Resolution from the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (ACNA)
“I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3)
The clergy and people of the Diocese of Fort Worth wish to express their concern and dismay at recent innovations in the historic faith and order of the Church. From the recent canonical authorization of the ordination of women in dioceses of the Province of Central Africa to the approval of the study Living in Love and Faith and the resultant authorization of “Prayers of Love and Faith,” designed to implement blessings of same sex unions in the Church of England, despite claims that the Church’s doctrines of ordination and of marriage have not changed.
We affirm that these are first order issues in the Church, affecting the validity of sacraments and the grace that is (or is not) bestowed in such rituals. In the advent of the purported ordination of women and the blessing of same sex unions (or marriage of same sex couples), we see the desire of some to substitute a counterfeit for the sacred ordinances given to us directly by God. This we cannot abide.
The Church never has, does not now, nor ever will have the authority to change any doctrine whatsoever. These are truths revealed from heaven. As mother and teacher of the faithful, the Church’s only role is to define, explain, and proclaim doctrines as divine revelation from God. And she should always seek to conform her pastoral practice to the truth of doctrine.
To affirm that the teaching of the Church has not changed (in ordination or marriage), while at the same time adapting pastoral practice to accommodate novel practices (such as the ordination of women or the blessing of same sex unions) is disingenuous and a danger to the welfare of human souls for whom Christ gave his life and rose victorious over the grave.
As Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (at the time, Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith) wisely noted in the letter to bishops on the pastoral care of homosexual persons in 1986: “We wish to make it clear that departure from the Church’s teaching, or silence about it, in an effort to provide pastoral care is neither caring nor pastoral. Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral” (section 15).
[Jesus said,] “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matthew 19:4-6)
We affirm the Kigali Commitment of the Global Anglican Future Conference, calling us all to fidelity to the teaching of the Bible and the historic faith and order of the undivided Church. We commend the statement of the GAFCon primates council, and the joint statement of Forward in Faith (UK), and the bishops of The Society (under the patronage of S. Wilfrid and S. Hilda) in response to the approval of Living in Love and Faith and the resultant practice of blessing same
sex unions in the Church of England. We call upon every faithful bishop, priest, deacon, and lay person in the Church of England to resist such innovations and maintain pastoral practices that conform to the faith and order of the undivided Church.
“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous.” (Hebrews 13:4)
Adopted unanimously at the regular meeting on December 19, 2023.
The Rev’d Timothy M. Matkin,
President of the Standing Committee
