The church cannot abandon its core beliefs. But the Episcopal Church has already done that. Where’s the new news there? The Episcopal Church has abandoned core doctrine over salvation, Jesus himself (Jefferts Schori called him “our mother Jesus”), and says the resurrection of Jesus is spiritual, not actual and physical. How much more blasphemy does he need to know about? Added to this, Jefferts Schori has denied the necessity for personal salvation, a totally core doctrine for ALL Christians in whatever denomination they are in. How much more evidence does he need. And who exactly is being intolerant? TEC’s homosexuals are totally intolerant of anyone who opposes their behavior. Why in God’s name have 100,000 or more Episcopalians departed TEC? With each passing general convention, homosexuals and lesbians have become more strident, more demanding and more remorselessly hateful of orthodox Episcopalians. They even have their own Eucharist to push sodomy down the throats of everyone. Intolerance, dear Archbishop, lies squarely on the other side of the ecclesiastical ledger.

Two distinct views of the Anglican Communion emerged this week that are worth contemplating because one of them will dominate the Anglican Communion and the other will not.

Archbishop Justin Welby’s recent doomsday warning that a feuding church is “on the edge of a precipice” is indeed true. The archbishop issued a dramatic warning that the worldwide Anglican Church is tottering on the brink of complete disintegration amid bitter disputes between liberals and traditionalists.

In his most stark comments yet about divisions over issues such as homosexuality, Welby said the Church is coming perilously close to plunging into a “ravine of intolerance”. He likened the collective behavior of the church to a “drunk man” staggering ever closer to the edge of a cliff. He added that many of the issues, which different factions in the church are fighting over, are simply “incomprehensible” to people outside it. He even drew parallels between the crisis afflicting the 77 million-strong network of Anglican churches and the atmosphere during the English Civil War.

The Archbishop of Canterbury needs to be reminded of how we got where we are and how it could be resolved.

First. He inherited the whirlwind from his predecessor Archbishop Rowan Williams who saw the writing on the wall and fled to academia nine years before he had to. That should have been a tip of the hat. Most journalists with half a brain knew this was not going to be an easy ride and may not end well. If Welby had taken the trouble to read a number of orthodox Anglican blogs that have been writing about these issues for years, he would have been forewarned and therefore forearmed.

Second. Evangelicals (he is one himself) and Anglo-Catholics did not start this pansexual war; they only want to preserve what they have received. It was begun first by revisionist Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster, BC by his act of blessing same sex unions in 2002 in defiance of the 1998 Lambeth 1:10 resolution. By doing so, he began an historic voyage of spiritual destruction from the faith delivered once to the saints into a world of sexual behaviors proscribed by Scripture. Ingham was aided and abetted by bishops like John Shelby Spong, Walter Righter, Frank Griswold, Tom Shaw and many more. There was no push back; they proceeded without interference and spread their cancerous sexual doctrines maintaining, over time, that Scripture (by a sexual sleight of hand) supported them or that God had changed His mind. Nobody dared oppose them. There were no inhibitions or depositions. They would come later — not to them, but to orthodox bishops who opposed them.

This is how it is done. The takeover begins inauspiciously enough. First, they infiltrate solidly grounded orthodox parishes. Over time, they cajole people into believing that sexual inclusivity, especially sodomy, is acceptable because some poor sod dies of AIDS and his parents believe the church should change its thinking and teaching to accommodate him. Before you know it, the parish priest has a case of misplaced compassion and it is all over. The orthodox are made to feel homophobic for not demonstrating enough pain, for not being inclusive and showing enough diversity. In time, the liberals win. The parish abandons historic teaching on sex and marriage while the orthodox leave. The parish then begins to wither and die. It is all done, of course, with the blessing and nod of the now liberal bishop.

Third. Global South Anglican leaders repeatedly warned Rowan Williams that the actions of North American bishops were communion-breaking acts. They alerted him persistently of the consequences if he continued to prevaricate and do nothing. Gene Robinson’s consecration as an openly gay bishop was the final straw. Unable to concede that the Bible is definitive, Williams waffled and waffled. Failing to resolved anything he conceded defeat and left office his tail between his legs. Hardly a commentator had a good word to say for him. The Archbishop of Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh ripped him one saying that when Williams came into office, things were good. By the time he left, the communion was in shambles. Prior to this Williams got an earful from Frank Griswold at Dromantine, Ireland for not challenging the Global South over homosexuality. To make their point a third of the bishops stayed away from Lambeth 2008 while a third of the primates failed to show up in Dublin a couple of years later. What about these last two historical acts does Welby not understand?

Fourth. The vast majority of Global South leaders in Africa, Asia and Latin America were won to Christ by British missionaries who had both a clear fix on the gospel and an equally clear fix on sexuality. No compromise. None. These missionaries won thousands to Christ. The seeds they planted won millions more to Christ. Today Africa is the biggest, fastest growing corner of the Anglican globe. By contrast, Western pan-Anglicanism is aging and dying with not a prayer of winning Millenials for Christ. Most rectors and nearly all the bishops, except a small handful, wouldn’t know how to lead anyone to Christ if their own lives depended on it. They are too ashamed of the gospel; do not believe in the total exclusivity of the “One Way” to heaven, or the unique Sonship and deity of Christ and the unique salvation he offers. They would sooner sit down over lunch and chat up Muslims about the need for more interfaith talks, while Muslims in countries where they have never been stifle religious dissent, harass and persecute minority Christians and torch their churches. Has there been a serious Muslim Mullah in America who has raised his voice against the rampant killing and destruction of Christians, say in Egypt or Syria?

Fifth. Welby is a self-professed evangelical who got converted following the untimely death of his daughter. He got involved with Holy Trinity Brompton and became a big ALPHA fan. So why is he hesitating in calling the game as he sees it? He knows full well what Mrs. Jefferts Schori thinks — if he doesn’t, he shouldn’t be archbishop. He knows what Gene Robinson and Mary Glasspool do in bed. Does he think that is holy living? He has talked with ACNA Archbishop Bob Duncan. He knows full well why Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz visited him and told him not to recognize the Anglican Church in North America. Welby knows he has more in common with Archbishop Donald Harvey and his successor Charlie Masters as the leader of the Anglican Network in Canada than he does with Fred Hiltz, so why all the agony? Welby said the Church had to steer a course between, on one hand, compromising so much that it abandoned its “core beliefs” and, on the other, becoming so intolerant that it fractured completely.

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