TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/061989/06198900.007

Text File | 1990-09-22 | 4KB | 70 lines

RELIGION, Page 53

Episcopalians' Semi-Schism

Upset over women clergy, traditionalists defy the church


    I do not consider that the churches of the Anglican Communion
have authority to change the historic Tradition of the church that
the Christian ministerial priesthood is male . . .

    Perhaps the most outspoken signer of that defiant declaration
was Andrew Craig Mead, the rector of the Church of the Advent in
Boston. Church traditionalists like himself, Mead charged, for too
long have been "victims of exclusion, ridicule and financial
pressure," and are tired of being treated by church liberals as if
they were "brain-dead." Mead and 1,800 like-thinking Episcopalians
retaliated earlier this month during a three-day meeting in Fort
Worth, where they formed an independent church-within-a-church
called the Episcopal Synod of America. It is likely to bedevil the
Episcopal Church for years to come.

    The dissidents, who refuse to recognize women priests, decided
to act after the February consecration of Boston's Barbara Harris
as the first woman Episcopal bishop. Synod members decry the
church's liberalized teachings on such matters as divorce, abortion
and homosexuality. They also insist that parishes be allowed to use
the 1928 Book of Common Prayer instead of the modernized worship
forms that the church approved in 1979. But unlike the small
factions of tradition-minded members who walked out of the
Episcopal Church in the late 1970s, the Synod stops short of making
a dramatic split with the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the
60 million-strong Anglican Communion.

    Instead, it has decided to stay until it either establishes
its independence to do what it wants or, more likely, until the
Episcopal Church expels its membership. "We must remain within the
church to transform it," vows dissident Bishop David Schofield of
Fresno, Calif. If separation is forced upon the flock, he states,
"we will take the path when it comes." Says Bishop Clarence Pope
of Fort Worth, who was elected president of the new Synod: "We are
moving one step at a time to test the waters."

    Pope, Schofield and four other bishops who now head regular
Episcopal dioceses will also be the leaders of six Synod "areas"
across the U.S. Fireworks are likely to start if, without approval,
one of these six Synod bishops moves into a liberal diocese to
perform rites for a traditionalist parish. Such a radical step,
some believe, would break canon law and constitute a schism.
Getting right down to basics, a spokesman for the diocese of
southeast Florida contends that if and when a parting of the ways
occurs, there will be serious legal and financial opposition to the
schismatics, with challenges to any plans to hold on to their
church buildings and clergy pensions.

    Despite such hazards, the Fort Worth gathering drew significant
backing. Besides the six active bishops, 20 retired U.S. bishops
participated, along with nine bishops from overseas, where
Anglicans are generally more sympathetic to the Synod's views than
in the U.S. All in all, the Synod claims a founding flock of 290
parishes in 85 of the 95 U.S. dioceses. Boosters are talking
grandly of enlisting 200,000 Episcopalians by Christmas of 1990 to
sign the Synod's Declaration of Common Faith and Purpose, which so
far has been endorsed by 26 dissident bishops and 13,000 priests
and lay members.

    The head of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Edmond
Browning, is expected to break his silence on the formation of the
Synod during a church executive-council meeting in Pittsburgh this
week. In September the full body of Episcopal bishops, including
the Synod Six, will meet in Philadelphia to consider the situation.
Whatever lies ahead, insists rebel Bishop Pope, the Synod's task
is to "get on with the job of being and doing church in the sense
of the givens of Holy Scripture and the received Tradition."