The breakpoint came partly with the elevation to bishop of New Hampshire of a practicing homosexual. When he entered the clergy, he had vowed (1) his loyalty to and belief in — as stipulated by the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer — “the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments” as “the Word of God,” and (2) his determination “to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church.”
Yet the homosexuality of the new bishop was less the cause of the Episcopal schism than his violation of his vow to live by a code higher than that embraced by the everyday rest of us. In ratifying his lifestyle and promoting him to bishop, did the sitting primates thereby elevate culture — cultural interpretation — over scripture?
The departing churches say, lopsidedly, yes. Next week a 30-day moratorium — ceasefire — on litigation expires, but surely litigation will come. The diocese claims ownership of all church property within its domain — even in those cases, as in Virginia, relating to churches formed before the Diocese of Virginia was a glint in its daddy’s eye. Almost certainly the coming litigation will be expensive, bitter and long.
All the while proclaiming its inclusiveness, the hierarchy will seek to palliate yet insist it owns the churches of the disaffected. The formerly Episcopal Anglicans will protest any hierarchical definition of inclusiveness that excludes them, and will wish for the hierarchy the same adherence to faith and scripture as its adherence to property — tangible and real — for which it has paid hardly anything, if anything at all.
Perhaps seemingly insignificant to others, this is schismatic war, happening in Virginia and across the landscape — and around the globe. As in other realms — entertainment, politics, the academy and the press — it derives from what people think, from their religious beliefs. And history reminds that conflict grounded in religious controversy is perhaps the most bruising and consequential of all.