Angry in the Great White North

From Anglican.tk, an open letter on the matter of a priest in a same-sex relationship working in Ottawa:

Bishop Peter Coffin of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa changed the course of the Anglican Church in Ottawa when he recently granted permission to an American priest in a same-sex “marriage” to function as a priest in this diocese. She is currently part of the pastoral team in a downtown church working in a non-stipendiary capacity. While Bishop Coffin insists he hasn’t broken his promise to wait for the outcome of General Synod 2007 before moving forward with same-sex “marriages,” in welcoming this priest to function in our diocese, he has in effect acted preemptively. Orthodox Anglicans feel betrayed by his recent actions and are dismayed by the fracture that will inevitably follow.

For those who have lost track, the Anglican Church currently teaches that homosexuality (in particular, the practise of it) is incompatible with Scripture.

Now the Canadian branch of the Anglican Church was suspended from certain international Anglican bodies over the approval of same-sex marriages by the Diocese of New Westminster in British Columbia.

It would appear that the Canadian branch is continuing to march to its own drum.

For Canadian Anglicans, both clergy and laypersons, hoping that the rift could be healed, this is bad news. Of course, the various national bodies of the Anglican Church (called the Episcopal Church in the US and Scotland) are not as tightly bound together as the Roman Catholic Church is. That is not to say a schism is not a serious matter, however. Like the Catholic Church, but unlike most Protestant faiths, Anglicans claim authority through the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, that is, their Church is the spiritual successor of the Church of the Apostles. Apostolic authority rests on the notion of a succession stretching back to Peter. Each priest is ordained by a bishop ("episcopus" in Latin) who in turn was ordained by a bishop and so forth back to the first ordinations by the Apostles.

This particular intepretation of the Apostolic Succession is called the "historic episcopate" and is used by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church (as well as some others, such as the Orthodox Churches).

Interestingly, the Roman Catholic Church recognizes the validity of bishoprics in a number of rites, including those outside of the Roman Catholic Church:

The Roman Catholic Church holds that a bishop's consecration is valid if the sacrament of Holy Orders is validly done and the consecrating bishop's orders are valid, regardless of whether this takes place within or outside of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, Roman Catholics recognize the validity of the episcopacy of Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox. Assyrian Church of the East, Old-Catholic, and Independent Catholic bishops, although these orders are considered "illicit."

The Anglicans unfortunately, don't make the cut for the Roman Catholics because their rite of Holy Orders was altered by Edward VI.

But that's just trivia. Suffice it to say that Anglicans believe their rite is valid and historically grounded.

As for other Christian faiths, Apostolic Succession is a much weaker concept, dependent on shared faith only, and not on a lineage of valid ordinations. This is not surprising, since many Protestant faiths were founded by people who themselves were not ordained, so the notion of Apostolic Succession in the historic sense had to be jettisoned in order not to bring their legitimacy into question.

The bottom line is that for Anglicans, rifts are a serious business, since if it carries on for too long, a real danger exists that the Apostolic Succession might be broken, with implications on the legitimacy of clergy and on the sacraments they deliver to the faithful.

That concern is the driving force of this schism within a schism:

The Anglican Gathering of Ottawa was incorporated in 2004 to provide guidance and support to parishes and individuals wanting to remain faithful to traditional, biblical Anglican doctrine and practice. Our mandate is to remain within the worldwide Anglican Communion even if that means parting ways with the Anglican Church of Canada. Although the issue of same-sex “marriage” is in the limelight now, the fundamental divide stems from different beliefs about the authority of Scripture. We strongly object to Bishop Coffin’s actions and call upon him to rescind his permission to this priest to function in the Diocese of Ottawa.

A church is not an airplane, in which everyone is strapped into their seats, held hostage to whatever course the pilot wishes to take. That is a cult, not a church.

The traditional metaphor of the Good Shepherd is better. A bishop is the shepherd to his flock, but if he tries to herd them over a cliff, the flock will stampede back to safer pastures.