HOPE WON’T SAVE THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
- Charles Perez
- Mar 25
- 3 min read
COMMENTARY
By David W. Virtue, DD
March 25, 2025
The House of Bishops has emerged from its spring retreat with a sense of hope and being grounded in missions, according to a report in The Living Church.
On March 24, the last of six days at Camp McDowell in Nauvoo, Alabama, the bishops reflected on their conversations and dialogues, both formally and informally. In addition to spending the week in prayer, the bishops joined in reflections and conversations on issues including declining church attendance, prayer as a form of witness, church property, Christian nationalism, immigration, hope and institutions, and Title IV.
Let’s start with prayer. Newly minted Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said; “This week, we were sure to find grounding in prayer while considering the world around us.” Why would God listen to any prayers TEC bishops offer up when they openly engage in promoting sexual sin - abortion and LGBTQI+ behaviors in direct contravention to Scripture.
TEC bishops do very well “considering the world” around them and then obeying the culture rather than Christ.
The bishops talked about “growth” without a clue how to make dioceses grow because “no one knows ‘how to’ or believes in evangelism” as biblically understood. Both the ‘decade of evangelism’ and the ‘2020 vision to double the church’ flopped. If you think dioceses will grow proclaiming DEI and building condos for the poor and marginalized in defunct parishes then you have missed the plot completely.
On the issue of Title IV, Anglican Watch, a leading church watchdog group, warns of declining trust in Episcopal Title IV clergy disciplinary process. It repeatedly is sounding the alarm over declining trust in the Episcopal Church’s Title IV, the denomination’s labyrinthine and slow-moving clergy disciplinary process. In doing so, the organization is calling for Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe to take immediate action to improve the handling of Title IV complaints at both the national and diocesan levels.
The group’s concerns emphasize the process for bishops, which it believes influences outcomes in Title IV cases handled at the diocesan level. Those cases involve priests and deacons.
Eric Bonetti, a retired attorney, says Anglican Watch has been directly or indirectly involved in almost all the roughly 20 national-level cases involving bishops from the last two years.
“In every instance, we have observed multiple issues that violate both the letter and the spirit of church canons. These violations erode public trust in the Title IV process, hurt survivors of abuse, and cause lasting reputational harm for all involved.” Bonetti said. You can read more here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/church-watchdog-group-warns-of-declining-trust-in-episcopal-title-iv-clergy-disciplinary-process/
The bishops talked about “current realities” and “church statistics”. Well, I have news for you. The current realities are bad and getting worse and the church statistics show the denomination is in decline with not a prayer of it ever reversing. Dioceses are merging at a fast rate, there are more parish closures than ever. And one would be hard pressed if the Jesus proclaimed from Episcopal pulpits had much to do with the Jesus proclaimed in the gospels.
The bishops talked about Christian nationalism – they are against it of course – a safe bet. On the subject of immigration that are quite happy to scold President Donald Trump for his anti-immigration policies. But most Americans don’t like open borders, and while immigration is much needed to replace aging and dying white Americans, they would like it to be legal. (Full disclosure. I am an immigrant that had to jump through hoops to get here).
The deeper truth is that Presiding Bishop Rowe is no Billy Graham, Tim Keller, Thomas Cranmer or St. Augustine. He is a policy wonk, a 21st century administrative nerd, who, while putting the church in housekeeping order, firing and hiring new staff, won’t save an institution that has no gospel to proclaim with no message of sin and salvation; that mantle has passed to the Anglican Church in North America that is steadily making inroads into TEC and the culture.
One is dying, the other is growing. TEC bishops need to come to grips with that. Their pensions will only have relevancy till the grave, beyond that there will be all hell to pay for a church that failed to preach the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ.’
END
Sir,
'that mantle has passed to the Anglican Church in North America that is steadily making inroads into TEC and the culture'.
The roads that are being constructed and then marched upon are not like the straight roads of ancient Rome.
Barring the immediate Second Coming ACNA will probably end up at the same place as TEC with its priestesses.
If sex is irrelevant to joining the ministry then why should sexual orientation be relevant; and if sex and sexual orientation are irrelevant then on what ground can the transgendered be denied?
I wonder if he will find, upon His return, faith on earth?
On a more general level when I was young I thought that the positive side of…
"behaviors in direct contravention to Scripture" as you put it. What amazes me is that all that should be so OBVIOUS -- and the impact on the church should be also.