In George Will’s article on the travails of the Anglican communion, the shrinkage of the American Episcopalians and British Anglicans, accompanied by the growth of the African communions, is described as centering most obviously on the issue of ordaining gay clergy, but more fundamentally on the interpretation of scripture and adherence to tradition. Some key graphs:
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It is not the secessionists such as Duncan who are, as critics charge, obsessed with homosexuality. The Episcopal Church’s leadership is latitudinarian — tolerant to the point of incoherence, Duncan and kindred spirits think — about clergy who deviate from traditional church teachings concerning such core doctrines as the divinity of Christ, the authority of scripture and the path to salvation. But the national church insists on the ordination of openly gay clergy and on blessing same-sex unions.
In the 1960s, Bishop James Pike of California, who urged the church to jettison such “theological baggage” as the doctrines of Original Sin and the Trinity, was the last active bishop disciplined for theological reasons. Duncan doubts whether Pike would be disciplined today.
