Chuck Collins: Can’t We Just avoid the National Church Controversy and Get on with Local Ministry?

Why not leave it to the bishops to solve the problem, ignore the mess in the national church, and get on with our own mission and ministry at Christ Church? After all, our Presiding Bishop is not making us believe her wild theology, and the Episcopal Church is not forcing us to do things against our conscience.

I’ve heard this criticism about Christ Church and about how we responded to the crisis caused by General Conventions of the Episcopal Church in 2003 and 2006. “The rector and vestry overstepped their bounds and allowed national church matters to cloud their judgment,” they say. They go on to say that a better response would have been to trust our bishops to fight the good fight for us, and reinvest in what we do best: Sunday worship and the day-to-day ministries of our parish. I’m sure this is also how our bishops hoped we would respond and how most churches in the diocese have. Not speaking for our vestry, but only for myself, the reason I can’t surrender this to some notion that the Episcopal Church’s impasse with the Anglican Communion will somehow take care of itself is because it affects me deeply and directly. The crisis has reached my life and ministry in a very personal way.

Steve Vrana, as many of you know, is the son of one of our vestry members. He died several months ago of AIDS. His ashes are in our columbarium. The year before he died Steve and I had several long conversations at La Fonda in which he told me he was hearing mixed messages from his church, the Episcopal Church. On one hand he was hearing that we are all sinners and the answer to the problem of sin is repentance, forgiveness and amendment of life. On the other hand, he was very aware that the national church’s official position supports homosexual relationships. Steve’s funeral was on the day it was reported in the news that yet another bishop (Maze of Arkansas) allows the practice of blessing same-sex couples in his diocese. Now a large number of bishops and a growing number of dioceses officially or unofficially approve this practice. This includes our new Presiding Bishop who was one of the first to permit clergy in her home diocese (Nevada) to preside over same-sex blessings.

If you say the crisis in the Episcopal Church hasn’t affected us at Christ Church, I couldn’t disagree more! Because of the mixed messages, at least this one young man felt that he had permission on some level for the gay life he was living, which eventually led him to be infected with HIV, which finally killed him. I understand that it’s a huge leap to blame Bishop Maze, the House of Bishops or the General Convention for Steve’s death, but I do blame them. At least partially. To call “sin” something else, and to deprive sinners of God’s remedy for their condition, is the worse kind of injustice. And to say this is the most compassionate response just amplifies the injustice. This is what Bishop Allison calls “the cruelty of heresy.” It’s what Jeremiah says of the false prophets, “They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you…’” (23:16, 17).

The second reason the Episcopal Church mess has become very personal is because being “Episcopalian” has become a theological statement supporting certain things that I don’t believe. When the head of our church (new Presiding Bishop) told interviewers from Time Magazine and National Public Radio that she doesn’t believe in the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and that Christianity doesn’t have anything more to offer than the religions of the world, that’s when it became personal. I not only do not buy her Unitarian “anything goes” belief system, but having the leader of our church promote such beliefs mars my witness as a Christian and hurts my ability to share the gospel. Isn’t this true for everyone who is serious about what the Bible says about Jesus and is still in the Episcopal Church? “You say that Jesus is the answer, but even your own Presiding Bishop doesn’t believe that!” For awhile it was OK to explain to people that I don’t accept the official positions of my denomination and that Christ Church is a different kind of church from other Episcopal churches. But, patiently waiting for the national church to see the error of its ways has not turned it in the least towards the Anglican family that we left (as prescribed by The Windsor Report). In fact, every indication is that the Episcopal Church is bound and determined to stay the revisionist “anything goes” course, no matter what.

Now deceased Presiding Bishop John Allen, when he addressed the House of Bishops for the last time, asked for forgiveness for loving the church more than he loved the Lord of the church. I too was born and raised in this church, and as an adult I loved the Episcopal Church. But I love God more. Last week I signed welcome letters for three families who visited the previous Sunday. Every week God sends newcomers through our doors who are looking for God and for God’s solution to the discontent in their hearts. What we have to offer them is simple: Jesus Christ (and the community of followers of the Man who changed our lives). To take this away, is to take the gospel away, is to take my church away.

It should be clear to everyone that yesterday’s problem (homosexuality) is pretty inconsequential compared to today’s problem (the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation he has won for us). We shouldn’t be surprised when a church that blinks at the biblical teaching on smaller matters eventually blinks at the core doctrines of biblical Christianity. When orthodoxy is held up as optional, the door is wide open for the “anything goes” theology that describes the Episcopal Church today. I’ve said all along that this is not a crisis about sexuality, but about authority and whether or not we accept the Bible as God’s revelation.

So, you ask, why can’t I just ignore the national church, the House of Bishops and our Presiding Bishop? Why not just mind our own business? Because the controversies of the national church and the General Conventions have come to San Antonio in a big way. They directly affect the lives of such people as Steve Vrana and everyone who loved Steve. Because the deepest longing of every newcomer who visits is for the God of the Bible. Has Christ Church been diverted from its purpose and mission? I think it’s just the opposite; I believe we have been exceedingly faithful to our calling. I know there are some who would have us do nothing, but anyone who comes on Sunday mornings and who is involved in our parish life knows that while the vestry, clergy and I have made a strong stand for historic, biblical Anglicanism, we also have not skipped a beat in providing the worship, ministry, and care we are known for.

–The Rev. Chuck Collins is rector, Christ Church, San Antonio, Texas