One of the hardest things about this dreadful state of affairs in which we find ourselves in the Episcopal Church today, is to watch godly Christian men and women, whose lives have been totally yielded to the service of the Gospel, being misused and mistreated by those who hold the staff of shepherd of the flock, but seem incapable of acting like a true shepherd. Just this afternoon I heard from my friend, Eddie Gibbs, that he is under imposition in the Diocese of Los Angeles because he is one of the clergy of St. Luke's Church, La Crescenta, that has decided it in all conscience can no longer remain in ECUSA.
So, here is a man who has faithfully served the global church on several continents for more than four decades as a priest, being inhibited in preparation for eventual deposition. The reason is not heresy or immoral behavior, but because the congregation of which he is part cannot accept the plethora of sub-Christian innovations that the left-leaning leadership of his former diocese believe to be just fine and dandy. Quite honestly, this kind of thing is enough to make the angels weep.
I have known and respected Dr. Gibbs for a long time, as well as Ron Jackson, the rector of his parish, and I am saddened and appalled that men who are such thoroughgoing and faithful Anglicans are being terrorized by a bishop and his followers who are steering a course fast away from the Anglican Christianity whose order they claim to be upholding. This is a charade.
Eddie is not the first of my friends who has been shoved down this unseemly path by a rascally interpretation of the canons, and I suspect he will not be the last. St. Luke's have taken refuge in the Ugandan church for the moment, while Bruno of Los Angeles, who has already spent vast sums of money losing three other parishes and their property, sets about losing more money in his attempt to acquire St. Luke's Church. I hope to goodness he fails as in the case of All Saints', Long Beach, St. James, Newport Beach, and St. David's, West Hollywood.
Protests seem futile in the face of such gracelessness and intolerance because they would not be even listened to. Beneath all this God is doing a new work in his church, and I suspect that it will not be too long before names like Eddie Gibbs will be greatly honored in the land.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Wow.
You seem to be at a new level of frustration with ECUSA. Are you thinking it may finally be beyone repair?
I believe the correct term of art is 'inhibition' and not 'imposition.' Also, St. David's parish is located in North Hollywood (a division of the city of Los Angeles) and not West Hollywood (a city adjacent to Los Angeles).
I had understood that Fr. Gibbs was an Anglican priest, ordained in the CofE. How could he then be the subject of discipline by an Episcopal bishop? Also, Gibbs has been a long-time faculty member of the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. Would his inhibition jeopardize that position? In other words, could Jon Bruno demand that Fuller suspend its academic relationship with Gibbs, pending the outcome of the inhibition? I am aware of another Anglican priest, John Goldengay, who also teaches at Fuller and who serves as an assisting priest at an Episcopal parish in Pasadena.
Eddie Gibbs is well known through his books and his teaching at Fuller Seminary. This action by the Bishop of Los Angeles really is despicable.
Post a Comment