peoples is a beautiful thing to see.
I wonder how many people are aware that most of the Arctic funding (as I understand this) has come from Quebec, with threats of being cut off if revisionism is not fully embraced by these faithful people. This has been flatly rejected, as our Northern Inuk people have been formed properly and have kept their faith.
+Parsons is a brave, faithful and awe inspiring man. (To date, our paths have not crossed.)