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Sean Rowe Seated as TEC’s 28th Presiding Bishop but his Sermon Failed the Smell Test.

 COMMENTARY

 

By David W. Virtue, DD

February 3, 2025

 

The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, TEC’s new Presiding Bishop knocked three times on the door of Washington National Cathedral and was ceremonially seated as the church’s 28th Presiding Bishop.

 

In his sermon he uttered a lot of high-sounding words like “what our lives would be like if we realized that Christ is among us.” Well, if Christ is not among us then the question is moot, and where is He?

 

“What if we saw Christ in each other? What if we understood what it meant — for real — that Christ is among us? In one of us, all of us, in this kingdom, inverted, turned upside down, and made for the healing, and wholeness of the world,” said Rowe.

 

Seeing Christ in each other is an old Episcopal saw. It is part and parcel of the Antiracism Training Manual of the Episcopal Church and is trotted out at every anti-racism event TEC puts on. Just 4 percent of Episcopalians are black. The vast majority of parishes have never seen a black person.

 

Did TEC’s bishops “see Christ” in all the orthodox priests and bishops they tossed out of the church because they refused to embrace homosexual marriage, because they believed God did not approve of it, and that He had not changed his mind about marriage being solely between a man and a woman?

 

“We need to find the face of Christ in the faces of the marginalized,” Rowe said, adding that in Christ’s kingdom, “the people at the edge are in the center.”

 

Well, I have news for you, faithful orthodox priests were “marginalized”, people who actually saw the face of Christ in Scripture and who suffered for their faith losing their churches and pensions rather than go to Hell believing the latest piece of heresy they were forced to embrace.

 

And what of the unborn, Mr. Presiding Bishop? There is an inherent contradiction in your statement about seeing the face of Christ if the unborn never get to be born and see the face of Christ for themselves. The dignity of every human being suddenly disappears. You will forgive me saying this but there is an inherent contradiction when you believe in abortion on demand up to birth. That is an astonishingly evil and anti-Christ position to take. What about mercy for the most vulnerable human beings – those still in their mothers' wombs?

 

You said the nation (and by definition the churches) are deeply divided. True enough, but who divided it? those who uphold the sanctity of life? Being orthodox in faith and morals? Those who oppose homosexual marriage and transgender surgeries? The dozens who went to jail because they stood outside abortion clinics protesting abortions and who had to obtain a presidential pardon to get out of jail!

 

The Book of Common Prayer provides us with bedrock Christian morality. The Prayer Book does not hedge on the moral absolutes of the Judeo-Christian tradition. They are chiseled in stone. Their uncompromising standards remain a clearly-defined alternative to the morality-is-what-you-make-it-out-to-be of many modern churches.

 

You said; “We live in a world in which the enemy is bound and determined to sow division among us. God did not come to us as a strong man. God came first as a child.” Well, many of us believe that the enemy got his nose in under the TEC tent and sowed so much division that thousands were forced to leave and start over.

 

“We need to greet with peace those who voted for the candidate we can’t stand; to be in the Communion line alongside people who don’t look like us, live like us, or even love like us,” you said.

 

Well, the prophet Jeremiah had something to say about that. He cried, “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”

 

The Episcopal Church is on a downward trajectory; it has lost the majority of its members. Over 55% of Episcopal parishes are now in a state of long-term decline, with churches losing more with each passing week with the average age of an Episcopalian approaching 70 they will soon be closing. Dioceses are merging faster than big-box stores in your local mall.

 

You cite Simeon and Anna as your models for the church. They waited with steadfast hope for the fulfillment of God’s promises. Based on what has been going on for the last 40 years the “fulfillment” will see the end of TEC and with the birth of the ACNA, God’s promises will be fulfilled in them, not you and The Episcopal Church.

 

You said; “In this world order, falling comes before rising,” drawing on a prophecy pronounced by Simeon. “In God’s kingdom, the immigrants and refugees, transgender people, the poor and the marginalized, are at the edges, fearful and alone. They are at the center of the gospel story.”

 

Perhaps, but immigrants and refugees are not filling the pews of Episcopal parishes because TEC has no message, only the phony talk of inclusion and diversity. Homosexuals also never filled church pews even though TEC and many other Anglican provinces affirmed this behavior. Immigrants and refugees are more likely to fill Pentecostal churches where an unalloyed gospel can be heard because you sure won’t hear it coming from an Episcopal pulpit.

 

END

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1 Comment


Dave Ball
a day ago

With reference to Sean Rowe's Sermon:

Great commentary, David. You hit this one dead on.

Rowe's sermon was classic TEC - forget the immutable truths of the Bible - we have improved the message.

I am sure his sermon will resonate because empty buildings tend to echo.

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