Religion Notes

New renewalists

By some accounts, the Episcopal Church has lost more than one-third of its members during the last 20 years, with some dioceses declining by as much as 40 percent. Conservatives in the 2.4-million-member church blame much of the loss on the failure of its leadership to uphold the authority of Scripture. Several renewal groups have emerged over the years to try to counter the trend. The latest such group to arrive on the scene bears the church's original name: The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Inc. (PECUSA). Based in Pawley's Island, S.C., the group says it wants to help move the denomination back to its moorings. More than 150 clergy, including 15 active and retired bishops and representing over 60,000 communicants, many of them in the denomination's largest and fastest growing parishes, have signed its "First Promise" document, spokesman Jon Shuler says. The document's name refers to the first vow taken by Episcopal clergy pledging loyalty to the "doctrine, discipline, and worship of Jesus Christ as the church has received them." Although PECUSA's leaders say they want to emphasize "positive steps" the Episcopal Church must take to recover its spiritual heritage, they served notice they already are on a collision course with the church's newly installed presiding bishop, Frank T. Griswold. "Bishop Griswold's reinterpretation of Scripture and his willingness to compromise the church's historic teaching on moral issues is not the direction we believe God wants the Episcopal Church to take," Mr. Shuler asserted. In his installation sermon at Washington National Cathedral early this month, Bishop Griswold spoke of the "diversity" in the church and suggested there are "different dimensions of truth." In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine that appeared just prior to his installation, he said he believes "the mind of Christ operative in the church over time ... has led the church to in effect contradict the words of the gospel." In a Washington Post interview, he called for less strident debate in the church but hinted controversy would mark his tenure. He is a strong backer of ordination of women as priests, and he was one of the 100 bishops who signed a 1994 statement saying sexual orientation is "morally neutral" and commending "committed" homosexual relationships as worthy of honor. Bishop Griswold, 60, was bishop of the Diocese of Chicago for 12 years. He succeeds Bishop Edmond L. Browning for a nine-year term as the church's chief executive officer and chair of its House of Bishops. Why another renewal group? Privately, PECUSA's leaders say the other groups haven't accomplished much, and new blood is needed. They indicate PECUSA will be aggressive in promoting its agenda. "We are not asking anyone to leave the church they love. We are asking them to help us build the church for the next generation," Mr. Shuler says. Todd Wetzel, executive officer of a larger renewal group, Chicago-based Episcopalians United, is hoping for reinforcements. Many who left the Episcopal Church to seek spiritual nurture and to raise their families in Bible-believing churches now find themselves in the empty-nest stage of life, he observed. They should consider returning to the Episcopal Church as "missionaries" to help reform it, he says.