Schism?

Over the past year, on a religious level, I’ve been focused locally as our parish searched for a new rector. Our new rector started in June and seems to be a nice guy. We’re all still getting to know each other.

Even though I was locally focused, I did perk my ears whenever news of the differences in the Episcopal Church and worldwide Anglican Communion would reach a certain pitch. Then I started reading more blogs with Episcopal connections – the Daily Episcopalian, a woman priest on sabbatical, a woman priest somewhere in my diocese (I think), a priest down in New Jersey. I started to understand more what was happening in the greater Episcopal Church in the US and in the world, and was a little more concerned and sad about it while hoping (and praying) for compromise all around. However, I was also feeling a bit overwhelmed with day-to-day life and soon enough would let the issues move to the background in my head.

This summer a close friend from town and church moved to one of the most conservative Episcopal dioceses in the country - and I really started to take notice of what was happening.

Before M moved to Texas, I would have called her moderate to moderately-liberal in terms of church politics. She is, after all, a New Englander by birth. (I used to joke that was Southwestern liberal is further to the right than a New England conservative.) After M’s arrival in her new town, she went looking for a church. I went online in an effort to help her after visits to two parishes didn’t impress her. I was shocked with some of what I read on the diocesan Web site.

The bishop of M’s new diocese is exceedingly conservative, is threatening to separate entirely from the United States Episcopal Church and take the diocese under the leadership of one of the African primates. Among other things, he does not recognize female clergy – and since the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church is a woman…well, you get it.

I did find one small parish near my friend that (in very careful wording on their Web site since they are still under the authority of the conservative bishop) was of a more open and accepting philosophy. But by the time I was in touch with M again, she’d had a happier visit to a larger parish and decided to keep going there. They had enough youth activities for her kids, friendly adults – and an older lady who ran the nursery who took a real shine to her youngest and now takes care of him twice week.

I looked up this parish, and was fairly stunned. My New England friend was at a church that was right in line with that conservative bishop. It was clear from the language on the site that the parish drew a very hard line on certain issues. For example, M’s eldest sister would not be welcome there - a woman who, until the untimely death of her partner last spring, was in a multi-decade single-gender romantic relationship, with children. (On an amusing note, the rector of this parish dresses like a Catholic cardinal.)

While I was rather surprised, the most important part for my friend on her local level is that she feel welcome and accepted, especially in this delicate time as she acclimates to a whole new region of the country away from family and friends. Perhaps as time goes on and M feels more comfortable and secure in her new community, she can speak up more about her own experiences.

It did get me thinking more about this potential schism in the Anglican Communion. What does it mean to me, a lay person? My parish? My diocese? While priests and bishops discuss and debate and align and secede and all that, how this impacts the people in the average pew is missing from the discussion.

I’ve tried several times to sit down and write out all the bits and pieces as I understand them and how they play out in the potential schism – and failed utterly. It's not just about acceptance of homosexuals and the installation of a gay man as Bishop of New Hampshire (though that seems to be the catalyst). Instead, for background, I am going to send you to several sites that have lots of talk and history and links (click often for many different points of view).

The Episcopal Church (official site)
The Episcopal Church of the United States of America (wikipedia)
Father Jake Stops the World
Episcopal Cafe
Stand Firm (for a conservative approach, to be fair)

There are plenty more, believe me.

For me, as a lay person in my parish, a potential rift means very little. While I would be sad that others would leave the church I found so welcoming is sad, but it is their decision to go. My pledges would still go to the same place. I have no issues with Gene Robinson, the New Hampshire bishop whose installation helped spark all this. By all accounts, he is loving and warm, and approaches life and the theological struggles thereof just like the rest of us do. I would have an issue if he were a promiscuous gay man, just as I would have an issue if he were a promiscuous straight man.

For me, as an individual beyond the church, I get upset thinking about how these ultra-conservative voices preach absolutes. It’s been my experience that the person who spouts black and white is the person to listen to the least: the boastful person who so sure that he or she is right and there can be no other path is the one I will not follow – and I have a hard time even hearing that person. It’s a bit like dealing with a petulant (pre-)teenager. We’re waiting for them to get over the fear already and move on to the dialog, but it’s taking an awfully long time.

On a parish level, there might be a little more impact, but very little. Such impact is highly dependent on parish leadership, and I can’t see our new rector taking us in a super-conservative, schismatic direction. If he did, I'd seek a new church home. There are a couple people around who might like a more conservative direction (particularly the senior warden) but that is balanced by the growing and vibrant nature of our parish. It’s hard to argue when pledges are growing, pews are filled every Sunday, the church school is growing, outreach is increasing – and the rector is working hard to make sure everyone feels they have a home there.

At the diocesan level, there is a much bigger impact, mostly legal and financial. Already one parish has decided to separate, and one priest has gone to Africa to be installed as a bishop under Nigerian oversight. The physical churches in the diocese are owned by the diocese (although cared for by the individual parishes), and cannot be taken with departing church members. For example, the members of the parish that departed are now meeting in a storefront (and interestingly, former parish members who had left that church when it took the ultra-conservative turn are back in the original building with the a new interim rector, reorganizing and reforming the more inclusive congregation they knew and loved). While it is sad to see clergy and members leave, I think our diocesan bishops are doing their best have it happen with grace and not with too much acrimony.

There was a House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans over last week. The US bishops met with each other and with the Archbishop of Canterbury in an effort to find compromise. For that to happen, however, all parties must truly be willing to listen and to compromise. When most of the conservative bishops left before the meetings were over, that signaled to me that they were not willing to listen or compromise.

Schism has been threatened before in my lifetime, I believe. When the US Episcopal Church started to ordain women in the 1970s, there was talk. It didn’t happen, the world didn't end, and we all learned from each other and to live with one another and our differences. I think that scenario can happen again. At least I hope it can.

If schism does happen, however, I will be sad, but we will go on. We’ll be fine.


The next morning: Late yesterday a statement was released by the House of Bishops to attempt to address the issues. Neither side seems particularly satisfied with the statement, so it must be a decent compromise.