It is no secret that many of the historical bastions for traditional Anglicanism have become taken over by woke ideology that runs directly contrary to historical Christianity. Specifically, many of these institutions have accepted modernist views on gender roles and sexual ethics. The Church of England has ordained women to the episcopacy, which runs directly against Paul’s teachings in 1 Timothy 2.
Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness.
1 Timothy 2:11-12 ASV
But the Church of England is not the only nominally Anglican group to do this. This putrid practice has also happened, in fact, it may have originated, in America with the ordination of women bishops in the Episcopal church in the 1970s. Not only do we have this in the Anglican communion, but there are other occurrences of this in the Roman Catholic Church and other American Protestant denominations. These groups also reject traditional sexual ethics. The late John Shelby Spong, who was a bishop in Newark, NJ, supported the blessing of premarital sex. In an article in the LA Times, Spong is cited as saying,
I find it difficult to believe that a church that blesses dogs in a Virginia fox hunt can’t find a way to bless life-giving, lasting relationships between human beings.
John Shelby Spong, LA Times
In addition to this, the Episcopal Church has made vocal its support for gay clergy. On the Episcopal Church’s website, we find this,
In 1994, General Convention amended the church’s canons to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, providing equal access to the rites and worship of the Episcopal Church, including ordination. Nine years later the Diocese of New Hampshire elected the first openly-gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson. This was, arguably, a turning point for the church.
The Episcopal Church
The sexual destructiveness of these practices is not out of the blue. It is not random. The analogy of the Church as the bride of Christ, and Christ as the bridegroom is far more apt than it may originally seem. As the Church strays from her husband, she begins to commit sexual sin. She begins to distort the proper roles of the sexes. And as the Church begins to stray, her members begin to stray in this way as well. So how do we fix these improper and disordered sexual ethics which have invaded the faux-Anglican communion? We must bring those responsible to task. Those who claim to be doing God’s work are the ones who are distorting God’s creation. Those who are part of the true Anglican Communion mus be aware of this, and strice to continue the truest, best, and most beautiful manifestation of Anglicanism.
Israel the Whore
History repeats itself. Before Christ, we can see Israel is having similar problems. Chapter four of the book of Hosea opens as such,
Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Hosea 4:1
The offenses of Israel are then laid out, and the consequences of these offenses are told. We can find an example of this in Hosea 4:6,
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.
Hosea 4:6
Their actions are described, and God says what the consequences of their actions are. They reject knowledge, and therefore God rejects them. This all culminates in verse 18, where God equates Israel’s actions to whoredom.
Their drink is become sour; they play the harlot continually; her rulers dearly love shame.
Hosea 4:18
As the people of God, they were committed to Him, as a wife is to her husband. As they stray farther from their husband, they begin to commit sexual sins. When we as God’s people stray from him, like Israel, we are whoring ourselves out to the world. There is a reason that straying from God is identified as a whoredom. Sex within a marriage is, among many things, a promise made with your spouse. It is a commitment that can only be made once, to only one person, that remains for life. This is a similar promise we make with God. As Christians, we are singularly committed to God. When we stray from Him, we commit a sexual sin of a sort. And as we commit this analogous sexual sin, real sexual sin follows it.
A Reccuring Pattern
We see that this pattern is not a one-off. In many of St. Paul’s epistles, we see that the recipients of the letters are struggling with sexual immorality. But that is never the main problem that St. Paul is writing to them about. The sexual immorality displayed by these churches was a byproduct of their bigger problems. This remains to this day. As the Church suffers and falls away from God, it exhibits sexual sins. The analogy of a wife and husband being the Church and Christ is far more literal than it may initially seem. We have wedded ourselves to Christ and committed our lives to Him as a husband does to his wife and a wife to her husband. When the church becomes disordered its members become disordered in the same way. So just as improper sexual actions are a sure sign if infidelity in a marriage, sexual sins in the church are a sign of infidelity to God.
Possible Solutions
There is no easy way to solve this. Those who have been the greatest promulgators of Anglicanism historically are the ones abandoning the faith. Those who pursue true Anglicanism must be aware of and resist the evils that these groups try to proliferate. Groups like the Church of England, the Episcopal Church, and the ACNA (to a lesser extent) no longer pass on Anglicanism. The Ecclesia Anglicana is not found in major institutions, for those institutions have abandoned the catholic faith for a Christian-like false faith. And those churches who have continued the Anglican patrimony, those who search for and live authentic Anglicanism, cannot be complacent or passive. It is the duty of every Christian to reform when the need arises, and the need has most certainly arisen now.
I have more understanding than my teachers; for thy testimonies are my study. I am wiser than the aged; because I keep thy commandments.
Psalm 119:99-100
Apologia Anglicana 