Why I am not returning to the Episcopal Church
By Chuck Collins www.virtueonline.org
January 26, 2014
A priest-friend from my old days in the Episcopal Church (TEC) called last week. He called as a favor to his diocesan bishop to see if I would consider returning to the Episcopal Church (obviously another diocese from the one I left since I am still blamed for all unhappiness in West Texas). It was flattering. It felt good that the 30 years I served in the ordained ministry of TEC were not all forgotten. I thanked my friend for making the call and I later wrote the bishop a thank you note.
After we talked I took the opportunity to find my resignation letter from Christ Episcopal Church four years ago. It was a letter I wrote and rewrote for a year in my mind before finally sending it to "Dear Christ Church family." It was a carefully worded balance between stating the facts of my own indisposition and acknowledging that others will disagree with my decision. To make sure that it was truthful, graceful and wouldn't cause undue pain, I had several friends read it and I revised it with their suggestions. I ended it with a quote from John Piper that, for Christians, the best days are always ahead of us. Always. I still believe this.
The phone call took me back to all the emotions of those days when I was leaving TEC. Back then I had no idea that the coming four years would be among the most challenging of my life. To leave one of the country's great Episcopal Churches to be with a small band of wonderfully committed Anglicans, with all that that means, at the point in my life when I felt that I had the most to offer as a priest, was humbling and invigorating at the same time.
In my resignation letter I stated that "theology" was the reason why I left. Behind this was a conviction that what we believe and teach about God really matters because God matters. It matters more than anything else to me, and it matters that one day I will answer to God for how well I have hallowed his Name and stood up for the truth of his Word. When a church and its leaders openly oppose the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and ignores the authority of Holy Scripture, it is a church that I will fight for to reclaim for the ancient paths of traditional Christianity. I dug in and fought until TEC left permanently for the same path of most liberal mainline denominations. I credit Steve, a gay man, a friend who died of AIDS, for showing me the impossibility of being a priest in a church that hurt him permanently by its teaching. The pendulum that I kept talking about, hoping for and working for, doesn't exist and I found myself in a church that I didn't believe in any more.
I will not be returning to TEC for the same reasons that I left. Its commitment to the cruelty of heresy (Bishop FitzSimons Allison) has not changed a bit, even though there are still individuals and pockets of orthodoxy that remain in some dioceses. These past four years in TEC have proven in numerous ways that its trajectory is a direction that I cannot support. I have no regrets or second thoughts about my decision to leave TEC.
The Anglican Communion in North America (ACNA) is not perfect by any means. God knows. I don't agree with everything that goes on in ACNA and I don't have to agree with everything to be in substantial agreement about the essentials of the faith. ACNA's Constitution and Canons upholds as primary the authority of the Bible and subscribes to Christianity of the creeds and traditional Anglican formularies, including the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. We have a Presiding Bishop (Primate) who I know personally to be a man of sincere prayer and devotion. I have the highest respect for my bishop who loves me and my family, prays for me and our congregation, and carries the wounds for fighting for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. When I go to a diocesan event I know that I will hear the Bible read and explained, that those who are present all agree on biblical and historically consensual Christianity as normative, and that guest speakers, whether they speak on prayer, discipleship or evangelism, will speak from a foundation that honors our Anglican heritage. Last year we hosted our first Diocesan Synod at which we heard Professor Bill Witt speak about the distinctives of our Anglican heritage. It was fantastic. I recently returned from a clergy conference in which one of the best known Bible teachers in the world, David Jackman, came to show us how to teach and preach the Bible. It couldn't have been more encouraging.
I will not be returning to TEC even though I am grateful and flattered to be remembered. Between the lines you probably see that I still love the church that brought me to faith in Christ. Nothing can detract from the fact that it is the church that gave me the privilege to speak of Jesus Christ to many who were searching. I still pray for my old bishops and congregation. But with Christ, the best days are always in front of us. Always. And I look forward to what God will do with Holy Trinity Anglican Church and the other Anglican churches in San Antonio and around the country.
The Rev. Chuck Collins is a church planter at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, San Antonio, Texas. He was formerly rector of Christ Episcopal Church in San Antonio, Texas
By Chuck Collins www.virtueonline.org
January 26, 2014
A priest-friend from my old days in the Episcopal Church (TEC) called last week. He called as a favor to his diocesan bishop to see if I would consider returning to the Episcopal Church (obviously another diocese from the one I left since I am still blamed for all unhappiness in West Texas). It was flattering. It felt good that the 30 years I served in the ordained ministry of TEC were not all forgotten. I thanked my friend for making the call and I later wrote the bishop a thank you note.After we talked I took the opportunity to find my resignation letter from Christ Episcopal Church four years ago. It was a letter I wrote and rewrote for a year in my mind before finally sending it to "Dear Christ Church family." It was a carefully worded balance between stating the facts of my own indisposition and acknowledging that others will disagree with my decision. To make sure that it was truthful, graceful and wouldn't cause undue pain, I had several friends read it and I revised it with their suggestions. I ended it with a quote from John Piper that, for Christians, the best days are always ahead of us. Always. I still believe this.
The phone call took me back to all the emotions of those days when I was leaving TEC. Back then I had no idea that the coming four years would be among the most challenging of my life. To leave one of the country's great Episcopal Churches to be with a small band of wonderfully committed Anglicans, with all that that means, at the point in my life when I felt that I had the most to offer as a priest, was humbling and invigorating at the same time.
In my resignation letter I stated that "theology" was the reason why I left. Behind this was a conviction that what we believe and teach about God really matters because God matters. It matters more than anything else to me, and it matters that one day I will answer to God for how well I have hallowed his Name and stood up for the truth of his Word. When a church and its leaders openly oppose the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and ignores the authority of Holy Scripture, it is a church that I will fight for to reclaim for the ancient paths of traditional Christianity. I dug in and fought until TEC left permanently for the same path of most liberal mainline denominations. I credit Steve, a gay man, a friend who died of AIDS, for showing me the impossibility of being a priest in a church that hurt him permanently by its teaching. The pendulum that I kept talking about, hoping for and working for, doesn't exist and I found myself in a church that I didn't believe in any more.
I will not be returning to TEC for the same reasons that I left. Its commitment to the cruelty of heresy (Bishop FitzSimons Allison) has not changed a bit, even though there are still individuals and pockets of orthodoxy that remain in some dioceses. These past four years in TEC have proven in numerous ways that its trajectory is a direction that I cannot support. I have no regrets or second thoughts about my decision to leave TEC.
The Anglican Communion in North America (ACNA) is not perfect by any means. God knows. I don't agree with everything that goes on in ACNA and I don't have to agree with everything to be in substantial agreement about the essentials of the faith. ACNA's Constitution and Canons upholds as primary the authority of the Bible and subscribes to Christianity of the creeds and traditional Anglican formularies, including the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. We have a Presiding Bishop (Primate) who I know personally to be a man of sincere prayer and devotion. I have the highest respect for my bishop who loves me and my family, prays for me and our congregation, and carries the wounds for fighting for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. When I go to a diocesan event I know that I will hear the Bible read and explained, that those who are present all agree on biblical and historically consensual Christianity as normative, and that guest speakers, whether they speak on prayer, discipleship or evangelism, will speak from a foundation that honors our Anglican heritage. Last year we hosted our first Diocesan Synod at which we heard Professor Bill Witt speak about the distinctives of our Anglican heritage. It was fantastic. I recently returned from a clergy conference in which one of the best known Bible teachers in the world, David Jackman, came to show us how to teach and preach the Bible. It couldn't have been more encouraging.
I will not be returning to TEC even though I am grateful and flattered to be remembered. Between the lines you probably see that I still love the church that brought me to faith in Christ. Nothing can detract from the fact that it is the church that gave me the privilege to speak of Jesus Christ to many who were searching. I still pray for my old bishops and congregation. But with Christ, the best days are always in front of us. Always. And I look forward to what God will do with Holy Trinity Anglican Church and the other Anglican churches in San Antonio and around the country.
The Rev. Chuck Collins is a church planter at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, San Antonio, Texas. He was formerly rector of Christ Episcopal Church in San Antonio, Texas
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