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Monday, January 31, 2000
By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The Anglican archbishop of South East Asia has consecrated a well-known conservative Episcopal priest from Ambridge as a missionary bishop to the United States.
The Rev. John H. Rodgers Jr., dean emeritus of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, was consecrated a bishop Saturday in Singapore, along with the Rev. Charles H. Murphy III, rector of a large parish in Pawleys Island, S.C. Both are respected leaders of conservative Episcopalians.
The archbishop of South East Asia will send them to start and oversee mission parishes within the boundaries of liberal Episcopal dioceses in the United States, a move that is expected to start conflicts between the diocesan, missionary and overseas bishops.
The two archbishops and four bishops who participated in the rite believe the 2.4 million-member Episcopal Church in the United States has fallen into theological anarchy. Archbishop Moses Tay of South East Asia, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda and Bishop John Rucyahana of Shyira, Rwanda, performed the rite, assisted by retired Bishop C. Fitzsimmons Allison of the Diocese of South Carolina, retired Bishop Alex D. Dickson of the Diocese of West Tennessee and Bishop David Pytches, formerly of the Diocese of Chile, Bolivia and Peru, who now is rector of a parish in London.
In a written statement released shortly after his consecration, Rodgers cited a denominational membership drop of 30 percent over the past three decades as his primary reason for agreeing to the consecration. It is controversial because it flaunts the authority of the diocesan bishops.
"This crisis of decline is a crisis of the Christian faith that has left the Episcopal Church divided," he said. Rodgers is not related to the author of this article.
Episcopal dissension falls along several lines. A small group rejects the ordination of women, which has been valid in the denomination since the 1970s. A larger group is troubled by the movement to ordain active homosexuals and to sanction gay relationships, which many Episcopal bishops claim the right to do. A third group, which includes the first two, is horrified by bishops such as the recently retired John Spong of Newark, who reject basic tenets of historic Christianity, such as the authority of scripture and the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Tay has the right to consecrate bishops of his choosing. However, a diocesan bishop could bring a rector up on ecclesiastical charges for inviting one of the missionary bishops into a parish without permission.
A brief statement issued by First Promise, a conservative Episcopal network with which Murphy is affiliated, said the two missionary bishops, "will provide pastoral support, guidance and oversight at the request of clergy and congregations that want to continue in the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as the Anglican Church has received them. They will actively seek to plant Anglican missions in areas where there are receptive communities and little faithful witness in the Episcopal Church."
Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh said Rodgers had told him the consecration could happen but that he had not expected it so soon. Many conservative Episcopal activists believed the overseas bishops would wait until after March meetings of the world's 38 Anglican primates in Portugal and of the Episcopal Council of Bishops in Los Angeles.
Duncan said he had agreed a week ago to send Rodgers' transfer papers to Singapore if and when they were requested.
"I haven't prevented him from doing what he felt called to do," Duncan said.
On Saturday, Duncan wrote an explanation to his clergy. Rodgers will continue to make his home in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and "will be welcomed by me as the leader and friend he is," Duncan wrote.
In an interview, Duncan said the consecrations occurred because liberal bishops refused to give conservative parishes the same breathing room that many conservative bishops offered to liberal parishes. In 1997, Duncan said, he promised his more liberal parishes that, if they ever felt called to ordain an openly gay priest or to bless the relationships of gay couples, he would help them find a liberal bishop to oversee their ministry. But liberal bishops have been unwilling to make the same offer to conservative parishes, he said, such as allowing a conservative bishop from outside their diocese to participate in their parish confirmation services.
"I certainly don't rejoice in this action that has taken place, but it was bound to happen somewhere, somehow, since the left seems unwilling to make provision for those whose views have actually not changed," Duncan said.
Anglican Church history has precedent for this move, Duncan said. In 1784, the Anglicans of Connecticut chose Samuel Seabury as their bishop, but the bishops of England refused to consecrate him. So Seabury went to Scotland, where he was ordained by four underground bishops of the then-illegal Episcopal Church of Scotland.
The Rev. George Werner, retired dean of Trinity Cathedral, Downtown, called the consecrations "very, very, very, very sad."
Werner is a theological moderate and a leader at the highest levels of church government. He found the timing of the consecrations odd, because he believes the national church leadership is moving back toward center from the far left. In his view, the consecrations benefit only groups that make their income from disgruntled, conservative parishes.
Locally, Duncan's greatest concern is potential retaliatory loss of support for the diocese's partnerships with the Archdiocese of Rwanda and the Diocese of Shyira. Rucyahana of Shyira is a graduate of the seminary in Ambridge who ministered to those who picked up the bodies and the wreckage after USAir Flight 427 crashed in Hopewell in 1994. Both Rwandan bishops were consecrated after the genocide in their nation in 1994, when they were called out of exile to replace bishops who were deposed as "unfaithful" for complicity in the slaughter, which killed one out of every eight Rwandans and left 300,000 orphans.
In his pastoral letter, Duncan wrote that he believes the Rwandan bishops identify with the plight of conservative Episcopalians in liberal dioceses, considering them to be under spiritual attack from a powerful enemy.
Years ago, Duncan recalled, the Rwandan archbishop told him, "At the genocide in 1994, the whole world stood back and no one came to Rwanda's aid. We will never stand back when others are similarly threatened, physically or spiritually."
There have been signals for many months that something like this was coming, but there has been no response from the leadership of the Episcopal Church, Duncan said.
Duncan hopes the U.S. bishops "will sense in this how grave our crisis is and that they will be willing for us to finally talk about it."