Seperation of Church and Church

People break down into one of three groups: they prize either peace, love, or truth. I'm a truth person--which means I'll go to war with you over the truth, and I'll tell you the truth, even if it means you'll end our relationship. But that's me--I think that before anything else, there must be truth. All three are vital virtues, all three should exist within us to an equal extent--but being humans, we are almost never able to successfully balance virtues, and so often the best we can do is know which of the virtues we have a tendecy to uphold above all others, and try and avoid abusing it.

So...the church I have attended for over two years now is faced with the question of whether or not to break with its larger body over the issue of homosexual bishops. That's right--I attend an Anglican church--though I'm not an Anglican. The high church doesn't get everything right in my opinion, but their reverance for God's holiness is exactly what I think it should be--and what I don't see often elsewhere. Plus, its cool to say the same words that pillars of our faith have said for centuries.

Our priest, Father David, has said that we will not break--and his reasons were acceptable, though I ultimately disagree. He said that we cannot change the problems within the body if we leave the body. That's true...though ultimately, I still see the issue of truth as non-negotiable--but his reason is fair enough for me to accept. So my problem comes in when I hear people saying that we need to remain together for the sake of being together--that the fire cannot remain hot when the coals are seperated. We were urged to consider that it was not for us to judge the other members of the body, that what we were to do was maintain fellowship. And I have heard elsewhere that the only "-ism" the church has never recovered from is "Schism"...However, this is a step beyond Father David's urging for unity for the sake of having a positive effect on those that have fallen away within the body. This is clearly wrong.

We are the body of Christ. We remain hot not because of the numbers of our church, nor because of the title of our congregation--we have the Spirit of the Living God dwelling within us and THAT is the fire that keeps us hot. If we abandon that for the sake of unity, then we die. If we chose love or peace over God's truth, our love and our peace become stale mockeries of love and peace. Truth is a sword that can destroy people when misused--and no man should presume to understand the full nature of God's truth--but that does not mean we cannot KNOW certain unshakeable, unquestionable, unchangeable truths. And with that knowledge comes responsibility--we cannot turn a blind eye in the name of love or peace when we see truth being twisted and corrupted. There is right and there is wrong, and we have been given the ability to discern that and a charge to live justly and NOT do ill. Submitting to those that cannot understand good from bad, who think that there are no absolutes, no real meaning to "right" and "wrong" only means that we have surrendered our charge to be lights in the world--and THAT means we have become ineffective for the cause of Christ.

I know this sounds rather judgemental, and a little "fire and brimstone"-ish on my part...but I cannot NOT say it. Yesterday I heard a sermon (not Father David) that is making me consider the need to talk to Father David about this issue. As I am not an Anglican, I have been reluctant to get involved--but yesterday's message may have crossed the line. We don't stick together for comfort's sake. The family of Christ welcomes any who will repent and follow Christ--but in order to be a part of that family one MUST repent and follow. To correctly discern that there are people calling themselves Christians who are not and therefore NOT associate with them in the context of fellow believers isn't not loving--it is, in fact, their only chance of hearing what they must hear to be saved--that they cannot be "right" and believe in their lukewarm version of morality.

God help us.