GRISWOLD SPINS ECUSA CRISIS, INVOKES HOLY SPIRIT TO DEFEND ACTIONS

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue

The ECUSA Presiding Bishop, Frank T. Griswold warned 26 graduating seminarians at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest this week that they are about to enter the wilderness, invoking the story of the Israelites wandering in the desert after fleeing Egypt.

"Be ready for surprise," he said. "Be ready to be disconcerted; be ready to be turned around and aimed in the opposite direction; be ready to be thwarted at every turn; be ready to be unsettled by the goings-on in the church," he said at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in northwest Austin.

His comments were reported by Eileen E. Flynn of the AMERICAN-STATESMAN.

Though he didn't allude specifically to the current problems in the church, Griswold assured graduates that the Holy Spirit will be working in them at the most difficult times.

"I hope, when you have these experiences, which you surely will, you might remember these words from your presiding bishop, who is no stranger to what he is saying," Griswold said.

This is too disingenuous by half.

The truth is; it is Griswold himself who has brought on the crisis in The Episcopal Church by consecrating a divorced, non-celibate homosexual to the episcopacy, and allowing the homosexual agenda to run rampant throughout the church with a nod and a wink, all the time telling the Primates that he understood their pain.

Furthermore he has said that contemporary homosexuality is not found in, nor vaguely understood by the Biblical writers and he has more than once hinted that if the African bishops wait long enough post-modernity will catch up with them and they will see the error of their narrow-minded ways on pansexual behavior.

They won't of course, as they believe in the authority of Holy Scripture, delivering themselves yet again with another blistering letter to Griswold telling him that he has three months to repent of his actions or face total expulsion from the Anglican Communion.

Them's fightin' words.

In an interview, Griswold told the American Statesman that he was hopeful that the church will maintain wholeness and noted that Irish Archbishop Robin Eames, who is heading the commission, has shown wisdom in handling delicate issues before. It was Eames who led a commission on women's ordination that pleased nobody at the end of the day, with provinces acting as they chose. The Episcopal Church brokered in women's ordination without theological examination, choosing to follow the bell curve of a secular women's liberation movement at the time.

It should also be noted that Archbishop Eames himself is a proponent of pansexualism, and he is not unlike Griswold in his own thinking on the matter of sex outside of marriage. In a recent missive he upbraided conservatives for trying to influence the Lambeth Commission in their endeavors to prevent a split in the Communion, but then he got blasted himself by West Indies Primate Drexel Gomez for his obvious bias towards the West's liberals.

Gomez wrote: "There is no small feeling amongst conservative members of the Communion that they are being asked to show restraint whilst the liberal agenda moves ahead with bishops in ECUSA taking action against conservative parishes; the Church of Canada proceeding to debate the blessing of same sex unions; dioceses in the Episcopal Church actually going forward with the authorisation of such rites, and the appointment of known advocates of same sex unions to senior office in the Church of England. This is only likely to create a situation where the playing field is perceived as skewed - conservative reaction is held back, whilst liberal viewpoints are allowed to claim too much territory. It creates the question in many minds, "Why should we wait, if others are not showing the same restraint?" I should be grateful therefore if some way could be found of addressing this question, and pointing out to our Communion that in the period of preparation of the work of the Lambeth Commission, restraint needs to be shown on all sides, and provocation to "precipitate action" avoided."

Griswold loves to talk up what he calls the "diverse center," for building unity and for people who "may have different opinions yet can claim a common heritage…a common sense of mission."

But the truth is that "diverse center" has all but gone. The American Anglican Council (AAC) and the newly formed NETWORK will never again believe anything Griswold says about looking for a "diverse center" they know it doesn't exist. It's Frank's fractal fantasy.

The truth is; the church is radically polarizing with each passing day. Orthodox parishes are locked in mortal combat with revisionist bishops over theology, morality and property and those battles are heating up in one diocese after another with many heading towards the secular courts for resolution.

It is altogether too disingenuous for Titus Pressler, the seminary dean and president, to say Griswold is leading the church "through our turbulent time with care, respect and love for all those within the body of Christ."

This is arrant nonsense, unmitigated rubbish. Griswold has brought on the crisis all by himself, and for Pressler to spin Griswold's actions to make him look like the hero in the ECUSA middle, is nothing short of watching a blind man walking off a cliff face hoping that if he flaps his arms he can fly away as he plunges into the sea.

Griswold hates any talk of absolutism. Like the ancient Israelites, Griswold said, "the church always is living in the wilderness between a former certitude and a new reality that has yet to emerge."

That "new reality" is a revival of Gnostic paganism wrapped up in the garb of 21st Century pluriformity, and it is killing the ECUSA.

But the end is nearer than either Griswold or Pressler want to admit. The threat of a formal fracture is very real as the global communion awaits the conclusions of the Lambeth Commission. The only question is what it will all look like when the final curtain is drawn on the sad drama of what was once a proud denomination.

NOTE: If you are not receiving this from VIRTUOSITY, the Anglican Communion's largest biblically orthodox Episcopal/Anglican Online News Service, then you may subscribe FREE by going to: www.virtuosityonline.org. Virtuosity's website has been accessed by more than 1.7 million readers in 45 countries on six continents. This story is copyrighted but may be forwarded electronically with reference to VIRTUOSITY and the author. No changes are permitted in the text.