A letter: Leaving Anglicanism and entering Orthodoxy
by William H. Draper, Henry B. Shirley and Leaella J. Shirley (Edited by Franklin Billerbeck)
This letter was sent by Henry and Leaella Shirley and William Draper to their Christian friends on the occasion of their joining the Orthodox Church. Formerly members of Saint James Episcopal Church, Milwaukee, they now belong to Saints Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Church (OCA) in Milwaukee.
June 5, 1988
Sunday of All Saints /Pentecost II
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
As some of you know, we have decided to leave Anglicanism (and its American province, the Protestant Episcopal Church) and to be received by chrismation into Orthodoxy more specifically the Orthodox Church in America (formerly a part of the Russian Orthodox Church). This action is surrounded with much grief at leaving, yet filled with the deep joy of finally "going home." After so many years as Anglicans, we feel obliged to explain our reasons both to our friends and to those in positions of pastoral oversight and responsibility within Anglicanism. Below are two statements on the essentially separate issues of why we feel compelled to leave and why we have chosen the Orthodox Church.
On Leaving Anglicanism
It does not occur to us to be anything other than catholics. We became Episcopalians because we were taught and believed that the Anglican communion was a legitimate expression of the catholicism of English speaking people. Our confirmations or reception were a statement that we believed the Episcopal Church to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. But we can no longer make that affirmation except by the widest exercise of scholastic reasoning and mental gymnastics.
We have come to believe that by its open repudiation of the faith and practice of the undivided Church established by Christ, recorded in Scripture, proclaimed by the Apostles, and taught by the Fathers and seven Ecumenical Councils the Episcopal Church has forfeited any claim it may have once had to be part of or in doctrinal continuity with that Church. Some provinces of the Anglican communion have taken similar actions, and still others by their silence and lack of clear statement to the contrary (they remain in communion with PECUSA), have given tacit consent.
We also believe that a rereading of the documents surrounding the English reformation and the writings of the seventeenth century Anglican divines indicates that the defects of which we now see the end results were inherent from the beginning. There was bound to be trouble in churches where the highest doctrinal authority is the King in Parliament, or the whims of a mere provincial synod also known as the General Convention, and not the Scriptures, Creeds, and decrees of the Ecumenical Councils as guarded by the whole people of God, and as taught and proclaimed by bishops in succession to and continuity with the Apostolic Church.
It is with reluctance that we write these things. It is with genuine regret that we make these statements. We have loved the Anglican ethos, liturgy, and piety in varying forms from the witness of those who worshipped, worked, and prayed for the reunion of the Anglican Churches with the Holy See of Rome, to the real evangelical testimony of Anglo-Catholicism, even in its autumn ("Catholic worship Gospel preaching"), to the sometimes quixotic yet always faithful dreams of those who hoped to someday see the Rite of Sarum in common usage. This is not easy for us.
What follows is a list of events which have led us to take this step, and which brought us (individually, and before we considered Orthodoxy) to know in our hearts that we had to leave, and to give that leaving to God as an offering, asking Him to show us the direction we should go, even if it meant, as Blessed John Henry Newman wrote in 1833, being "far from home."
1) The Episcopal Church, along with other provinces of the Anglican communion, purports to have "ordained" women to the priesthood. It claims to have the authority to consecrate women as bishops. This is so radical a departure from the unbroken practice of the Church as to call into question not only the validity of such ordinations, but also whether Anglicanism is part of the Church Catholic or simply another form of denominational Protestantism. We fear the latter. The simple fact is that there is no warrant (scriptural or otherwise) for the ordination of women to episcopal or presbyterial office. Christianity knows nothing of priestesses.
2) The Episcopal Church has demonstrated abject moral cowardice in its failure to speak the truth in the face of the murder of over twenty million unborn American children. To take the position that although human life is sacred from its inception, the decision to end that life is the sole affair of the mother in consultation with her priest strikes us as ethical "new speak."
3) Although the Episcopal Bishop of Milwaukee and a national commission appointed by the Presiding Bishop have tried to uphold the Church's traditional teaching regarding human sexuality, the Bishop of Newark and others continue to openly sanction, and urge the Church to bless, sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage. Bishops in the Episcopal Church have ordained openly practicing homosexuals to the priesthood. Organizations advocating licit sexual congress outside of marriage meet and operate out of our cathedral churches. Who has called these bishops and priests to account? No one seems concerned enough about the open scandal of Bishop Spong to secure enough clergy and laymen to bring a presentment against him. What witness does the Episcopal Church give to the world, when it tolerates almost any moral evil or eccentricity for the sake of supposed "unity"?
4) Anglican liturgy and hymnody have been revised and debased solely for the sake of "inclusiveness." Deliberate mistranslations of Scripture have been made (especially in the Psalter) so as to eliminate references to "maleness" which offend feminists. The Standing Liturgical Commission has proposed alternative texts for the Eucharist and Daily Offices (actually used in all but one seminary of the church) which are blatantly heretical in intent and run contrary to the clear biblical standard which has always been a touchstone for the Anglican rites.
The earliest Christian proclamation was "Jesus Christ is Lord." The incarnate Son of God taught us to call the first Person of the Holy Trinity "Father." The words "lord" and "father" apparently bother some who are on the cutting edge of modem theological speculation. They also bother those whose agenda for the Church is clearly secular and political. The preface to the proposed alternative rites expresses the hope that Episcopalians may one day feel comfortable referring to God as "mother." As Kallistos Ware has written, "A mother goddess is not the Lord of the Christian Church." Sadly, the Church is prepared to use and publish heretical rites rather than suggest that the problem may be with those who cannot deal with the Christian revelation.
5) The Church of England, with the Archbishop of Canterbury presiding, has consecrated as Bishop of Durham a man who denies the bodily resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Bishop Jenkins has expressed the opinion that the Resurrection consists primarily in the apostles' experience of a continuing relationship with Jesus after the crucifixion.
Twenty years ago Bishop James Pike denied the doctrine of the Trinity. No one cared enough about either the doctrine or Bishop Pike to bring a presentment for heresy against him. (More correctly, there were not enough bishops to bring such a presentment to the point of ecclesiastical trial.) Apparently, Anglicanism cares more for "comprehensiveness" than it does for the basic doctrines of the faith.
6) The Episcopal Church has allowed and encouraged ministers who have not been ordained by bishops in the apostolic succession to officiate in priestly or diaconal capacity. The desire for unity with Protestant Christians has led to yet another instance of the dilution of apostolic faith and practice in the quest for a generally acceptable ecclesiastical minimalism.
When the Archbishop of Canterbury preached at the installation of the new presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, it could have been a genuine instance of the future healing of division for which we all pray. But when he received communion at the same service, it was a statement that the apostolic faith which he is sworn to defend is capable of compromise. Anglicanism does no service to the wider Christian community or to itself by its continued and repeated indications that, while it officially stands for catholic faith and practice, it enforces neither.
7) Women's ordination, compromise on abortion, and sexual morality, worship geared to the "spirit of the age," bishops who preach heresy, failure to uphold the catholic and apostolic order of ministry all are symptoms. The underlying issue is whether or not Christianity is revealed. The essential Faith of the Church is found in the Scriptures and Creeds. Either we take the events of our salvation seriously and with implications for how we worship, believe, and live our lives in the world, or we do not. Either we believe in the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation and Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the Church as established by Christ and the continued indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Church, or we do not. The question is not whether these things make sense in the light of modem psychology, anthropology, or political theory, but whether or not they are the Truth.
In its last Pastoral Letter to the Church, the House of Bishops has given an answer to the questions above. The bishops, sworn at their consecrations to "guard the faith, unity and discipline of the Church" (BCP, p. 518), now rejoice that the Episcopal Church is "willing to lay aside all claims to the possession of infallible formulations of truth." If the Holy Scriptures and Creeds, as guarded, proclaimed, and interpreted by the Fathers and Councils, are not "infallible formulations of truth," then we may as well close the doors of our churches, because we will have nothing to give the world except nice stories and empty ritual.
There is another alternative, which we have chosen and that is to leave.
It should be clear that our reasons for leaving the Episcopal Church are in no sense parochial. Our going has nothing to do with Saint James' parish, and certainly bears no relation to the election of the new rector. One of us served on the search committee that unanimously recommended Father Hillman's call to the Vestry. We love Saint James' and its people it has been our home, and its people have been our family. The priest and people of Saint James' will continue to be in our prayers.
It remains only to say "thank you" to the bishops, priests, deacons, laymen, and parishes that have nourished us spiritually and in so many other ways for a collective total of nearly 60 years. If we were to list them all individually, that list might be longer than these statements.
And we must say "thank you" to the Anglican Church herself. Her liturgy, piety, and disciplines have in a very real sense prepared us for Orthodoxy. The Anglican Benedictine, Dom Gregory Dix, wrote (referring to the Church of England), "A man could and should love her ... even if he must leave her now. " We do leave loving her. And we leave mourning her. We leave grateful for that vision of the Church which she gave us the Church as the Bride and Body of Christ, offering His worship of the Father in the beauty of holiness, and calling ordinary men and women to true sanctity. It was truly a vision glorious.
Why Orthodox?
This part of the statement is difficult to write because the decision to become Orthodox was not arrived at by any sort of careful, rational thinking and examination. It was, in fact, not really arrived at or decided by us, at all. It was rather something that happened to us. We believe that Orthodoxy is true and is logically and rationally defensible, but we came to it not by logic, but by experience, and, we believe, by the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We did not decide we simply realized one day that the decision had already been made. So what follows is not a rational explanation of the decision, but rather an attempt at a description of what happened to us, and of what we have found in Orthodoxy.
Above all else, it has been the experience of Orthodox worship that has brought us to Orthodoxy. The initial opportunity came as part of a weekend workshop sponsored by the Anglican~Orthodox Pilgrimage and held at Saints Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Church (a parish of the Orthodox Church in America) in Milwaukee. After that weekend, we continued to attend Saint Cyril's for some Sunday Liturgies and for weekday Vespers and Matins and we were privileged to attend almost all of the services for Holy Week and Pascha (Easter).
When the pagan Prince Vladimir of Kiev sent emissaries to investigate the Christian faith in 988, they examined various groups of Christians. After attending the Orthodox Liturgy in Constantinople, they reported to the prince, "We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendour or beauty anywhere on earth. We cannot describe it to you: only this we know, that God dwells there among men, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget that beauty."
Anglicanism (and particularly that special brand of Anglicanism known as Anglo-Catholicism) gave us a glorious vision of the fullness of Catholic faith and worship and life. We have come to believe that Orthodoxy in fact possesses that fullness we first glimpsed in Anglo-Catholicism.
In Orthodoxy we have found the faith of the undivided Church the doctrine of the apostles, the authority of Scripture, the teaching of the seven Ecumenical Councils, and a living tradition guarding the faith. We have found the fullness of the faith, undiminished, undiluted, shining forth from the texts and actions of the Liturgy. The Blessed Trinity is no mere confusing embarrassment, mentioned one Sunday a year, but a living reality, taught in every service, in every prayer. The Mother of God is neither ignored nor enthroned in isolated splendour, but is a vital and integral part of our worship as the chief of the saints, highest of the human family of God, and given honour always because she it is who "gave birth to God the Word." The icons of the saints are censed during each service at the same time the faithful are censed because they and we are all icons of God, created in God's image. The saints are not optional "add ons" in brackets, to be added or left out according to our personal preferences. They are a part, along with us, of the Body of Christ, the Church.
We are reminded again and again in the course of every service of how much God loves us: "He loves mankind" is a constant refrain. Over and over again in every service we are reminded of the chief events of the faith: Adam and Eve, the Fall, the Incarnation, the saving death of Christ on the "precious and life giving Cross," and, above all, of the Resurrection in which Jesus "trampled down death by death" and saved us.
We have found rest from the legalism and minimalism of Western Christianity and from the constant need to defend the faith from attacks from within the Church as well as from outside it. We have found spiritual nourishment and growth and an eagerness to share the Gospel such as we had not felt for years.
When talking with Anglicans, we have never heard real objections raised to the truth of Orthodox beliefs. No one says, "But Orthodoxy is wrong about . . ." The objections are all on the practical level, and we know them well, for we have many times raised the same objections: "But Orthodoxy is so ethnic… I'm a Western Catholic ... but I love the Western liturgy."
If the Orthodox faith is true, then whether or not it is ethnic does not finally matter we have to follow the truth wherever it is. But though Orthodoxy (especially in this country) has been predominantly ethnic in character, it is not necessarily in and of itself particularly Russian or Greek or Serbian. The Orthodox Faith of Saint Patrick, Saint David, and our other Celtic forebears is as much ours as it is the proper possession of Russians or Greeks. As for being Westerners, there are probably none who love the western rite in its glory more than the three of us. And we will miss it. But glorious as the western rite is, what we have found in Orthodox worship is even richer and fuller.
In all this, besides gratitude to God, we owe a special debt of thanks to the pastor and people of Saints Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Church. We have been privileged to experience the fullness of Orthodox worship in our own language in a way that is unfortunately still rare in Orthodox Churches in this country. (Daily services are not common in many parishes.) We have been nourished by powerful and challenging preaching which is truly evangelical. And we have been warmly welcomed and loved and included, from the very beginning. The sign outside the church says (as many church signs do), "You Are Welcome Here." But the priest and people of Saint Cyril's have made the message of that sign a reality for us.
So, as Philip said to Nathanael, we say to our friends, "Come and see."
William H. Draper
Henry B. Shirley
Leaella J. Shirley
An extract (chapter 3) from the book "Anglican~Orthodox Pilgrimage " edited by Franklin Billerbeck.
Billerbeck, F. (1993) Anglican~Orthodox Pilgrimage. Conciliar Press, Ben Lomond, California, USA
This book can be purchased from the Saints Michael and Gabriel Orthodox church bookstore.
The full book can also be purchased online from the crossroadbooks.