Letters to the Editor
Mountain Echo, September 2003

Responses to General Convention

To the editor:
I was privileged, a few weeks before General Convention, to be in a meeting with Bishop Tom Ely, other members of the Standing Committee and our Vermont deputies. We were together to ponder upcoming issues around how we, in the Diocese of Vermont, may continue to respond to the issues of same gender unions within the church.

I was moved at that meeting, touched to the core by what felt like the presence of the living Christ in that room—the Christ who stands for the humanity and inclusion of all people of God.

During the course of events at Convention, with testimonials, declarations of belief, allegations, tears and the ultimate ceremony of embrace, it again came to me that, regardless of immediate actions taken, Christ was, indeed, living and at work in those rooms.
I stand now, in awe, proud of my diocese, proud of my local church family and what we do here, deeply affirmed in my own growing faith and reawakened with a deep, clear sense of what it means to say, in a welcoming church, “in Christ’s name…”

Libby Hillhouse
St. Johnsbury, Vermont

To the editor:
Despite the expressed opinion of the great majority of the Anglican Communion reflected in the 1998 Lambeth resolution, the unanimous vote of the Anglican Primates and the House of Bishops’ Theology Committee, Bishop Ely will vote for the confirmation of Bishop-elect Robinson and for the resolution adopting a rite for the blessing of same gender partnerships. To those who in good faith disagree with him, he suggests they “suspend judgment for a season and allow the space we need in order to let the Holy Spirit lead us into all truth.”

If by “we” and “us” he refers to the whole body of Christ’s Church, then his vote is a bit premature, as he hasn’t taken a season to discern that truth. If by “we” and “us” he refers to only those who disagree with him, then he must be claiming he already knows “all truth” and that’s a bit presumptuous. Either way, the Bishop’s thinking demonstrates that for him this is not a theological issue for which consensus should be sought like in the great historic councils of the Church, but rather is part of a political agenda advancing the current cultural cause of the day. Whatever the outcome, I pray clearer thinking and judgment prevail at General Convention.

William McGovern
Bennington, Vermont

To the editor:
We are reminded each year at All Saints that the communion of saints of which we are a part includes not only the saints alive, but also the saints asleep. We are taught that all share in the same “deposit of faith once delivered.”

The events in the diocese of New Westminster, New Hampshire and our General Convention which have caused the bishops representing a great majority of the saints alive to declare that communion to be impaired or in danger of impairment illustrate the infinite humor and care of our Father. As nothing has changed for these bishops and their flocks, we must conclude that they remain in communion with the saints asleep. It also seems inevitable that the saints asleep who share the faith of these bishops are in a state of impaired communion. That the faith of the saints asleep cannot be changed requires that we accept their faith if we are to remain in communion with them. The humor and love of God seems to have us in a box from which we cannot escape unless, of course, we abandon the Scriptures or the communion.

Undoubtedly our clergy will inform us of the pluriformity of truth, i.e., your truth need not be my truth. However, St. Paul advises us in Romans 1 of the results of exchanging “the truth of the Gospel for a lie.” He does not refer to “a” truth, or “our” truth, or “some” truth, but to “the” truth. There is but one Truth and He is the Way and the Life.
St. Luke shows us the love of the prodigal Father in His willingness to release us and give us up to our sinful ways—He allows us to have what we say we want and to treat Him as though He is dead. St. Luke also shows us the results—degradation and separation from the Father.
Our bishop has voted to confirm Canon Robinson to be the next bishop of New Hampshire without apparent regard for the advice of St. Paul concerning the selection of elders and bishops or for his or the bishop designate’s ability to fulfill their ordination and episcopal vows regarding the preservation of the faith and the continuation of the communion.

The Dean of the Cathedral of Southwark, commenting on an identical situation, said, “We’ve all got to have the courage to say some of the scripture is complete rubbish” to which St. Augustine replies, “If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”

The first sin was that “ye shall be as gods,” and then “God gave them over to their sin,”… but so great is the love of the prodigal Father that, while we are yet afar off, He is looking for us, and He sees us, and He receives us, when we have come to our senses.

Allan R. Wylie
Woodstock, Vermont