Prayer Makes History But Has it Been Lost, Filed Away, Forgotten by Moravians: Count Zinzendorf

3 Nov 2008

Some one recently sent me a link to a sermon by pastor Denny Kenaston and made available at CharityMinistries.org.

The topic of pastor Kenaston’s message was “The radical example of Moravian Missions”. After listening to the message, heard here, I became interested in the phrase that was shouted from the deck of the departing ship caring early missionaries off to far ports. Many of these missionaries would not return and they and their families knew this. The passionate rally cry lifted by by those early missionaries was “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his sufferings”

This phrase has found use by many whose ministry share the same passionate concern of early Moravians for lost souls.

An internet search will return many hits on this phrase but it may be difficult to find on any official Moravian web site. Please let me know if you find mention of it there.

 I found the following You tube video on the subject below.  Below that is an article by David Smithers for consideration in light of the claim by promoters of the Ecumenical Movement that drives them towards  Full Communion with other churches like the Lutheran and now the Episcopal Church that we have always been an ecumenical Church seeking full communion.

Can the desire of Count Zinzendor for restoration of the Apostolic Community be so broadly apllied.

by David Smithers
Throughout the history of the Church, it has always been the most ardent lovers of Jesus who have felt the greatest need for more of His presence. Surely it is with this class of saints that Count Zinzendorf belongs. For Zinzendorf, loving fellowship with Christ was the essential manifestation of the Christian life. Throughout the Count’s life, “His blessed presence” was his all consuming theme. He had chosen from an early age as his life-motto the now famous confession; “I have one passion;it is Jesus, Jesus only.”

A Man of Prayer

Flowing out of Zinzendorf’s passionate love for Christ came a life disciplined in prayer. “Count Zinzendorf had early learned the secret of prevailing prayer. So active had he been in establishing circles for prayer that on leaving the college at Halle, at 16 years of age , he handed the famous professor Franke a list of seven praying societies.” Also preceding the great Moravian revival of 1727, it was Count Zinzendorf who was used to encourage prayer for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. John Greenfield describes for us the constant prayer that followed the revival of 1727. “Was there ever in the whole of church history such an astonishing prayer meeting as that which beginning in 1727, went on one hundred years? It was known as the ‘Hourly Intercession.’ And it meant that by relays of brothers and sisters, prayer without ceasing was made to God for all the work and wants of His church.’ The best antidote for a powerless Church is the influence of a praying man. The influence of Count Zinzendorf’s prayer-life did not stop with one small community. It ultimately went on to influence the whole world.

Souls for the Lamb

As Zinzendorf’s passion for Jesus grew, so did his passion for the lost. He became determined to evangelize the world with a handful of saints, equipped only with a burning love for Jesus and the power of prayer. The Moravian Brotherhood readily received and perpetuated the passion of their leader. A seal was designed to express their newfound missionary zeal. The seal was composed of a lamb on a crimson ground, with the cross of resurrection and a banner of triumph with the motto; “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.” The Moravians recognized themselves in debt to the world as the trustees of the gospel. They were taught to embrace a lifestyle of self-denial, sacrifice and prompt obedience. They followed the call of the Lamb to go anywhere and with an emphasis upon the worst and hardest places as having the first claim. No soldiers of the cross have ever been bolder as pioneers, more patient or persistent in difficulties, more heroic in suffering, or more entirely devoted to Christ and the souls of men than the Moravian Brother-hood.

The Moravians beautifully explain their motivation for missions in the following 1791 evangelical report. “The simple motive of the brethren for sending missionaries to distant nations was and is an ardent desire to promote the salvation of their fellow men, by making known to them the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ. It grieved them to hear of so many thousands and millions of the human race sitting in darkness and groaning beneath the yoke of sin and the tyranny of Satan; and remembering the glorious promises given in the Word of God, that the heathen also should be the reward of the sufferings and death of Jesus; and considering His commandment to His followers, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, they were filled with confident hopes that if they went forth in obedience unto, and believing in His word, their labor would not be in vain in the Lord. They were not dismayed in reflecting on the smallness of their means and abilities, and that they hardly knew their way to the heathen whose salvation they so ardently longed for, nor by the prospect of enduring hardships of every kind and even perhaps the loss of their lives in the attempt. Yet their love to their Savior and their fellow sinners for whom He shed His blood, far outweighed all these considerations. They went forth in the strength of their God and He has wrought wonders in their behalf.”

The Moravians had learned that the secret of loving the souls of men was found in loving the Savior of men. On October 8,1732, a Dutch ship left the Copenhagen harbor bound for the Danish West Indies. On board were the two first Moravian missionaries; John Leonard Dober, a potter, and David Nitschman, a carpenter. Both were skilled speakers and ready to sell themselves into slavery to reach the slaves of the West Indies. As the ship slipped away, they lifted up a cry that would one day become the rallying call for all Moravian missionaries, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.” The Moravian’s passion for souls was surpassed only by their passion for the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

They Had All Things In Common

Another vision of Count Zinzendorf’s was that of the restoration of Apostolic community. He labored to establish a community of saints that loved and supported one another through prayer, encouragement and accountability. To a great extent Zinzendorf’s vision became a reality in the small village of Herrnhut. A deep sense of community was maintained through small groups based on common needs and interests, original and unifying hymns and continual prayer meetings. In 1738 John Wesley visited “this happy place” and was so impressed that he commented in his journal “I would gladly have spent my life here . . . Oh, when shall this Christianity cover the earth as water covers the sea?”

He Had No Other Happiness But To Be Near Him

By no means was Count Zinzendorf’s life flawless, but one cannot help but be moved by his consuming passion and pre-occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. A glimpse of his burning love for Jesus can be caught in the following letter. “Our method of proclaiming salvation is this: to point out to every heart the loving Lamb, who died for us, and although He was the Son of God, offered Himself for our sins … by the preaching of His blood, and of His love unto death, even the death of the cross, never, either in discourse or in argument, to digress even for a quarter of an hour from the loving Lamb: to name no virtue except in Him, and from Him and on His account,-to preach no commandment except faith in Him; no other justification but that He atoned for us; no other sanctification but the privilege to sin no more; no other happiness but to be near Him, to think of Him and do His pleasure; no other self denial but to be deprived of Him and His blessings; no other calamity but to displease Him; no other life but in Him.’

The source of Count Zinzendorf’s success was bound up in his total allegiance and love for JESUS CHRIST! Likewise the source of the modern Church’s failure lies in her half-hearted devotion and open disregard for the Lover of their souls. As the Bride of Christ, we are in need of some old-fashioned, gut wrenching, REAL repentance. Today, Jesus, the heartbroken Bridegroom, still cries out to us; “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, . . . (Rev. 2:4-5)

by David Smithers

Episcopal Moravian Agreement is complete see details here

Episcopal legal bills result in deficit

Common Ground for fruitful interfaith dialogue requires “sensitivity and careful use of traditional Christian language like mission, witness and conversion.” That really should not be hard for Christian Churches that have been members of the WCC who have been conditioned by them not only to be sensitive about those concepts among each other but in their own denomination. Often avoiding such teachings and dicussions all together.

Ecumenical Consultation Demarcates Common Ground for Dialogue with Islam

Jointly issued by the WCC and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches

Contact: World Council of Churches, +41-22-791-6153, +41-79-507-6363, media@wcc-coe.org

MEDIA ADVISORY, Oct. 22 /Standard Newswire/ — Christian communities should improve their knowledge of Islam, be good neighbours to Muslims and bear witness to their faith in an appropriate manner, according to an international group of church leaders and experts on Christian-Muslim dialogue.

These were some of the recommendations put forward at an 18 to 20 October consultation aimed at developing an ecumenical Christian theological understanding of dialogue with Islam. Convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC), it gathered some fifty church leaders and experts on Christian-Muslim dialogue in Chavannes-de-Bogis, outside Geneva, Switzerland.

However, participants agreed, Christianity teaches to love the neighbour regardless of race, gender or religion. Even more, Christian self-understanding is challenged and deepened through relationships with Muslims, while Christians themselves are renewed by entering into dialogue with them.

For this dialogue to be fruitful it needs to be sensitive, including a careful use of traditional Christian language like mission, witness and conversion. And both church leaders and communities need to be educated in the knowledge of Islam as Muslims live and present it.

Read the rest of the article at http://www.earnedmedia.org/wcc1022.htm

Is this insanity contagious?

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori had better go below deck and see the gaping hole in her sinking ship.

She can go on pretending this is about Openly Gay Bishop Gene Robinson but she needs to listen to those who are leaving.  They make it clear that this is only one of many symptoms of biblical abandonment and they find they  must jump ship and get as far away as possible in fear of being sucked down as the once might (TEC) Sinks!Schori seems to demonstrate no understanding of the  commission of the church and little understanding or willingness to listen to those who are trying to remind her.

I wonder if she will stand firmly and proudly on the stern as TEC slips below the water or will she eagerly scamper off to another denominational rescue vessel where through a full communion agreement she will be recognized as a Bishop in good standing? 

Episcopal leader calls diocese secession illegal

Washington (AP) Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (SHOHR’-ee) says the Diocese of Pittsburgh probably won’t be the last to vote to leave the U.S. branch of the world Anglican Communion.But she told a forum at Washington National Cathedral that she considers Pittsburgh’s secession to join with more conservative Anglicans in South America to be a violation of church law.

The Diocese of San Joaquin (wah-KEEN’),

California, had previously quit the Episcopal Church, and dioceses based in Quincy, Illinois, and Fort Worth, Texas

, are set to vote next month on leaving.Conservative Episcopalians object to the denomination condoning homosexuality, a position highlighted by the 2003 consecration of the openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

But Jefferts Schori said that issue is less important to God than helping the poor. 

Comment by reader:
Ms Schori foolishly violated church law to “depose” Bp Duncan 2 weeks prior to this vote making the vote even more lopsided. Now she has the gall to talk about whether it is legal for a diocese to leave. She is an oceanographer not a canon lawyer. Here is what a canon lawyer says:”The Episcopal Church, like each of the Dioceses which make it up, is itself an unincorporated association. What does that mean? An unincorporated association is, first of all, not incorporated-that is to say, it is not a permanent legal entity, as is a corporation. Second, it is an association-which is to say that it is a voluntary assembly of people who choose freely to belong to it. While they are members, they must obey its rules. But if the association had a rule that “members who join us may never leave us,” that rule itself would not only be unenforceable in any court, but it would violate the very definition of an association, in an effort to turn it into a permanent, corporate-like entity.” http://tinyurl.com/4grhpw

Ms Schori’s heavy handed ways has made the denomination the fastest declining in America - and that was last year. With four whole dioceses leaving, dozens and dozens of lawsuits across the country, this year’s statistics will make last year’s look rosy.

The following article appeared this morning on the Episcopal website at:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_101319_ENG_HTM.htm 

Bulletin: Pittsburgh votes to leave Episcopal Church, align with Southern Cone

By Mary Frances Schjonberg , October 04, 2008

 

 

By Mary Frances Schjonberg , October 04, 2008 

[Episcopal News Service, Monroeville, Pennsylvania] Deputies to the 143rd diocesan convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted to realign the diocese with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

The vote came quickly after the convention gave the second required approval to constitutional changes that removed all mention of the Episcopal Church.

“I believe that the vast majority of Episcopalians and Anglicans will be intensely grieved by the actions of individuals who thought it necessary to remove them from The Episcopal Church,” Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said after the vote. “I have repeatedly reassured Episcopalians that there is abundant room for dissent within this Church, and that loyal opposition is a long and honored tradition within Anglicanism. Schism is not, having frequently been seen as a more egregious error than charges of heresy. There is room in this Church for all who desire to be members of it.  The actions of the former bishop of Pittsburgh, and some lay and clergy leaders, have removed themselves from this Church; the rest of the Church laments their departure.  We stand ready to welcome the return of any who wish to rejoin this part of the Body of Christ.

“We will work with remaining Episcopalians in Pittsburgh to provide support as they reorganize the Diocese and call a bishop to provide episcopal ministry. The people of The Episcopal Church hold all concerned in our prayers — for healing and comfort in time of distress, and for discernment as they seek their way into the future.
 
“The mission of God, in which The Episcopal Church participates, is to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We cannot do one without doing the other. We believe that it is in serving the least among us that we discover the image of God, and the presence of a suffering Christ. It is in serving those least that we rediscover our common mission, which transcends our differences. Jesus weeps at the bickering of his brothers and sisters, particularly when they miss him in their midst.”

Deposed Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan sat with convention officials in the chancel of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Monroeville from the beginning of the convention. The Rev. Jonathan Millard, rector of the Church of the Ascension in Oakland, Pennsylvania, was elected to run the convention in the absence of a sitting bishop.

When Moravian theologians or historians remind us of our historic pacifism what are they attempting to instill in us?

That we seek peaceable solutions with each other in our Christian communities where we know and work with each other practically every day?  Are they implying that we remain pacifist in a dangerous world that seeks to destroy our nation, politically, economically and religiously?

As we know the World Council of churches believes and promotes that we must peaceably yield to the diverse faith and political forces that seek to revise or replace Christian teaching as Christ and the apostles once delivered it.

Here is an example of a “peaceful relationship” being fostered by the WCC. I hope someone will inform the attendees of the Iranian parliament’s adoption of a mandatory death penalty for “apostasy.” I hope someone will inform the attendees of Iranian parliament’s adoption of a mandatory death penalty for “apostasy.” They very effectively arrive at peaceful conclusion by eliminating decent.

How Not to Toast a Tyrant
A dialog dinner for Ahmadinejad.By Paul Marshall & Nina Shea

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won’t be given a prestigious academic podium this time in New York when he returns to address the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, but neither will he be given the kind of reception befitting a dangerous tyrant. In fact, he will receive another propaganda gift perhaps more valuable than last year’s Columbia University forum.Courtesy of new General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto, who is Nicaragua’s foreign minister, and a coalition of left-wing American Christian groups, he will be the guest of honor at a private iftar dinner to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The September 25 event at the Grand Hyatt Hotel has all the trappings of a Cold War solidarity event. Joining D’Escoto as hosts are some companeros from the former Catholic priest’s Sandinista days: The World Council of Churches, the American Friends Service Committee, the Mennonites, and the US section of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.

See the rest of this artcle here

From here.

Leaders of conservative Anglican group Anglican Mainstream have expressed their “great sadness” at the decision of The Episcopal Church in the US to depose the Bishop of Pittsburgh.

The TEC’s House of Bishops voted 88 – 35 in a closed meeting in Salt Lake City on Thursday to remove Bishop Robert Duncan from ordained ministry on the grounds of “abandonment of the communion of this church.” There were four abstentions.

Bishop Duncan is the moderator of the Common Cause Partnership, a federation of Anglicans in North America disenchanted with the TEC’s pro-homosexual agenda.

His deposition comes ahead of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh’s vote on October 4 on whether to secede from the TEC and align instead with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America.

In a joint statement, Dr Philip Giddings, Convenor of Anglican Mainstream, and Canon Dr Chris Sugden, the group’s Executive Secretary, said, “To take such action is hardly in the spirit of the reflections at this year’s Lambeth Conference or the Archbishop of Canterbury’s final presidential address.

“We see this vote as further evidence that The Episcopal Church in the USA in its formal decisions and structures ‘have denied orthodox faith’.”

Bishops at the Lambeth Conference held in Canterbury in July and early August agreed an immediate halt to homosexual consecrations, blessings for same-sex unions, and cross-border interventions. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, spoke in his final address, meanwhile, of the desire among bishops to remain in communion and continue working towards a unifying covenant.

Dr Giddings and Dr Sugden were among the hundreds of conservative Anglicans who met in Jerusalem in June for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) to assess the future of orthodox Anglicanism and the Anglican Communion.

The two leaders pointed in their statement to the Jerusalem Declaration issued by GAFCON leaders at the end of their conference, which stated, “We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord.”

Dr Giddings and Dr Sugden added, “Anglicans who adhere to the orthodox faith will continue to welcome and receive the ministry of Bishop Bob Duncan as a faithful Bishop and wish him and the people of the Diocese of Pittsburgh the Lord’s blessing in their faithful witness to the gospel.”

The orthodox Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) also said it would continue to recognise Bishop Duncan as a bishop of the Anglican Communion, as Bishop of Pittsburgh, and as the moderator of the Common Cause Partnership.

CANA Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns denounced TEC’s “hostile and uncanonical action”, saying it would not be accepted by the worldwide Anglican Communion.

“We hope and pray for the leaders of The Episcopal Church that they would protect the interests of its members by working with – rather than fiercely against – its bishops to proclaim the life-transforming news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That should be the goal of all Christians. Sadly, trying to fire a bishop in good standing with the rest of the Anglican Communion does nothing to save one soul,” Bishop Minns concluded.

Communion in Faith or Communion in Institution
 

For Moravians seeking unity and defecting Episcopals seeking separation from The Episcopal Church USA (TEC) the question being addressed is – What is the basis of our call to union and communion?

For those of us who have taken some time to carefully study the language and terminology of the agreement for full communion between the Moravian Church and the Episcopal Church “Finding Our Delight in the Lord” we are left wondering if the Dialogue team some how lost it’s focus on the unity that Jesus prayed for in his High Priestly Prayer recorded in John 17.

I suppose given this dialogue went on for ten years it is conceivable that the focus could have drifted without detection. The modern Ecumenical movement draws its energy and direction from the World and National Council of Churches. The Council of Churches provides the encouragement, techniques, literature,  language and interperative understandings used by faith groups who seek to establish official recognition as being in “full  communion.” The biblical basis chosen by the councils is taken from John,“That they may be one” John 17:11 and “ That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:21  is a charge laid on us that is unassailable.

The Council of churches and those who subscribe to their version of an Ecumenical Movement are engaging in a Heresy that this union can be man-ufactured and molded into any utilitarian shape that includes every theology, religion and cult that comes along. 

We must certainly wonder why the dialogue team spent so much time delving into institutional structure either assuring that there was a fit or deciding that those structures that did not fit were not important.  The 38 pages of the agreement looks for all the world like a merger agreement. One sentence in the agreement assures us that this is not the purpose. Should it be decided later that a more complete union is desirable the language of the Agreement will certainly accommodate it. A few whereas’s and therefores will take care of it.

Given the painfully intricate analysis of institutional structures by the Dialogue team one is left asking is this seeking a communion of apostolic faith or an institutional communion. This question is thoughtfully addressed in an article that was published today on Virtue On Line.

The Rev. Canon J. Gary L’Hommedieu is Canon for Pastoral Care at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida, and a regular columnist for VirtueOnline.

Rev L’Hommedieu explores the contradictions of understanding on communion that the Episcopal church is dealing with as it seeks to preserve the institution or (TEC) through seizure of property of those churches who are realigning with other Governing bodies. The argument by (TEC) is that they are abandoning the communion. Ironically the other diocese that they are aligning with are in communion with (TEC) and more importantly are proclaiming an Apostolic communion of Faith - that which (TEC) is abandoning.

Rev L’Hommedieu’s article is timely and well worth the read.

 
THE HISTORICAL FICTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Commentary

By Canon Gary L’Hommedieu
www.virtueonline.org
9/17/08

There’s a lot of pressure on Episcopal middle-of-the-roaders these days.

With traditionalist dioceses lining up like planes on the tarmac waiting for takeoff, the pressure is on the Left Behinds to define their own Episcopal identity. Because doctrine is off limits, the only thing left to rally around is the church as institution. Not an institution with a purpose or even a variety of purposes, but simply as an institution pursuing its own survival.

A faithful Episcopalian is no longer one who faithfully stands by the creeds, the Prayer Book and (heaven forbid!) the scriptures. A faithful Episcopalian is now one who stands behind the Presiding Bishop and the General Convention. To paraphrase the jingoist sentiment of another era, “My church, right or wrong!”

It is troubling to note the shift of TEC from an institution centered around a long religious tradition to one centered around rules, regulations, and real estate. Even more troubling is watching the leadership of the Episcopal Church act more and more like this is the way it ought to be–the way it has always been–and to watch them feign indignation at those who cling to an historic faith as the proper object of Christian loyalty. There is no one “faith”, they retort. And even if there is, to make demands about it is to be divisive and exclusive. Today’s loyalists have no stomach for standing on principle.

It is sobering to watch the bishops and clergy of TEC pretend a new history into existence and then equate conformity to this fabrication with faithfulness to the gospel.

The program of pretense has engulfed the laity as well. In the Ft. Worth area alone we hear of Via Media, Steadfast Episcopalians, North Texas Episcopalians, North Texas Remain Episcopal and Mid Cities Episcopalians, all lining up to oppose the traditionalist bishop, his clergy and the lay majority. Similar organizations, or branches of the same, pop up throughout the remaining enclaves of Episcopal conservatism in Albany, South Carolina, Central Florida, Pittsburgh and elsewhere.

Not since the Viet Nam era have we witnessed such a dramatic display of wrapping oneself in the institutional flag. “Hell no, we won’t go!” comes readily to the lips of the graying clergy, only now with a biting irony. The American Counter Culture, firmly embedded in the mainline denominations, must now call itself the Establishment. Worse, it must wax indignant at the protestations of a new minority.

The new majority came to power championing the cause of every minority it could add to its letterhead. Like the generation that surprised itself by coming of age, they were not prepared to be a majority–to become the Establishment. They were certainly never prepared to see themselves as driven by Establishment concerns–power and property. But what else is there?

The causes espoused by the new majority are calculated to grant legitimacy to the new Establishment. The Millennium Development Goals project (to cite the most recent example) is an obvious fit precisely because MDG’s are unassailable by popular criticism. They are politically correct and thus culturally orthodox. Their popular enthusiasm certainly has no relation to the UN’s track record in practical solutions to global problems particularly on such a grand scale.

Take the rest of the “causes” championed by the mainline churches–female clergy, environmentalism, gay liberation, opposition to war, just to name a few–which of these was not pre-certified to mediate approval by the secular establishment? Who risks anything to back the “prophetic” program of today’s Episcopal Church?

The new church has become the old Establishment, and it’s embarrassing.

Still, that is not what puts pressure on Episcopalians today as the steady trickle of defections threatens to hemorrhage. The real pressure is on for TEC to pretend that it stands in historic continuity with the Christian church across the ages–the church of the Bible and the creeds. What is the only possible evidence TEC has to make such a claim? Well, we hold deed on the old properties, and we have attached our name to some worthy projects. So we must be the church of the prophets, apostles, and martyrs.

The new Episcopal loyalists have redefined loyalty based on the only thing left–the institution. Doctrine is divisive. Morality falls under the general category of public relations. The political shell of the American Church is now a social advocacy group in vestments. Its adherence to its own creed is dismissed as superfluous.

One can argue the merit of subscribing to the Christian faith in our time. One can argue that Christians are “the most to be pitied” after all (or just plain stupid) based upon what we know today about history or biology or physics. One cannot argue that the institution that goes by the name “The Episcopal Church” is the same historic movement that formerly called itself by that name. Such a statement is historically indefensible. It is a fiction.

As the House of Bishops prepares to expel Bishop Bob Duncan for “abandonment of communion”, they must put forward the absurdity that leaving the communion of the Episcopal Church and aligning with a church with which the Episcopal Church is presently in communion is abandoning communion.

Here it is hard to fathom what “communion” is purported to mean. Whatever it means, it does not mean standing in continuity with those churches who received the same faith that the Episcopal Church received when it separated from the Church of England. It refers to the Episcopal Church as a national, legal entity, which traces only its development as an institution to the Church of England.

Institutional succession is not the same as communion. Here the Lutherans have an important corrective to our doctrine of succession. “Apostolic succession” must refer primarily to the succession of the faith of the apostles, with the succession of hands being secondary. In our tradition we assume the succession of faith but only insist on the succession of hands. And increasingly we wink at the reference to faith and acknowledge only the power of the apostolic office. The succession of hands is good theater in support of an important principle–the need to pass on the faith from generation to generation. Take faith out of the equation and all you have is theater. It’s all for show.

Notice the word “communion” hasn’t yet entered into the equation. The apostolic communion would be the church’s claim that, by standing in communion with the apostles through sharing the faith they received from the Risen Lord, one is standing in communion with the Lord himself. Abandonment of communion is a serious matter because it implies the abandonment of the apostolic faith and, by extension, the Lord of the Church. In the case of Bishop Duncan abandonment of communion means–you guessed it–abandonment of the institution.

Episcopal Church leaders are becoming hardened in their pretense that the Ordinal is really a “living document”–that reference to “the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them” are traditional words that borrow divergent meanings from novel “contexts”. I hear more and more clergy defending this position with feigned outrage at those who rebel at the church’s abandonment of historic doctrine. I know how the clergy are drilled in the critical analysis of texts. They know the historical background of the Prayer Books. They know that “received” does not refer to the legislative fiat of the most recent General Convention. If they have grown dull, it is because they have chosen to do so.

The Episcopal Church has become a legal shell with timid survivors who cannot make anything but institutional statements in support of institutional ends. Doctrine has been bargained away. All that remains are familiar phrases, emptied of meaning, retained for occasional use in public relations. Even these have largely fallen out of use, replaced by secular hot button phrases like “justice” and “inclusiveness”–words which never mean anything in particular but always adapt themselves to institutional ends.

Today’s Episcopalians are under pressure to pretend that nothing of substance has changed over the centuries. For the most part they are not wearing it well.