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The Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul
Charleston, South Carolina

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Truth, Unity and the Church of Christ PDF Print E-mail

TRUTH, UNITY, AND THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

by the Very Reverend William N. McKeachie

Dean of South Carolina

In its report of the recent meeting between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church – in post-Katrina New Orleans, of all places – the Associated Press accompanied its article with a color photograph of several vested bishops taking part in a rendition of "When the Saints go marching in"!

Considering what had, or more importantly had not, transpired at that meeting, my first reaction on seeing the photograph was to recollect a poem by the late T. S. Eliot entitled The Hollow Men. On further reflection, and taking into account the visually gender-correct prominence of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in the front row, I was at length struck by the realization that the entire Anglican process of "compromise" since the publication of the Windsor Report in 2004 has been all too much like the re-arranging of deck chairs on the Titanic.

Although I have commended the Christian virtue of patience as we watch and pray during this time of a New Reformation, it is becoming more and more questionable whether the present Archbishop of Canterbury, in his repeated reluctance to assume the risk of prophetic leadership, is able or willing to see what is lurking in the ecclesiastical waters rising around him. But is there not now a clear irreversibility to The Episcopal Church’s institutional descent into apostasy? Even if the Windsor process has so far taken the form of indecision and procrastination, the imperative of decisiveness is now, with the collapse of any common witness on the part of the so-called Windsor bishops in this country, looming over us.

Those seeking to re-arrange the ecclesiastical deck chairs want to persuade us that the disagreements in the Anglican Communion are "really" about polity, power and the purse rather than doctrine, theology, and biblical faithfulness.

It is, of course, to the Devil’s advantage that Mammon should seem to trump God!

In any case, it is certainly mischievous at best for anyone to try to lay the blame for schism on those, like the Diocese of South Carolina, who have gone so many extra miles in seeking to repair the breaches in the Anglican Communion which have developed and widened so relentlessly in recent years. After all, it is not traditionalists who have broken faith with the biblical teaching of the 1998 Lambeth Conference or two thousand years of Christian moral consensus. It is not we who have played fast and loose with the content of the creeds or the conciliar tradition of the church catholic. It is not we who have sundered communion and continuity.

Of all the inordinate and self-deluding aspects of Anglican pride about the "genius" of our have-it-both-ways ecclesiology – having our cake and eating it too – perhaps the most enduring (but, by the same token, the most insidious) has been the notion that, as heirs equally of the Catholic Tradition on the one hand and the Protestant Reformation on the other, we of the "middle way" would never, ever have to choose between doctrine and historicity, creeds and continuity, Chalcedon and Canterbury, or even between the Bible and Baal.

But the ruling oligarchy of The Episcopal Church is forcing such choices by its willingness simply to lie about the present state of affairs – in which the Presiding Bishop, when questioned directly, declines to affirm the uniqueness and universality of Christ as savior of the world; her chancellor resorts to litigious legalism in order to prevent conscientious conservatives from seeking theological safe havens; the General Convention claims putative "autonomy" understood in a modern and revisionist sense unknown to the Church Fathers or the English Reformers; and increasing numbers of clergy impose the substitution, in liturgy and life, of political correctness for orthodox doctrine.

The evidence for all of this is legion, but it remains willfully unacknowledged by the majority of American bishops, by the national leadership of The Episcopal Church, or by the staff of the Anglican Communion Office in London and the Anglican Centre in Rome.

In 1999, Archbishop Rowan Williams’s predecessor, Archbishop George (now Lord) Carey made an eloquent plea on behalf of "The Precious Gift of Unity" in a lecture here at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul in Charleston. But as Lord Carey himself has come to recognize, the failure to heed that plea began with seeds sown not by upholders of orthodoxy but by those who thought unity could be separated from truth.

On the contrary, unity "in Christ" can only exist as rooted and grounded in the biblical, doctrinal, and moral truth of God’s trustworthy Word . It is otherwise a sham.
 
Mere Anglicanism 2009 PDF Print E-mail

Engaging Secularism & Islam: The Church’s Challenge and Opportunity

January 15 - 17, 2009

Speakers: The Rt Rev’d Michael Nazir-ali, Archbishop Mokiwa; Dr. Stephen Noll, The Rt Rev’d Robert Duncan; Dr. Sandy Millar
 
Anatomy of the Compleat Cathedral Project PDF Print E-mail
ANATOMY OF THE COMPLEAT CATHEDRAL PROJECT

Unless a cataclysmic event such as hurricane Hugo occurs, projects such as the one just completed at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul don’t just happen overnight. In fact, the structural problems we repaired have often been referred to as a "birth defect". Wall settlement as well as age brought us to the edge of a precipice when several years ago Mike McShane, one of our parishioners, noted that the plinths under the columns above the balconies appeared to have buckled possibly making the columns themselves unstable.

A quick inspection of the boxes on which the columns sat showed them to be nothing more than finish lumber forming the outside of a hollow box rather than a solid structural member. Braces on the outside of the boxes prevented them from bulging further while our engineering firm, 4SE, Inc., studied the entire structure. Basically they learned that the columns above the balcony were never meant to be load bearing; however, settlement of the exterior masonry walls caused some of the load to transfer to the beam at the edge of the barrel vault and then to these columns. Along with this settlement, the mortise and tenon joints had given way somewhat, loosening the joints. It was decided to use structural scaffolding to lift the trusses off the walls so they could be repaired and stiffened and thus we faced the daunting prospect of a multi million dollar repair project.

The final construction contract was signed in the spring of 2006 and early in July 2006 just after a diocesan ordination, the organ was dismantled with the pipes and various parts of it stored in the Bell Tower or the Parish House. We learned that although some of the interior furnishings could be stored in the apse area the only way to expeditiously complete the work was to remove and store the pews off site in controlled storage. For the next five months the inside of the Cathedral began to look like a giant erector set. The undercroft and the nave were full of scaffolding – up to and through holes in the undercroft ceiling and the nave ‘s barrel vault: all this to jack the scissor trusses up between l/4" and 1/2", just enough to take the load off both the walls and the columns so that large plates and additional timbers could be added to strengthen the existing timber structure.

We realized as the scaffolding went up and holes were cut through the balconies and ceiling for it that this was the time to resolve long-standing concerns about the lighting and the heating and air conditioning system that had plagued us for many years. We quickly brought a mechanical/electrical design firm in to study and prepare plans to replace both and added that work to the contract with Palmetto Craftsmen, Inc. As with most older buildings there are always many small, and sometimes not so small, things that need to be repaired and with a very capable contractor on site it was hard not to ask them to fix anything and everything! So we prioritized a list with cost estimates and the Vestry first agreed with the priorities and then decided how far down the list we could go.

Weekly site meeting with the Design Engineer and the Contractor to review progress, discuss questions relating to the work, and to authorize minor changes were invaluable for keeping the work moving forward. When the idea to restore a transept aisle arose, it was these meetings where we studied the possibilities that reduced the estimated cost from approximately $24,000 down to virtually no additional cost. It was here also that the decision was made that the entire interior was to be painted while there was scaffolding in place rather than just the patches. When it was discovered that roof leaks had severely corroded the ceiling fasteners at the portico we were able, because of these meetings, to repair the roof and the ceiling in a timely fashion and while that scaffolding was in place, paint the portico ceiling as well.

Just before Christmas the structural scaffolding was finally in place and with the engineer looking on, the first truss was evenly lifted and the repair and strengthening of the timber trusses began – one at a time. On the first Sunday in March the following note was included in the weekly service bulletin. "By the time you see this, all of the structural repairs will have been completed, all of the scaffolding removed from the attic over the barrel vault, and the architectural restoration work will have begun!" We were on our way back to holding services in the Cathedral!

By the beginning of April noticeable improvement could be seen as the work progressed inside the Cathedral, the most significant being the plaster repairs. The plasterers completed their work on the ceiling of the upper balcony on the south side including rebuilding the plaster molding at the ceiling; and patching the barrel vault ceiling and the ceiling of the upper balcony on the north side continued. At the same time in the attic the heating and air-conditioning contractor began installing the new ducts and the electricians were installing conduit for the new barrel vault lighting.

By the beginning of May the carpenters were reinstalling the south balcony pews. All of the new ductwork on that side was installed and the box that hid it from view had been replaced. With the plaster completely cured and the barrel vault repainted, the new lighting had been installed along the ledge at the barrel vault as well as in the apse area, and what a difference it makes! The evenness of the light brought out a few imperfections in the plaster that couldn’t be seen in the natural light, causing the plasterers to return and quickly fix the imperfections.

On the north side (nearest the graveyard) most of the scaffolding in the balcony had been removed to a point below the balcony so the plaster repairs over the side aisle could begin and the carpenters began sorting out all of the wood pieces making up the flooring and balcony seating – getting all of the pieces back to their original location was like working on a giant picture puzzle. Fortunately the same carpenters who removed the pieces were the ones replacing them and they had marked each piece as they took it out. Finding each piece was the hard part but not impossible as they had already proven on the south side.

As the completion date drew nearer and nearer – in time for another diocesan ordination! – the plasterers completed their patching and repairing and the painters took over most of the building while the finish carpenters continued to reinstall the pews in the north balcony. The Palmetto Craftsmen crew placed some of their own scaffolding around the wooden organ pipe cabinet and replaced the pieces of the cabinet that had fallen off over the years. Fortunately, these pieces were preserved by our Organist, William Gudger, who not only bagged them but also noted the area of the cabinet they came from. While the scaffolding was in place they checked the entire cabinet to ensure there were no other pieces getting ready to fall.

With all of the scaffolding removed from the nave, the Church building really began to resemble the building we left just over a year ago. I was reminded of a sign I saw years ago at a road construction site in the Rockies – "Please excuse us! The inconvenience is temporary, the improvement is permanent" and I hoped we would find this true for us as well!

Now, with the work complete and the final cleaning and touch-up underway so our Cathedral will be ready once again as a place to worship and witness for the parish, for the diocese and for the wider community, we should realize that it has also, in a special way, been a place of worship for those who worked here over the past year. The same individuals from Palmetto Craftsmen were present during the entire construction period and seemed to recognize that it was a Holy Place. Their craftsmen took such pride in their work for us that when they saw the Cathedral logo on the Dean’s and my hard hats they all asked for copies to put on their hard hats to show that this was their church home away from home. There was never any profanity used in or about the facility and no lost time injuries during the entire construction period! Palmetto Craftsmen, Inc. is known for their concern for safety but it seemed like everyone took extra pains to keep from being injured in our Cathedral.

The first service to be held in the Cathedral after completion was, fittingly, a service of ordination for which the hymns were the same as those of the last service before construction began fourteen months earlier. We look forward to many more years of services, parochial and diocesan, pastorally-directed and mission-shaped, now that our "birth defect" has been surgically healed.

To view photos please click on Learn More About Us, Photo Gallery and go to Signs of Progress.

Philip Gadsden Dixon

Vestry Construction Representative

September 8, 2007
 
Communication from the Standing Committee PDF Print E-mail

South Carolina Prepares to Re-elect the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence as Bishop
4/17/2007

Following a specially called meeting in Charleston, S.C., on April 17, the standing committee announced plans to begin the process of re-electing the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence as Bishop of South Carolina.

Fr. Lawrence's election on the first ballot last September was nullified last month by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori because the diocese did not receive a sufficient number of properly verified consents from a majority of diocesan standing committees within the time frame specified by the canons.

"We are fully persuaded that the Holy Spirit spoke in that election and we were reassured that a majority of both bishops and standing committees intended to consent to this election," the committee stated. "We are determined to carry forward our diocesan mission within the context of the canons which give order to our common life. Accordingly, at our meeting today, we unanimously passed a resolution reconvening the 216th annual meeting of the Diocese of South Carolina, which was recessed."

The standing committee sought the most expeditious way of moving forward with another election, the Rev. J. Haden McCormick told The Living Church. Reconvening the clergy and lay delegates from the annual meeting last November would save almost six months as opposed to waiting for approval for an election from the annual meeting next November, said Fr. McCormick who noted that the diocesan canons require approval from the annual convention before a special electing convention can be called.

Under the timeline envisioned by the standing committee, the annual convention will reconvene in early June. If a majority of clergy and lay delegates agree to a special electing convention, it would occur as soon as possible after the canonically mandated notification period. The special electing convention would then meet sometime toward the end of the summer. This would permit Fr. Lawrence to be consecrated before Christmas if he receives the necessary consents from both standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction.

Fr. Lawrence received consent from a majority of bishops. The nullification of the South Carolina election was the first time in more than 50 years in The Episcopal Church.

Courtesy of "The Living Church"
 
The Baltimore Declaration PDF Print E-mail

The Baltimore Declaration
1991

Throughout the history of the Christian Church, there have been times when the integrity and substance of the Gospel have come under powerful cultural, philosophical, and religious attack. At such times, it has been necessary for Christian believers, and especially for pastors and preachers, to confess clearly, unequivocally, and publicly "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3), and to define this faith over against the heresies and theological errors infiltrating the Church. Thus the Church is led into a deeper comprehension of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the communal identity of the Church is strengthened in its mission to the world.

We, the undersigned, who are baptized members of the Episcopal Church of the United States, believe that such a time has now come upon the Church which we serve. We are now witnessing a thoroughgoing revision of the faith inconsistent with the evangelical, apostolic and catholic witness, a revision increasingly embraced by ecclesiastical leaders, both ordained and lay. In the name of inclusivity and pluralism, we are presented with a new theological paradigm which rejects, explicitly or implicitly, the doctrinal norms of the historic creeds and ecumenical councils, and which seeks to relativize, if not abolish, the formative and evangelical authority of the Holy Scriptures. This paradigm introduces into the Church a new story, a new language, a new grammar. The "revelations" of modernity, infinitely self-generating and never ending, supplant and critique that historic revelation which God the Holy Trinity has communicated by word and deed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Israelite.

Fully aware of our own sinfulness, as well as the spiritual dangers inherent in issuing such a call, we humbly and prayerfully summon the Church to return to and remain steadfast in that Gospel entrusted to it by the Apostles of Jesus Christ. We also summon the clergy of the Church to stand up boldly and declare that Trinitarian faith which they have sworn at their ordinations to uphold and preach. We are well aware of the possible personal and professional costs of such a confession in the present situation; but we are convinced that the integrity and substance of the Gospel, that Gospel which is the only hope and salvation of the world, are at stake. The Lord is calling us to fidelity to him and to him alone.

We offer, therefore, the following Declaration of Faith. This is not a comprehensive confession. It addresses those critical theological issues which we believe to be at the heart of the present crisis.

I. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:18-20).

By the command and mandate of her risen Lord, the Church of Jesus Christ is commissioned to baptize disciples into the revealed name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This proper name faithfully identifies the Savior and Lord of the Holy Scriptures. While human linguistic formulae cannot exhaust the mystery of the ineffable Deity, the threefold appellation - given to us in the resurrection of Jesus - truly names and designates the three Persons of the Holy Trinity as disclosed in the biblical narrative, and summarizes the apostolic experience of God in Christ. To reject, disregard, or marginalize the Trinitarian naming is to cut ourselves off from that story which shapes and defines the identity of the Church; ultimately, it is to cut ourselves off from the God of Israel himself. The confession of the triune name is required in the celebration of Christian baptism, and it properly structures the liturgy and prayer of the Christian community: We rightly pray to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. As St. Basil the Great declared: "For we are bound to be baptized in the terms we have received and to profess belief in the terms in which we are baptized, and as we have professed belief in, so to give glory to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

We repudiate the false teaching that God has not definitively and uniquely named himself in Jesus Christ, that we are free to ignore or suppress the revealed name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and worship the Deity with names and images created by our fallen imaginations or supplied by secular culture, unreformed by the Gospel and the biblical revelation.

II. "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said. . ." (Gen. 1: I-3).

"Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end" (Ps. 102: 25-27).

The triune God is the holy creator who freely speaks the universe into contingent existence out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). He is the sovereign Lord, utterly transcending his creation, yet actively immanent within it, guiding and directing it to its eschatological fulfillment in the Kingdom. As creator, God is free to act within his universe, both providentially and miraculously, to accomplish his purposes and ends.

We repudiate the false teaching of monism, which indissolubly unites deity and cosmos into an interdependent whole, the world being construed as God's body, born of the substance of deity, and thus divine. On the other hand, we repudiate the false teaching of deism, which distances the creator from active involvement in the preservation, redemption, and consummation of his creation.

III. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people... . And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. . . . From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known" (John 1:1-4,14,16-18).

"All things have been handed over to me by my Father and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (Matt. 11:27).

Jesus of Nazareth is God. He is the Word made flesh, the incarnation and embodiment of the divine Son, truly God and truly human, "of one being" (homoousios) with the Father and the Spirit. In this wondrous union of deity and humanity, the triune God is perfectly and definitively revealed. In Christ, and in him alone, we are freely given true apprehension of God in his immanent reality, freely given to share in the Son's knowledge of the Father in the Holy Spirit. The crucified and risen Lord, in all of his historical particularity, is thus the source and foundation of our knowledge of the living God. We rejoice in the triune God's gift of himself in Jesus Christ, and declare Jesus as the eternal Word who judges all preachings, teachings, theologies, actions, prayers and rituals. We acknowledge that God is free to communicate himself in many and diverse ways to the peoples of the world; but we confess that saving and authentic knowledge of the Deity in his inner Trinitarian life is possible only in and through the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, the God-man.

We repudiate the false teaching that Jesus Christ is only one revelation or manifestation of God, that there are other revelations and other experiences (political, ideological, cultural, or religious) to which we may look or must look to gain knowledge of the true God.

IV. "l am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

"This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:11-12).

By his incarnation in Jesus the Israelite, the eternal Son of God has assumed to himself our human nature, cleansing and healing it by the power of the Spirit, redeeming it from sin and death by the cross of Calvary, raising it to everlasting life in his resurrection, and incorporating it into the triune life of the Godhead by his ascension to the right hand of the Father. Thus this Jesus, who is called the Christ, is the Savior of the world, the one mediator between God and humanity, in whom, by faith, repentance and baptism, we find forgiveness, rebirth in the Spirit, and eternal life in the Kingdom. While we do not presume to judge how the all-holy and all-merciful God will or will not bring to salvation those who do not hear and believe the preached Gospel, we do emphatically declare Jesus the rightful Lord and Savior of all humanity, and we embrace the Great Commission of our Lord to proclaim with evangelical fervor his Good News to the world. To deny this historic conviction in the absolute lordship of Christ Jesus and his exclusive mediation of salvation is to eviscerate the heart and vitality of the Church's evangelistic mission.

We repudiate the false teaching that the salvation of humanity by the sovereign action and grace of God is unnecessary or that salvation may be ultimately found apart from the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We repudiate the false teaching that Jesus is merely one savior among many - the savior of Christians but not of humankind.

V. "The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him" (John 4:21-23).

"So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; ... As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all" (Romans 11:25-26, 28-32).

By the call of Abraham and the covenant of Moses enacted on Mount Sinai, the triune God has gathered to himself the people of Israel to be his holy nation and royal priesthood, consecrated to his service in the redemption of the world. To them he has entrusted his Torah, Wisdom, and prophetic Word. From this people God has brought forth his Messiah, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary, Jesus the Jew, the son of David, who is the fulfillment of the promises of God to Israel and the Savior of humanity and of all creation. For these majestic reasons, the Jews are to be regarded by Christians as a reverend and blessed people. Following the teaching of the New Testament, we eagerly look forward to that time when Gentile and Jew will be fully reconciled and made one people in eternal communion with the crucified and risen Messiah in the New Jerusalem.

We repudiate the false teaching that the Jews may be persecuted by Christians and we especially repudiate the repugnant and fallacious charge of "Christ-killers," which has been used by Christians down the centuries as an excuse for hatred, bigotry, and violence against the Jews. All anti-Semitism in thought, word, or deed is vicious and is to be decried and condemned by Christians. But we also repudiate the false teaching that eternal salvation is already given to the chosen people of Israel through the covenant of Abraham and Moses, independently of the crucified Christ, and the inference that the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah need not be proclaimed to them.

VI. "But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith" (Romans 3:21-25).

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8-9).

The Gospel is the proclamation of the unconditional love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness of God the Father, mediated through Christ crucified, in the power of the Spirit. The Father nurtures, protects, and cares for his children like a nursing mother: he strengthens, directs, and disciplines them like a steadfast father. His love embraces all humankind equally, female and male, and is communicated to us in the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the sacraments, received by the faith granted us in the gift of the Gospel. This love cannot be earned nor bought: We are freely justified by the grace given to us through Christ in his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection, not by our religious, political, psychological, or moral works.

We repudiate the false teaching that God is male (except in the incarnate Christ) and that men are consequently superior to women, or that God has institutionalized in family, society, or the Church the authoritarian and sexist domination of women by men. We repudiate the false teaching that God the Father is the oppressor and subjugator of women, or that the divine Fatherhood is rightly construed as the psychological projection upon the Deity of the experience of human fatherhood. We therefore repudiate the false teaching that the Father of Jesus Christ is inaccessible or unavailable to contemporary women.

VII. "Do you think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished'" (Matt. 5:17-18).

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3: 16-17).
We confess the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation. The Holy Spirit, the ultimate author of God's Word written, was active both in the inspiration of the sinful human writers, redactors, and editors and in the process of canonization. Interpreted within the tradition and community of the Christian Church, with the use of responsible biblical criticism - always under the guidance and lordship of the Spirit - the Scriptures, in their entirety, are the reliable, trustworthy, and canonical witness to God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ, and are our primary and decisive authority in matters of faith and morals. Through the Holy Scriptures the Church hears anew every day that Word who frees us from the tyranny of the fashionable, the divine Word who renews and inspires, teaches and corrects, judges and saves.

We repudiate the false teaching that the plain testimony of the Holy Scriptures may, in whole or part, be supplanted by the images, views, philosophies, and values of secular culture. We repudiate the false teaching that only those sayings of the pre-resurrection Jesus which can be demonstrated to be certain or probable by historical criticism are authoritative for the life and mission of the Church. We repudiate the false teaching that the Old Testament is not to be interpreted in light of its messianic fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ as witnessed in the New Testament, or that the Old and New Testaments stand hermeneutically, materially, and formally independent of each other.

Pray for the Church.


The Rev. Ronald S. Fisher
The Rev. Alvin F. Kimel, Jr.
The Rev. R. Gary Matthewes-Green
The Rev. William N. McKeachie
The Rev. Frederick J. Ramsay
The Rev. Philip Burwell Roulette
 
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