The Episcopal Church's Future

The Rev. Martin laments the decline of The Episcopal Church witnessing the large loss of the Great “GI” Generation which Texas Bishop Andy Doyle called the “tsunami of death.” If current trends continue, using Bishop Doyle’s sea imagery, the receding tide of Boomers will mean that by 2035, Christianity in North America will drop to 10 percent or less of the population, says Martin.

Martin himself participated in something called 2020, an attempt to double the Church by 2020, a project which spectacularly failed. Among those responsible for this idea was Frank Griswold then PB, a sexually conflicted leader who was more interested in brokering sodomy into the church than doubling it. This was a case of putting the fox in the henhouse in the hope the hens would make peace and agree not to be eaten if they did nothing to upset the fox.

As it transpired Griswold was not the slightest bit interested in doubling the church; God could do that if he wanted too; Griswold’s concern was making sure a homosexual priest would be ordained bishop (he was successful with the consecration of Gene Robinson) and that the passage of B012, gay marriage, was the fulfillment of his homoerotic dreams.

Of course, few spotted this at the time, but the church has continued to decline and is currently set to enter its own columbarium by around 2040 if not sooner. The undertakers won’t be Episcopalian, they will probably be agnostics and skeptics.

The Rev. Martin bemoans the long decline with figures revealing the loss of multiple generations who now no longer grace Episcopal churches. He sees the Roman Catholic Church and “conservative evangelical churches” as the survivors and that mightily bothers him.

Here he makes several fatal errors.

He puts evangelicals and the MAGA movement together in the one box, when it has been demonstrably proven that these so-called evangelicals attend church once or twice a year, and are clearly cultural conservatives with little interest in historic Christianity. When questioned by Pew, 64% of respondents who have a favorable view of Trump say they attend religious services a few times a year or less often, while 35% say they go to services at least once or twice a month. (Among all respondents, 69% say they attend religious services a few times a year or less, while 30% go at least monthly.)

True evangelicals, like myself, go to church weekly and attend a mid-week Bible study and a separate men’s group. We do not forsake the assembling of ourselves as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Heb. 10:25).

Terms should be meaningful and the term “MAGA evangelicals” is either a lie or propaganda since the Bible appears to show that true evangelicals couldn’t possibly be rendering such blind support. The media have refused to stop referring to this slice of Trump supporters as “MAGA evangelicals.” Doing so would remove the cloak of shame from true evangelicals.

Martin rightly reports what one bishop is reported to have said that the church is not declining it is transforming, and that is a good thing. If I am correct that was the vacuous Episcopal Diocese of Washington Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. Martin rightly accuses the bishop of living in denial.

At this point Martin goes right off the rails. He cites two well-known evangelical leaders, Dr. J.I. Packer, and John Stott, both men I knew personally, as exemplars of the “collective voice” of moderation.

Dr. Packer handed in his license from the Anglican Church of Canada and joined what became the ACNA after the ACOC declared its belief in and the blessing of same sex unions.

Stott had always said he would leave the CofE if it changed its doctrine of marriage; and while the CofE has not officially done that, it does allow for the blessing of same sex unions. Stott was responsible for the formation of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) an orthodox splinter group struggling now to find its evangelical footing in the CofE.

Martin says he wants to see, “my great-grandchildren to hear the voice of reasoned and compassionate Christianity, which has been one of the great contributions of Anglicanism from the 16th century onward.”

Well, he will never hear that in TEC, that ship has sailed a long time ago and it won’t be returning. TEC is heading down the path to extinction as the Titanic with little hope of revival let alone resuscitation. If he wants to hear the reasoned voice of faith, he should join the growing ACNA; there he will hear it with resounding clarity. I’m sure the former Bishop of Central Florida, John W. Howe, the former Bishop of Albany William Love and half a dozen other former TEC bishops would be glad to enlighten him.

TEC is doctrinally deficient, ethically, and morally compromised; its clergy biblically illiterate, with most of its bishops and clergy simply unregenerate men and women going through the liturgical motions of the faith, its denominational leaders filled with woke intensity.

One can only feel sad that Martin continues to believe that the future of Anglicanism in North America resides in TEC. By any measure it does not. If TEC were traded on the Nasdaq, it would be a penny stock not worth owning. It is a theologically and morally bankrupt institution, it has sown to the wind and is reaping the whirlwind.

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THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH’S FUTURE

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
May 4, 2024

An article in the Covenant section of The Living Church magazine by Kevin Martin titled Christianity’s Future raises more questions than it answers, and compels the question as to where the Rev. Martin’s mind is with the current state of The Episcopal Church!

The article is titled Christianity’s Future, a misnomer as the article is about The Episcopal Church’s future, not Christianity’s. Christianity will survive the revisionism and pan-sexualism of TEC and the western Christianity, but TEC itself will be virtually extinct by 2040 if not sooner, based on the church’s most recent demographics. His article can be read here: https://covenant.livingchurch.org/2024/05/02/christianitys-future/