Final And Beginning Thoughts

A View From The Pew
by Gerry Hunter

It has been, for as long as I have been alive, the practice to give momentous days in a conflict situation a label. Yesterday was labeled “A-Day” by the forces now moving towards Baghdad Iraq. Tomorrow, as we in the coalition of parishes meet in our respective vestries to secure a future of faithful witness, we know that if ever a day merited a label, that would be such a day. No one in the pews that I’ve encountered, though, has a label at the ready to apply to tomorrow. We have only thoughts, and a determination to proceed and act as we always said we would.

As the time for the meetings approaches, some of our thoughts are about the past. We come to tomorrow not after a journey of nine months, but after a battle that has been joined for many years. In the pews, we know that well, in spite of the reactions from individuals and organizations not directly engaged in the battle for faithfulness. One would conclude, thinking back on their reactions, that the present situation was beamed down by Scotty from the Enterprise only last June. Whether it was deliberate denial, or simply common ignorance on their part of the abuse, coercion, derision, and bullying to which the faithful in New Westminster have been subjected for years, matters little as tomorrow approaches. In the pews we have always said that we would never accompany those who followed the path of apostasy. I personally have concluded that many thought we were liars, from the way they simply ignored what we repeatedly stated. The reaction leads to other thoughts.

There is a shooting war waging in the Middle East right now. That is never a good thing. After tomorrow, there will be a shooting war on the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, too. Could either one have been avoided? In a never-never land in the New York City area, a morally bankrupt organization, long crippled by the notion that right and truth was only what it determined them to be in its own councils, mouthed platitudes and wrung its collective hands as a brutal tyrant had his way. The saddest thing is that this organization clearly thought it could avert war in this pathetic manner. Now we should not be at all surprised that an organization which is utterly saturated in secular humanism would come to such an end. It’s not as if the organization claims to be an expression of anything as mighty as the Church of Jesus Christ. Yet as we look back as tomorrow approaches, we see sickening similarities from here in the pews.

Just as we were ignored outside of our Diocese for so long, the faithful in the pews were also inundated with the myth that organizational games predicated on considerations of pop psychology would solve what was really not such a big matter at all. Forget the whole idea of right and wrong, of truth and apostasy. Engage in dialogue; just listen; think not of Holy Scripture and thousands of years of Christian teaching, but think of “love” (but not in too great a level of specificity and detail). Accept that schism is somehow worse than unfaithfulness, and that the schismatic is the one who doesn’t accompany the crowd into the mountains to worship Baal, not the one who leads the parade. As sad as it is that it has come to the point that what will come to pass tomorrow must come to pass, the behaviour of the wider organization has been much, much sadder to watch from the pews. The United Nations is not the only organization in the world that has taken giant steps towards irrelevancy.

The final thoughts as tomorrow nears may sadden us in the pews, but they do not predominate. For we are not in the situation of those who contemplate the impotency of the United Nations. We face hard times at the hands of a bully and a tyrant, but we do not seek to defeat him. Given what happened two thousand years ago on a cross, that is unnecessary. We will let him go and not go with him, and turn for oversight to a faithful Bishop who, in an utterly remarkable act of courage and faith, will give us guidance and protection, with the backing of International Primates of the Anglican Communion. Let no one confuse a human organization with the Church of Jesus Christ. Jesus is faithful, even when whole corporate organizations that claim to manifest Him put their faith in the pseudo-science of behaviour manipulation. Just as the Good Shepherd knows His sheep, and they Him, so too faithful shepherds will move to tend His sheep, and those sheep will submit to them.

So what, then, are the first thoughts that form as tomorrow approaches? The faithfulness of the Good Shepherd, as manifested by the shepherds faithful to Him, is at their base. We will not have to face the ravages of a bullying tyrant alone, though face them we surely will have to. But we also anticipate joyfully the relief of casting off the foul fetters of apostasy that have so hindered the mission of the followers of Jesus Christ. We had a foretaste of that joy on the very day last June when we gathered apart from the apostate synod to celebrate Holy Communion together. How much more joyful will it be, after tomorrow, to be able to proclaim unfettered the message of salvation, and bring more souls, both those who know Him not, and those beset by the apostasy inflicted on the faithful, to that place of faith where they may enjoy the peace of God, which passes all understanding?

It will be much more of a beginning tomorrow than it will be an ending. After tomorrow, we can begin the work of bearing true witness to Him who died for us, under a faithful bishop, in the rich tradition of the Anglican Communion. Organizations may pass into irrelevance and futility when they hold themselves to be the sole source of truth. But His Word will never pass away, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against His Church. And tomorrow, we begin to move more deeply into that truth.

© 2003 by Gerry Hunter. All rights reserved.