Os Guinness on the Episcopal meltdown

Although the piece is dated, some of you may be interested in the fact that Os Guinness, whom a few of us knew at L'Abri in Switzerland back in the early seventies, has co-authored a piece in the Washington Post with the Rev. John Yates, entitled "Why We Left the Episcopal Church" (washingtonpost.com , January 8, 2007). Among other things, they write:

The core issue for us is theological: the intellectual integrity of faith in the modern world. It is thus a matter of faithfulness to the lordship of Jesus, whom we worship and follow. The American Episcopal Church no longer believes the historic, orthodox Christian faith common to all believers. Some leaders expressly deny the central articles of the faith -- saying that traditional theism is "dead," the incarnation is "nonsense," the resurrection of Jesus is a fiction, the understanding of the cross is "a barbarous idea," the Bible is "pure propaganda" and so on. Others simply say the creed as poetry or with their fingers crossed.

"It would be easy to parody the 'Alice in Wonderland' surrealism of Episcopal leaders openly denying what their faith once believed, celebrating what Christians have gone to the stake to resist -- and still staying on as leaders," they write. "But this is a serious matter." They list the outrages they protest as follows:

• First, Episcopal revisionism abandons the fidelity of faith.
• Second, Episcopal revisionism negates the authority of faith.
• Third, Episcopal revisionism severs the continuity of faith.
• Fourth, Episcopal revisionism destroys the credibility of faith.
• Fifth, Episcopal revisionism obliterates the very identity of faith.

Thus continues the Protest of the endless Reformation, hiving off, yet once again, to preserve a "Reformed" faith. How valiant; yet how sad.