MOYER TO BE CONSECRATED BISHOP
Timing Gets Mixed Reactions Among Conservative Leaders
By Auburn Faber Traycik
The Christian Challenge (Washington, DC)
December 17, 2004
A dramatic turn is in the offing for persecuted Pennsylvania rector David Moyer, and the unanswered pleas of the orthodox group he leads, Forward in Faith, North America (FIF-NA), for a bishop to pastor traditional Episcopalians in hostile circumstances.
But, as with many things happening as part of Anglican realignment today, this development also promises to be controversial, even among some U.S. traditionalists who have few options left.
Fr. Moyer is to be consecrated a bishop within the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), the largest global Continuing Anglican Church and a body already in communion with FIF-NA and sister groups in England and Australia. Consecrators are expected to include bishops from both the TAC and the ?official? Anglican Communion.
After his consecration, slated for February 16, Moyer will exercise episcopal oversight for the military chaplaincies of the Anglican Church in America (ACA), TAC?s American branch (which also includes Central America), and at times assist TAC bishops, who shepherd several hundred thousand adherents in 21 countries. However, he will continue as rector of the prominent Good Shepherd, Rosemont. In light of changing circumstances, he is reviewing his role as president of FIF-NA, a body which also presently forms a non-geographical convocation within the conservative Anglican Communion Network within the U.S. Episcopal Church (ECUSA). However, he remains firmly committed to working on or with the FIF-NA Council, he told TCC.
Unlike the consecrations of two conservative Episcopal priests (for what later became the Anglican Mission in America) in Singapore five years ago, Moyer?s consecration?which will also precede a critical meeting of Anglican Communion primates (provincial leaders)?will not be, or should not be, a surprise. The potential for it?and for the consecration as well of FIF-Australia Vice Chairman, Fr. David Chislett--has been reported more than once in the CHALLENGE and elsewhere, and was made known to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in communications over the last year from TAC Archbishop John Hepworth of Australia, who also has been in contact with Australian Archbishop Peter Carnley.
After being informed on November 30 that the ACA College of Bishops had unanimously elected him a bishop, Moyer said that he talked over the matter with God; his wife, Rita; his spiritual director; and Archbishop Williams, with whom he had ?a positive conversation,? he told TCC..
Moyer?s vestry is said to be supportive of his elevation to the episcopate, as is African Archbishop Bernard Malango of the Anglican Communion province of Central Africa, who licensed the priest as one of his clergy after Pennsylvania Episcopal Bishop Charles Bennison?s widely-protested move to ?depose? (defrock) him. Since then, despite the ultra-liberal Bennison?s best efforts and threats to the Rosemont parish?s property, Moyer has continued to serve as Good Shepherd?s rector, a role he has held since 1989, and the congregation retains use of its facilities. Moyer also plans to continue his relationship with Central Africa?s Diocese of the Upper Shire after his consecration. Meanwhile, Bennison faces a still-pending lawsuit by Moyer for what the priest says was the bishop?s failure to afford him due process before his deposition.
ACA Archbishop Louis Falk said his province?s House of Bishops unanimously elected Moyer ?for many reasons, not the least among them his many years of committed, proven pastoral leadership and his untiring efforts to bring about full Christian unity and communion in proclaiming and living the Gospel of Christ.?
?I am humbled, but I do know very deeply that this is the work of God,? Moyer said of his future role in the TAC, a body which has made serious efforts?in communication with Archbishop Williams--to stand in the gap for ?official? Anglicans displaced by provincial decisions to ordain women as well as to revise sexual morality; TAC leaders have suggested that the TAC--which is larger in membership than some Anglican provinces--could serve as part of the pastoral solution for a divided Communion, if Dr. Williams recognized it as such. With ties to both FIF and TAC, Moyer sees a unique opportunity to serve in what he believes is God?s call to the TAC ?to be an instrument of unity and reconciliation among those who have maintained the Anglican tradition since St. Augustine came to Canterbury.?
That service could have everything from grassroots to international effects: In his new role, Moyer could potentially visit FIF Episcopal parishes, in light of their communion relationship with TAC, but would be beyond the reach of ECUSA canons. Moyer is also keen to further TAC as the Continuing body most advanced in its resolve to become an Anglican Church in communion with Rome. TAC leaders believe that a statement from Roman Catholic officials accepting and setting forth a more detailed path toward that goal could come soon, possibly in the next few months.
Fr. Moyer (and, prospectively, Fr. Chislett) ?will be `flying bishops?, similar to those provided for the Church of England, with a ministry that spans diocesan and national borders,? Hepworth stated.
Up to now--despite appeals from FIF-NA to Dr. Williams and ECUSA Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold--no adequate provision for episcopal care has been made for ECUSA traditionalists, who in recent years have been frequent targets of liberal bishops. Some Episcopal leaders have also told FIF-NA that no bishop-elect who upholds historic holy order could ever again receive sufficient consents to be consecrated in ECUSA
-Pro And Con-
STILL, not all of Moyer?s fellow traditionalists and conservatives are happy about his step into ?extramural? Anglicanism. For one thing, though TAC adherents have joined most Continuing Anglicans in declaring communion with all faithful parts of the Anglican Communion, the latter has never returned the favor (though some TAC clergy are nevertheless licensed in Communion dioceses). One well-placed observer suggested that Dr. Williams was "positive" about Moyer's move to the Continuum only because he saw it as relieving the Communion of a leading traditionalist; another predicted that Williams would "disassociate" himself from the consecration.
Some also appear worried about the effect of Moyer?s change in status on FIF?s relationship with the conservative Anglican Communion Network (ACN), the one U.S. body to which most conservative Anglican primates are now relating, (though the FIF-ACN relationship is already limited by differences between the two groups on the issue of women's ordination).
ACN's Moderator, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, is supportive of the goal of drawing together orthodox Anglicans who have become organizationally and jurisdictionally separated as a result of the liberal ascendancy in western Anglicanism. However, he is believed to be concerned that Moyer's consecration as a TAC bishop, or at least the timing of that event, may have the opposite effect. Duncan was not available for comment on the matter today but was expected to make a statement early next week.
FIF-NA was expected to voice support for their president's consecration, though some of its bishops are also understood to be cool toward it in regard to its timing, as are spokesmen for FIF-UK. One of the latter was quoted as saying that the move was "inopportune and ill-timed," though another who was equally critical admitted that there was little if anything in the way of alternatives for embattled Episcopal traditionalists, who cannot get adequate "flying bishops" in ECUSA, much less a third province of the sort proposed in England; nor do most orthodox observers believe that the primates will soon grant formal Communion recognition to the ACN.
Claims that Communion bishops will join in consecrating Moyer also appear to some to be shaky. Questions were raised by some as well about whether Malango actually supports Moyer's consecration. Moyer said the primate had expressed the same in writing to him. And in a phone conversation December 16, Moyer asked if he would still remain a priest in good standing in Upper Shire. According to Moyer, Malango said, "Of course, David, you are my priest." However, Malango has stated his regrets that he cannot take part in Moyer's consecration, saying he will be consecrating a new bishop in Botswana at the time.
Some of the main criticisms that have already surfaced argue that Moyer?s consecration?just before Anglican primates meet in Northern Ireland in February?will disrupt the consideration process for the controversial Windsor Report, which addresses the Communion?s crisis over authority and homosexuality, even though many leading conservatives do not expect the primates to effectively counteract what conservatives see as the report's serious flaws when they meet in February. Critics also say that the consecration will upset the primates themselves, though several of the latter had already intervened in ECUSA even before the Windsor Report?s October 18 publication to provide episcopal care for beleaguered faithful or (in one case) to set up a separate convocation for U.S.-based Nigerian Anglicans.
But for Moyer and TAC officials, the Windsor Report and Primates? Meeting--and the dim outlook for orthodox Anglicans they have inspired--were among prime catalysts for setting Moyer?s February 16 consecration.
?We?re making David a bishop because he is a strong fighter for the faith and we want him with us,? Archbishop Falk told TCC. But it is also hoped, he said, that this action will renew primatial attention on the women?s ordination issue?which traditionalists believe was the linchpin for other liberal revisionism, and as much a salvation issue as homosexual behavior?and on the Windsor Report?s treatment of the matter. Traditionalists ripped the report for attempting to de-legitimize Anglicans who hold the Universal Church?s view on holy order, and for suggesting that the divisive handling of the ordination matter in the Communion is a helpful model for dealing with the homosexual issue.
Hepworth said that Moyer?s consecration, and the potential consecration of Fr. Chislett at ?about the same time??an action seemingly if surprisingly supported by Australia?s liberal primate--marks ?a vital change in the conflict that has devastated Anglicanism for over 25 years.?
In ECUSA, ?church law forbids anyone opposing the ordination of women to hold office. Other churches of Anglicanism behave in the same way. While persecuting those who do no more than hold what has always been believed, bishops who flaunt their lack of belief and their defiance of moral law are treated as heroes. Anglicanism has become a battlefield in a perverse conflict.?
The TAC ?has been urged to do nothing,? Hepworth said. ?It has been urged to delay the consecrations. I have noted that there has been no delay by any other part of the church. Liberal appointments continue unabated. At the Evangelical end of the Anglican spectrum, Nigeria and Uganda continue to plant parishes in the U.S. Only those whose dreams include unity between Rome and Canterbury are urged to do nothing. And yet unity was the dream of Jesus on the night before the Passion.?
Hepworth said the consecration of Fr. Moyer (and prospectively of Fr. Chislett) respond to ?the persistent and determined refusal of the Anglican Communion to address the persecution of traditional Anglican believers.? a cause in which both FIF and TAC seek a settlement.
?The final action, or lack of it, by the Anglican Communion that drove home the need for the timing of these consecrations, was the claim in the recent Windsor Report that all of these problems, along with the extensive and brutal persecution to which they have led, simply do not exist. Yet they do exist; and it is our prayer that, in addition to the primary purpose of providing needed episcopal ministry within the TAC, these consecrations will help to focus the minds of the Anglican primates on unresolved problems and justice withheld, when the primates meet in late February.?
?I have been informing the Archbishop of Canterbury of the progress of these appointments for the past year, and have been encouraged by his warmth and understanding,? Hepworth said.
Father Moyer?s consecration is to take place at 7:30 p.m. February 16 at Good Shepherd, Rosemont. Consecrating bishops will include Archbishops Hepworth and Falk, and other TAC bishops from Africa, Australia, Japan, Canada and the U.S. .Also expected to participate are Anglican Communion diocesan bishops from at least three provinces, as well as bishops from other jurisdictions.
More news/reactions to follow later
