Sex, Moral Teaching, and the Unity of the Church. Timothy F. Sedgwick

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СКАЧАТЬ this treasure in clay jars [in earthen vessels], so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Cor 4:7).

      Teaching in the church is a matter of formation. Faith is not a body of knowledge but a way of life given together in relationship with God. This is expressed in the understanding of baptism as a rite of initiation, as breaking the bonds of sin and being raised into new life in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Formation in this new life is marked as beginning in baptism and deepened in the study of Scripture, in the celebration of the eucharist and more generally in prayer and worship, and in a life lived in love of God and neighbor.

      In the Episcopal Church entering into this new life is referred to as the “baptismal covenant.” As detailed in The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) in the service of baptism, God’s grace as reconciliation and redemption is given as the new Christian is joined in the community of faith and commits her- or himself to life in Christ. The vows are to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, in prayers, in resisting evil, in the repentance of sin, in proclaiming in word and example the Good News of God in Christ, in seeking and serving Christ in all persons, in striving for justice and peace among all people, and in respecting the dignity of every human being (BCP, 304–5).

      Entering this life in Christ as given in the life of the church is a matter of the community of faith as a whole. Having said that, ordained ministry is understood as having oversight in the teaching of Christian faith in which the local church is in communion with and so participates in the universal church. In this sense, ordained ministry, along with baptism and eucharist, is a central mark of the church, integral to the identity of the church as church. Understood as a gift of the Holy Spirit, ordained ministry is understood as sacramental in the sense that the ordained represent and effect the community of faith as local and universal. Central to this ministry is teaching, presiding at the celebration of the eucharist, and pastoral oversight over the community. As a matter of teaching, this ministry is understood by the church as that of episcopus, the Greek New Testament word denoting one exercising authority for teaching and oversight. To be the church there must be means of teaching and oversight, what may be termed episcopé, by which the local church is joined in communion with the church universal.

      The structure of episcopé in the churches—Oriental and Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, those of the Protestant Reformation, Anabaptist, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and other free church traditions—is varied. The structure of episcopé may be identified as conciliar, synodical, and magisterial.

      In order to pass on the faith received and shared together, local churches have met together in council to pray and worship together and to share and learn from each other. This includes individual congregations meeting together as a diocese or other judicatories such as a Methodist Conference or a Presbyterian presbytery. It also includes dioceses or judicatories meeting together as a national church or a church covering a specific physical region. Most broadly, it includes national churches or regional churches gathering together as a communion of churches. Examples of national or regional churches gathering together in council would include the Ecumenical Councils of the early church, the Second Vatican Council in the Roman Catholic Church, meetings of the Lutheran World Federation, meetings of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, the Lambeth Conference where the churches of the Anglican Communion gather together, and the international assemblies of the World Council of Churches.

      Votes may be taken as churches gather in councils. As councils, votes express the consensus over particular matters about belief and practice. At the least, they express a majority judgment of members. Such resolutions provide counsel to churches; however, they aren’t legislation to be enforced as criteria for membership and participation unless independently adopted by a participating church and applied given the church’s own governance structure. Given a consensus among those gathered over some particular matter, some churches may absent themselves from future gatherings, but the purpose of councils is to gather to counsel one another and not to legislate.

      Churches gathered as dioceses and judicatories, as regional and national churches, or as forming a larger, international church may also share in a common structure of authority for teaching and discipline. In that case, representatives exercise episcopé as legislative bodies. Who are representatives varies from church to church, from exclusively bishops to ordained clergy and lay members, to largely lay members. In making binding decisions for each particular church, the form of governance may be designated as synodical. The nature of the meeting is more than counsel. It is legislative. This requires enforcement through membership and participation in the life of the church. Central to insuring conformity is the selection, the appointment, and, when necessary, the removal and replacement of the ordained who exercise authority for teaching and discipline. Discipline also includes the possibility of the exclusion of regional and national churches or dioceses and judicatories from decision-making or participation in future synods.

      Beyond synods, authority for teaching and oversight has in some churches been assumed by a particular office. Most notably, in the Roman Catholic Church this is the teaching magisterium centered in the College of Bishops over which the bishop of Rome, the pope, presides. Presiding over bishops who exercise specific authority in the church, the pope exercises an extraordinary magisterium over the whole church. As the word “magistrate” denotes, particular persons rule. They make judgments about teaching and enforce teaching through membership, appointments, and removal from office.

      Whatever the form of episcopé—conciliar, synodical, or magisterial—all agree teaching requires reception and hence multiple ways in which teachings of Christian faith are passed on in order that they are received. Different forms of teaching and different ways of structuring teaching authority reflect differences in the history and context of churches. Churches may learn from one another why authority for teaching and oversight is structured differently. They may also come to agree that they share a common sense of ministry as episcopé. Given the gospel mandate for Christians to be one as a matter of life in God and as a matter of witness to the world, one question remains, “Can churches share a full and visible unity while ordering and exercising episcopé differently?” The answer to this question returns to the question of teaching and how teaching is understood.

       Anglicanism as Case in Point

      While matters of morals have divided Christians within churches and between churches, little work has addressed the church and moral teach ing. Until the 2014 agreed statement of the Anglican Roman Catholic Theological Consultation in the U.S.A. (ARC-USA), Ecclesiology and Moral Discernment, the only significant study was the 1993 agreed statement by the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) titled Life in Christ. As with most ecumenical dialogues, the intent of these agreed statements is to understand the faith that different churches share in common.

      As a matter of Christian formation, there is broad agreement among Anglicans and Roman Catholics that morally the need is for the church to form conscience in truth and to respect the consciences of those it teaches. At the least, different churches see formation as happening through worship, preaching, programs for initiation or reception into the church, Bible study, educational programs, and pastoral care. At the same time, different churches draw different moral judgments from the sources that inform the processes of formation. The importance of moral norms and normative teaching is also understood differently. This is reflected in the way in which teaching authority is structured. Again, churches differ in matters of governance, what they authorize as normative, as binding on all, and what they accept and even support as differences of conscience. Ecclesially, the question this poses is, “Given differences in the teaching of moral judgments, are those differences church-dividing?”

      The Episcopal Church and the other churches forming the Anglican Communion have differences in understanding moral teaching and differences in ordering authority for teaching. This makes the present “crisis in moral teaching and governance” СКАЧАТЬ