Reformed Catholicism

 

The religion professed by the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA from the 1780’s to the 1960’s is best described as Reformed Catholicism.  It is neither Roman Catholicism nor Orthodox Catholicism.  It bears the form and shape of the Christianity that came into being during the reformation and renewal of the Church of England.  It was the same Reformed Catholicism that was carried around the world during the Colonial period and is referred to as Anglican outside of the U.S.  In the 1790’s PECUSA took on an American form by removing prayers for the monarchy and recognizing it was independent from governmental control.  Some expressed it as “Low Church” or “Latitudinarian” while others expressed it as “High Church” or “Anglo-Catholic”.  It eventually even developed an “Evangelical” expression as well.  Throughout all this, it remained “Reformed Catholicism” in form and shape.

 

From the 1960’s if not earlier, this Reformed Catholicism, regardless of churchmanship, was subjected to all kinds of pressures to change, usually in a liberal theological direction.  These influences for change were not isolated to doctrine, they also included liturgy, morality, order, discipline, polity, mission and so on.  By the 1980’s, PECUSA changed their name to ECUSA and could more correctly be labeled “Liberal Catholicism”.  It was still committed to the threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons and to increasingly elaborate liturgical worship.  They still preferred to call all male priests “Father” to distinguish them from “protestant” pastors.  It also felt it had a vocation to be “prophetic” and demonstrate to others how “peace and justice” are to be implemented in society and church.  Other mainline denominations were also feeling this pressure.  It has been called “Golden-Rule Christianity.”  This is the belief that Christianity is essentially about love, loving God (however He/She/It is defined) and doing unto others as you would like them to treat you.  Egalitarianism, pluralism, the dignity of persons, the importance of human rights and tolerance was used to accomplish this change.

 

There are many ways to react to major changes.  Some will pursue the changes passionately.  Some will be moderately for them.  Some will be dragged along in favor of them.  Some will oppose them moderately and some more intensely.  Also some will simply leave.  Of those who stay, there is a tendency to gradually accept the changes as day to day operations vary slowly and objections eventually erode away.  They are eroded away because the obvious changes are ceremonial and seem innocuous.  The subtle doors opened by theological changes are not apparent until it is too late.  People who grew up with the 1979 prayer book have no basis to evaluate what existed before.  That is why the 1928 BCP is banned in most Episcopal churches.

 

Over the years, major innovations were made into church law by the authority of General Conventions.  Here is the short list.

  • Changed the doctrine of marriage, including making the marriage of divorcees in church an option (yet not fully a right because an individual rector can say “no” leaving the couple the right to go to another parish).
  • Introduced “inclusive language” for humanity and God so that God is “She” and “It” as well as “He”;  and further, removing the traditional address of God as “Thou/Thee” and doctrine and piety associated with it.
  • Began the ordaining of women to all orders of the Threefold Ministry.
  • Called an experimental “Book of Varied Service” by the name of the traditional “Book of Common Prayer” as if it were a real edition of this ancient text (first edition 1549), and thus embedding a falsehood within the daily life of the Church.
  • Rejected the received Formularies of the PECUSA and of the Anglican Way;  thus cutting itself off in worship, doctrine, and discipline from the classic and historical Anglican Way.
  • Admitted small children to the reception of Holy Communion and thus rejecting the order where first communion follows knowledge of God the Father through knowing the Catechism and receiving Confirmation.
  • Accepted that there is a specific group in society, known as “homosexuals”, with a permanent built-in “orientation” towards the same “gender” and sex.
  • Ordained and consecrated such persons who are in active “homosexual” partnerships.

 

Our objective is to examine the connections between all these innovations and show they all come forth from the same spring.  The purpose in this exercise is to show the true source and real character of each of the innovations.  It is apparent that some people will reject all these innovations.  Others have accepted all these innovations.  By identifying the source of all these innovations, we will show it is not appropriate to accept any of them while rejecting others.  They are all woven from the same cloth and will lead to the same result.

 

The practical theology of the ECUSA is a consensus that God is Love and that all real love and loving action in the world is of God or is God in action.  The conclusions drawn from this innocuous beginning are both myopic and opportunistic.  First, God embraces everyone “just as they are” and loves them for who they are.  Second God (He/She/It) is not judgmental but welcoming and gracious.  Third, God is the God of kindly therapy.  So the Episcopal Church and many others claim to be inclusive, welcoming all, especially those who find acceptance else where problematic or difficult.  Accordingly, ECUSA’s worship, agenda and mission are to reflect this inclusiveness of “Love” working for “peace and justice” as interpreted through the prism of human rights and secular descriptions of harmony.  Episcopalian professor Joseph Fletcher wrote “Situation Ethics;  The New Morality” in 1966.  He wrote, “Christian ethics is not a scheme of living according to a code, but a continuous effort to relate love to a world of relativities through a casuistry obedient to love;  its constant task is to work out the strategy and tactics of love for Christ’s sake.”

 

These innovations were facilitated by the failure of the House of Bishops to take seriously its duty to defend the Faith, to banish erroneous doctrine and to discipline the wayward.  Bp. James Pike was a man involved in serial monogamy and accused of espousing and propagating heresies and denying the doctrines of the Virgin Birth, the Incarnation and the Trinity.  Yet the House of Bishops did nothing substantial to stop him or to discipline him in the 1960s.

 

Bp. John Spong of Newark, came dangerously near to denying all the basic truths of historical Christianity, and implemented the homosexual agenda in his diocese in defiance of appeals from his colleagues for restraint.

 

Spong’s assistant bishop Walter Righter was involved in serial monogamy having married three wives in succession, and ordained a man who was known to be living with a same sex partner.  He was brought to trial for ordaining a man with a same-sex lover.  In 1996, Righter was exonerated by a church court which ruled that there was no core doctrine of ECUSA prohibiting his action.

 

Cause and effect are always tenuous partners.  It is hard to evaluate all the factors and possible influences in the affairs of any human assembly.  Nevertheless, it appears obvious that none of these innovations could have been implemented without the continued rejection of the received religion of the Anglican Way.   We called that Reformed Catholicism as the intent of the reformation was not to destroy the church but simply to correct offending practices.  With all the conflicts throughout the history of the Church of England, there was never a question about its commitment to the final authority of Holy Scripture in Faith and conduct.

 

The 1979 prayer book is unique in that it declared human desires and cultural inclinations to be the only guideline in determining the future practice, liturgy and doctrines of ECUSA.  Any authority of Holy Scripture, final or otherwise, is considered out of touch with today’s cultural and social norms.

 

 

For more details, read “Episcopal Innovations 1960 – 2004” by The Rev. Dr. Peter Toon, M.A., D.Phil.

(Preservation Press of the Prayer Book Society of the USA 2006)