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Not Everything Is Relative
12/29/2003

Amy Welborn links to a New York Times piece about the exchange of followers between the 65 million–strong American Catholic Church and the 2.3 million–strong Episcopal Church USA. The article's tone is clearly "some come, some go," but it's also clear that writer Laurie Goodstein prefers this to be the stronger impression:

"They're not coming in as they used to even three years ago announcing, `I'm just church shopping, I'm just looking around,' " said the Rev. Elizabeth M. Kaeton, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chatham, N.J. "The people I've seen recently have come to me and said, `Sign me up, I'm ready.' "

Ms. Kaeton, who is openly gay, supported the ordination of Bishop Robinson but said she had not dwelled on the issue in her church. She said her parish of about 300 families had recently gained 15 new members, many of them from Catholic churches, and lost one to a Catholic church.

Of course, the more significant aspect of Ms. Kaeton's comments is the impression that the "conversions" aren't really conversions at all — involving the quest for Truth and all that — but are statements of a faith already held. However, in its way, the statistical statement is just as important. 300 families; 5% increase (15 families); "many" from Catholic churches. The increase is the important part.

Of course, readers who make it to paragraph 30 (of 32) will find this by way of comparison:

About 25 percent of the congregation at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Dallas recently left after the votes on homosexuality, said the rector, the Rev. David M. Allen. Those who left included some of the church's bedrock, like its secretary and the two men who used to volunteer to mow the lawn every Tuesday, Father Allen said. All but one left for Catholic churches, he said.

This church also had about 300 families; 25% decrease (75 families); "all but one" gone Catholic. There are relevant factors, beyond geography, such as the lesbian-run church in the first case and the apparent theological conservatism of the "Anglo-Catholic parish" in the second case. However, these factors only further point to the heart of the trend: the Episcopalian Church, once socially conservative, has been driving away those followers with its policies of ordaining women, accepting divorce, and now accepting the practice of homosexuality. Unfortunately, the "target market" for which these parishioners have been discarded, tend to be of the more secularist Left, and they are transforming the Church into a venue to express their views rather than to seek God's will.

Father Allen understands what's going on, and I have to suspect that he understands where it is going:

"I think many people in this parish came to the conclusion that there was the apparent absence of any kind of authority that operates to restrain the Episcopal Church in any way," Father Allen said. "They wanted to be part of a church which they saw as being bigger than American culture, which had an authority which went beyond our cultural conventions."

At some point, forcing their petulant modern will on a symbol of moral authority will lose its caché for liberal Episcopalians, mostly because the roles of authority will have switched. Somehow, though, I don't think the Ultimate Authority against whom these people are really rebelling is going to change His rules.

Posted by Justin Katz @ 10:36 AM EST