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CHURCH OF ENGLAND: CEEC WILL LEARN THAT COMPROMISE IS NOT POSSIBLE OVER HUMAN SEXUALITY DEBATE
By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
October 17, 2022
In his book That Hideous Strength: a Deeper Look at how the West was Lost, the late Melvin Tinker writes on how evangelicals became 'useful idiots' in the debate over homosexuality.
He recalls David Robertson's words over the homosexuality debate in Scotland: "Over ten years ago when the whole SSM and homosexuality debate began in the Church of Scotland, I got in enormous trouble and 'hurt' people for saying that the evangelicals were being suckered by the Establishment. The response was that this was a battle that they [the evangelicals] would win, that two evangelicals had been invited on to the panel to investigate the matter that an evangelical was going to become Moderator, etc. But they were suckered. Big time. The evangelicals were never allowed to outnumber the liberals. The only treason they were invited on to these groups was to enable them to keep their fellow evangelicals in line. They were invited to the table but they were not allowed any say on the menu. They were outmaneuvered every time by fine words, appeals to unity (and to pride), threats and empty promises of jam tomorrow. From a liberal perspective it was a brilliant strategy that largely worked -- mainly because the evangelicals were leaderless, clueless and blinded by a myopic fixation with what they hoped the Church of Scotland could be, not what it really is. Most evangelicals stayed in, but not to fight. Now they have been reassimilated into the Establishment to such a degree that they completely toothless."
The same is now happening to evangelicals within the Church of England. The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) is being suckered into believing the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) to cite the lengthy report, if not overturned, will still give them a place at the table. It will not. They will be neutered by people like Jayne Ozanne, Colin Coward and half a dozen pro-gay movements in the Church of England that will overpower them, drown them out, effectively neutering them. Furthermore, they will get no support from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby who has already publicly embraced a homosexual as the next Dean of Canterbury and a certain partnered homosexual Stephen Knott as the Archbishops' Secretary for Appointments advising Welby and York archbishop Stephen Cottrell on senior appointments in the Church of England! Do you think this queer gatekeeper will ever again allow a person who is orthodox in faith and morals a senior appointment in the CofE! In your dreams.
This is exactly what happened in the Diocese of Washington when Bishop John Bryson Chane refused straight white males for ordination: only women, homosexuals and lesbians could apply. In time, this will happen to the CofE as it follows The Episcopal Church down the rocky road of full pansexual acceptance. Welby and PB Michael Curry are in lockstep with each other. Mark my words.
The CEEC's John Dunnett, Director of Strategy and Operations, writes, "For the sake of the gospel, we need to find a better way ahead -- a settlement without theological compromise that is best for all."
He then goes on to site the lengthy property dispute between the Church of the Ascension, Pittsburgh, and The US Episcopal Church (TEC) as a "third way."
PITTSBURGH! What news reports was he reading? TEC effectively won. The TEC bishop made deals for a handful of ACNA properties to pay a fee from their weekly offering to stay in their parishes, but the real estate still remained firmly in the hands of TEC. TEC still kept the cathedral, the church's headquarters and most of the parishes.
Here is the exact language: As part of the Agreement, each of the Parishes will pay an annual fee to the Episcopal Diocese. For the first 20 years of the Agreement, the annual fee will be 3.25% of the operating revenues of the Parish for the prior calendar year. For each year thereafter, the annual fee will be 1.75% of the operating revenues of the Parish for the prior calendar year. With the help of external mediators, a settlement was reached that enabled the congregation of the Church of the Ascension to continue using the building while paying the Episcopal diocese an annual fee.
That was the deal. TEC retained all the properties and got money for allowing the orthodox Episcopalians to stay in their buildings under an ACNA bishop.
The only reason they cut these deals is because TEC did not want to see a lot of empty parishes they could not sell and would sit there till they rotted and tumbled to the ground. And the CEEC thinks this "compromise" will work! I see no canonical basis that the Church of England would give up a single property to the AMiE or CEEC or any episcopi vagantes getting hold of a property not fully owned by the CofE.
The CEEC said that the LLF consultation, "has exposed the deeply held and incompatible views on human sexuality within the Church of England". In a video, the CEEC warns that the Church of England must learn from the mistakes of other provinces. This is not going to happen. The CofE has already descended down the pansexual slope and nothing will stop it. Most of the CofE bishops are already on board with Welby and his fellow liberals; it would take a theological Churchill to bust it all wide open. In this case, Chamberlain, AKA Welby, will win the day and wave the letter of capitulation before a watching world.
Archbishop Emeritus Mouneer Anis of the Anglican Province of Alexandria, warned that changing the liturgy and doctrine on marriage in other parts of the Anglican Communion would have a "devastating" impact on provinces in the Middle East. "Because we live in a minority within a majority Islamic world and this will hinder our mission completely," he said.
The Egyptian leader has got it exactly right. GAFCON will feel vindicated by their decision to leave Welby, Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference and the Instruments of unity behind. They are history and so is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
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