At the recent Toronto Pan-Anglican Congress, Rev. Canon Christopher Seitz summarised the aggressive plans for a stalwart defence of conservative orthodoxy: they intend to go down with a whimper .<\/p>\n
Sietz, acknowledging that that battle has already been lost, concentrated on whether conservative parishes will be permitted to retain their orthodoxy. In other words, the retreat continues apace: no more reforming North American Anglicanism from within; the best conservatives are now hoping for is to be ignored by their dioceses, as they remain (if they are permitted<\/em> to remain, that is) little islands of orthodoxy afloat in a festering swamp of heresy. Anything to preserve unity.<\/i><\/p>\n Read it all here<\/a>:<\/p>\n Conservatives should seek terms for a negotiated peace to the Anglican wars, the Rev. Canon Christopher Seitz, Old Testament Scholar and Senior Research Professor at Wycliffe College in the University of Toronto and a leader of the Anglican Communion Institute told a conference marking the 50th Anniversary of the 1963 Toronto Pan-Anglican Congress.<\/p>\n The battle had been lost leaving conservatives as \u201cstrangers in their own church,\u201d he said on 18 Sept 2013, and \u201cthe question for conservatives [now] is about encouragement. Will we be allowed to walk the well-worn paths of the faith,\u201d he asked \u201cor must we follow the trailblazers?\u201d<\/p>\n [\u2026.]<\/p>\n But the political battled had been fought, and the conservatives had lost. It was \u201cno longer a matter of saying the new ways are wrong. That point has passed. \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in a new time. It is now here. We can see a before or after\u201d in the Episcopal Church since the consecration of Gene Robinson and in the rise to power of Katharine Jefferts Schori. One group has been defeated\u201d and \u201ctraditional Anglicans have lost a battle.\u201d<\/p>\n There is now \u201cno single understanding\u201d of the faith. New Prayer Books will emerge that will enshrine the majority faction\u2019s dogmas. The question for conservatives is not whether they can stop this but if the majority will allow \u201ctwo rites [to] exist side by side.\u201d<\/p>\n Prof. Seitz noted the \u201cintermediate steps\u201d taken at the 2012 to allow each bishop to approve or reject local gay marriage rites had \u201cno long term integrity.\u201d \u00a0The General Convention endorsed \u201cdiocesan autonomy here, but rejects it elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada \u201cwe are in a genuinely new time. A time of accomplishment and tidying up,\u201d Prof Seitz said, and this is \u201cwhy encouragement matters\u201d for conservatives remaining in these churches. \u201cOthers have left us and our blazing new trails,\u201d but not all hear the call to depart.<\/p>\n Encouragement for the conservative remnant \u201cwould be allowing the status quo ante. Not a new church allowing traditional Anglicans\u201d a home, but the existing churches giving conservatives \u201cthe moral space and right to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWill dioceses and parishes be permitted to do what has been done before,\u201d he asked. Will we be given the \u201cmoral space to conserve our traditions? Can bishops let go of parishes? Can dioceses choose to say no? Can we [as Episcopalians] remain a valued and trustworthy expression of the church catholic?\u201d<\/p>\n [\u2026.]<\/p>\n \u201cConservative parishes are waiting and trusting,\u201d he said, as \u201cGod is hiding his face for a season for his own purposes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Perhaps God is hiding his face because the conservative parishes still in TEC and the ACoC have ignored his call to disentangle themselves from institutional apostasy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the recent Toronto Pan-Anglican Congress, Rev. Canon Christopher Seitz summarised the aggressive plans for a stalwart defence of conservative orthodoxy: they intend to go down with a whimper . Sietz, acknowledging that that battle has already been lost, concentrated … Continue reading