When I wrote my report on anti-ICE tracking and sermons at Christ Our Advocate, a congregation in the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO) in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), I decided to keep my opinions out of it. I thought the sermon excerpts were provocative enough and sufficient enough to alert people in and around ACNA. I wished to shed light on the situation, not add my own heat.
If you’ve missed my report, here it is.
I am thankful God enabled me to stumble upon the sermons and — Mirabile dictu! — exercise restraint. For people have indeed paid attention, and the response has been overall good. I’m especially gratified that others have expressed their opinions in a more constructive and edifying manner than I probably would have and with additional reporting. First George and Kevin weighed in on Anglican Unscripted (about 7:30 in).
Then Fr. David Roseberry wrote a wise post reflecting on the role of the church.
These are not sermons. They are rally speeches…. Christians may disagree on immigration. That is not my concern. My concern is that the pulpit is being used to advance a political movement. And advocacy organizations are fine, but they are not churches.
Roseberry did some additional homework on Christ Our Advocate’s web site.
Christ Our Advocate’s “Resources” page reads like a social-services directory: hotlines, crisis centers, legal aid, shelters, mental-health agencies, “Know Your Rights” packets.
All good things. I’m not opposed to any of it.
But what is missing?
Catechesis.
Discipleship.
Christian formation.
Theological grounding.
Biblical teaching.
Anything that sounds like the life of a church.
He recalled parishes in The Episcopal Church similarly going askew then asserts:
To my way of thinking, a church’s first and only directive is to be a center for Worship, Discipleship, and Evangelism, Pastoral Care, Community Life, and Ministry. It is not a rally center for a cause on either said of the political spectrum.
Then he expounds on that. Do read his whole post. It is written with care and wisdom.
Then yesterday my friend Anne Kennedy weighed in, if reluctantly:
…whatever I was working yesterday I have shelved for an extra day because, as an Anglican and a Substacker, I am pretty sure I am contractually obligated to comment on niche Anglican controversies that only concern a very small number of people.
One can always trust Anne to address even the most unpleasant subjects with her unique humor. The following particularly gave me a good laugh. After this quote from a sermon . . .
Legal US citizens afraid to walk through their cities because masked I.C.E. agents have been given freedom to snatch and grab, harass, and brutalize with impunity. And now, the President is threatening to deploy his gestapo to Chicago.
. . . she responded:
Goodness, gestapo…. that sure did escalate quickly.
That’s Anne! Then she went on to reflect that the core of the problem is how we see and respond to the Bible. The church must do so in a God-centered way, not in an us-centered fashion. When the church hears and preaches Scripture in a God-centered way, there may be application to politics, but the church likely won’t be hijacked by politics of either the Left or Right or something in between. Otherwise . . .
Well, I can’t do justice to Kennedy’s reflections here. You gotta go read it for yourself.
This morning, the Stand Firm podcast covered the Christ Our Advocate (COA) situation at length. Along with the misuse of the pulpit, they focused on COA being right on the edge of affirming as reflected in this FAQ:
We welcome LGBTQ+ siblings as beloved members of Christ’s body and fellow disciples of Jesus. Our desire is that we would be a community in which gay and/or same-sex attracted people are not left to make sense of their sexuality alone. Rather, we want our parish to be a place where we all can share our stories, find community, and seek support on our journey of transformation into Christlikeness.
We also seek to have this same posture for trans individuals, gender diverse individuals, and individuals with gender dysphoria.
Our practice conforms to the Constitution and Canons of our diocese, C4SO, and the ACNA.
The podcast questions that last assertion. COA’s stance certainly seems out of line with the 2021 pastoral statement on sexuality and identity.
More is mentioned, including connections with Wheaton College and that the analogy of hiding Jews from Nazis does not apply here. Instead there should be concern that the COA’s ICE tracking may be putting agents in danger.
This podcast also had an amusing moment, at least to me. Matt Kennedy mentioned that Emily McGowin critiqued him as being too political. A comparison of the two’s sermon reveals her critique as somewhat lacking self-awareness.
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Behind the scenes, I’m also aware of a few who have alerted their bishops. I did as soon as I posted my report. And the ACNA bishops are where the most important responses must come from.
The ACNA College of Bishops has a lot on their plate, and I’m not talking about Thanksgiving leftovers. And they have been meeting this week. I hope, amidst the other pressing issues, they manage with God’s help to address this one. They need to.
Have I asked you all to pray for ACNA?