An Open Letter To Episcopal Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe

We are watching as dioceses merge, columbaria fill up with aging Episcopalians, parishes shrink with many now seeing ‘For Sale’ signs. Bishops are selling diocesan headquarters for cash as they move into unused parishes and downsize to modest headquarters, laying off staff as they go. It is not a pretty sight. The average age of an Episcopalian is 69 I am told and they won’t be around with their checkbooks in a decade.

More parishes are sharing rectors to cut costs. Parishes with endowment are doing better but endowments do not last forever.

Most of your seminaries are barely functioning with only one or two having a hope of making it five years from now. A new generation of clergy is not coming forward. Some second career types but they will not save the church.

There are no new Generation X, or Z coming to fill the pulpits. Hundreds of small parishes will close in the next decade.

The latest parochial report said this; “Many parishes are experiencing increasing costs associated with older building maintenance and utility use while also experiencing a decrease in available finances from income and pledges. Some parishes have had to dip into endowment funds to keep up with building maintenance, some have been fortunate to secure grants, and others have had to face the difficult decision of closing the parish because they were no longer financially able to support a congregation. With inflation affecting costs and pledging, parishes are faced with difficult decisions about how to plan for their futures.”

And then there is the growing number of bishops and clergy caught in compromising sexual situations in what is euphemistically called “inappropriate relationships.” Discipline of such errant clergy and bishops is weak at best despite efforts to tighten the rules around Title IV. Foot dragging and the church’s dated approach to ethics and clergy discipline is all too apparent.

There are numerous clergy out there who engage in criminal conduct but they face neither suspension nor consequences, writes Anglican Watch, a national watchdog blog on TEC’s indiscretions.

You talk of structural change. To my mind this is code for managed decline and death by a thousand cuts.

You are on record saying you look forward to helping “usher this church into whatever it is being called into in this next phase and season of life.” Well, that next season could be death, unless there is a revival TEC will surely die.

You made three observations about the future of TEC. One of them was evangelism. Good.

But are you prepared to tell people that they are sinners in need of saving, that woke issues won’t save the church; that railing on about climate change, reparations, more and different sexualities that need to be included will turn the tide?

For all the vaunted talk and acceptance of homosexuality including same-sex marriage, pansexualists have not rushed through the red doors. Capitulating to the culture on human sexuality has cost the church in people and money. Simply put it has not worked.

Have you ever asked yourself why the Anglican Church in North America is growing, despite a culture that vigorously opposes everything they stand for? That there are thousands of young people doing evangelism, helping the poor in real time, assisting priests to determine their own vocations.

You studied for a time at Grove City College, a theologically orthodox institution. Considered one of the best in the nation. Did you learn nothing there?

As Grove City College says of itself; “You will find an unwavering commitment to your freedom of conscience, empowering you to know the Truth of who God is and who you are meant to be. Pursue your purpose and step into a life of inexpressible joy.”

Sadly, you will not find that in The Episcopal Church. It is a joyless institution because it no longer preaches Christ and Him crucified. Its priests are not filled with the knowledge of God, just issues of the day — issues that can be found in the pages of most newspapers and online social media.

It might well be that God has written Ichabod (where is the glory) over TEC and you will preside over the dying vestiges of a church in decline.

Perhaps God is giving you a window to turn things around.

You could stand up at the next General Convention and say this:
“Dear fellow Episcopalians. We have reached a Kairos moment in the life of our church. For the last 50 or so years we have seen the church, in average Sunday attendance, drop through the floor. We cannot whitewash the situation any longer. Many of you sitting here will not be around three years from now. Many of you will be sitting in another merged congregation with another bishop or dead, but whatever it is, you are a parish in decline.

So, I want today to put aside all the resolutions you have come with; all the pleadings for yet more money for one more idea, and focus our total attention on Christ alone.

I want the next ten days to focus on Jesus, and I want you to buy three books to help you. One is Basic Christianity by John Stott (an Anglican); another is Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (also an Anglican) and the third is by a Presbyterian minister by the name of Tim Keller and his book, Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions.

I believe if we can get back to basics with these three books, we can recover the faith we have lost over the years.

Let us pray.

THE END

AN OPEN LETTER TO EPISCOPAL PRESIDING BISHOP-ELECT SEAN ROWE

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
October 17, 2024

Dear Bishop Rowe,

You are about to take the reins of a church in decline. You know this of course, because the statistics don’t lie and you have been given the task of fixing at what looks to be an unfixable problem.

None of your predecessors was able to stop the hemorrhaging of Episcopalians even though the money still looks pretty good and the few are giving more.

But money won’t save the Episcopal Church.