Update: Vestry Decision Regarding TEC
- Terry Sweeney
- Aug 16, 2009
- Series: Newsletter Vol. 2 Num. 2
Dear beloved in Christ,
As a body we have found it necessary, once again, to discuss the actions of TEC on the national level and determine the impact upon us locally. I have written you previously to outline the symptoms of the issues at hand. Our vestry has met and, in council, has decided upon a course of action.
Before I discuss their decision, I want to lay a very quick framework.
The unity of the Church is not based upon bishops, canons or liturgies. What makes us unified - one body, one faith - is Christ Jesus and our common faith in Him. The Church is that body which believes in Christ, preaches the Gospel and administers the sacraments.
We are in fellowship - union - with one another because of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross through His shed blood, death and resurrection. Faith in Him as Lord and Savior is the unified ground we can stand on. Anything outside of this is quicksand.
2 John v. 7-11, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”
As earnestly as Jesus prayed for unity among believers we can see the reality of not receiving certain people into fellowship is allowed, under specific circumstances.
St. Paul’s second letter to Timothy, the leader of the church in Ephesus, in part instructs Timothy to “not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord” to follow “the pattern of the sounds words that you have heard, by the Holy Spirit who dwells with us guard the good deposit [of faith] entrusted to you.”
Paul expresses his shock to the Galatians 2:6-8 this way, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
Again, Paul gives every indication that a deposit of faith has been preached and taught; the body of Christ followers universally gathers around this deposit - regardless of where their church is located, the culture they live in or what their prior faith traditions may have been like. Jew and Greek gather together around faith in Christ and the gospel delivered to them.
Given this framework, it would be easy to see that St. Timothy’s is in the long succession of sinners saved by grace through faith in Jesus. Regardless of age, gender, race or social status, we are all one under the headship of Jesus Christ.
Faith is our common ground, and guarding and passing on the deposit given by Christ to the Apostles, who in turn passed it along generation after generation, is our mission.
Your Vestry has concluded, and at this point I concur, that until the ecclesiastical hierarchy of TEC makes it impossible for us to guard the deposit of faith given to us through changes in canon law or a take over of the property we will continue to minister in this place, God being our helper.
We also have to recognize that we are not in fellowship with many within TEC whose exegesis of scripture falls far outside of traditional teaching and practice. Therefore, we also disavow resolutions D025 and C056 (among others) and pledge our ministries and resources to building the Kingdom of God to the greater Glory of Christ our Lord and Savior.
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16
Faithfully in Christ alone,
The Rev. W. Terry Sweeney+ Rector
