Packer Says, "The Dike Gave Way."

NEW YORK - "I greet you with a heavy heart," declared the Rev. Dr. J. I. Packer to an international gathering at the Metropolitan Club in New York City. "Like many of you, I am an Anglican, and I am caught up in the agony of world Anglicanism.

"Packer, a world renowned evangelical theologian and principal of Regent College in Vancouver, had come to New York on Sept. 8 to honor archbishops from the four corners of the world who have dared to challenge the decadence of the Episcopal Church (USA).

The award ceremony was sponsored by Kairos Journal, an online resource with subscribers in more than 80 countries that seeks to equip and support pastors and church leaders as they strive to transform the moral conscience of the culture and restore the prophetic voice of the church.

"I am struck by the fact that the Anglican story of the last ten to fifteen years is all too similar to what has happened recently to New Orleans," said Packer. "At one time the church had a system of dikes, and they were all anchored in the Word of God. We had a prayer book that confessed the gospel, but that dike gave way." Packer's words resonated with Presbyterians in the room, for the Presbyterian Church (USA) is also anchored in constitutional documents, The Book of Confessions and the Book of Order, that were adopted by its founders to safeguard Biblical faith and practice. the rest