IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Honoring Anglicanism's History . . .
TOM WILSON
TIMES-DISPATCH GUEST COLUMNIST
Feb 1, 2007

Times-Dispatch Guest Column by The Falls Church's Senior Warden

Falls Church. This winter a dozen congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia -- constituting perhaps 20 percent of the average Sunday attendance in the diocese -- have voted by overwhelming margins to sever our ties with the Episcopal Church (TEC) and to affiliate with another branch of the Anglican Communion. In doing so, these congregations have made a difficult decision that has prompted criticism and scorn, has invited challenges to our property rights, and has put strains on valued relationships. Why did we take this painful step?

The simplistic answer that one would gather from the headlines is that TEC consecrated a gay bishop. While sexual morality is indeed the flashpoint of the controversy, it is but one instance of the real, underlying issues: the authority of the Bible (which is very clear on the subject of sexual ethics) and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The church has tolerated bishops who deny the deity of Jesus Christ, deny His resurrection, and deny His being the unique and essential Savior for the whole world. The breaking point came in 2003 when the church defied the rest of the worldwide Anglican Communion by setting aside the Anglican standard, consecrating a non-celibate homosexual as a bishop, and condoning the liturgical blessing of same-sex unions -- all with the support of the bishop of Virginia and the majority of the Virginia delegation. In response to the Communion's subsequent call for repentance, TEC declined, and elected as its presiding bishop someone who had favored both of those aberrations. TEC's trajectory is clear. the rest