An Idea: What if I get a faithless TEC bishop to excommunicate me?

Obviously for purposes of this exercise I would join the Episcopal Church. As my friends like @Stalwart are aware, I have been considering joining an Anglican church in order to assist the traditional Anglican movement, seconding myself to Anglicanism.

I would also observe with a certain cynicism that I did acquire membership in the Episcopal Church, which I have never formally renounced, and given the large number of people who are members of both the ECUSA and another Protestant church, and given that Michigan elected, only to later rescind, a practicing Buddhist as their Bishop, and indeed for a brief period of time until she was found out and deposed, but still not excommunicated as far as I am aware, one of the canons of the Cathedral of St. Mark in Seattle was a practicing Muslim who made the Islamic confession of faith (“there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet”).

Considering aforesaid, it would be truly hilarious if the Episcopal Church had bothered to excommunicate me by virtue of my reception into the Orthodox Church (which would be particularly bizarre because at the time I was encouraged by the Vicar of my Episcopal parish to explore Syriac Orthodoxy, which had always been of interest to me, and also considering the large numbers of Anglican clergymen, including John Wesley, and later in the 19th century, several Anglo Catholics, who complimented their Anglican orders with Orthodox orders. Indeed, I would ROFL.



Indeed, such news would constitute “mission accomplished” as far as my idea expressed in the OP was concerned, in that it would be an example of outrageous hypocrisy for a church that was prepared to ordain a Buddhist as bishop, and had ordained a cathedral canon who was of the Islamic persuasion, and repented of these errors only in the face of public outcry, while leaving people like Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts-Schiorri in power despite her statements contrary to the established doctrine of the Episcopal Church and Christian orthodoxy in a general sense. Still more examples present themselves, for example, in the person of a late priest who I shall not name on the principle of nil nisi bonum whose article in an Episcopal magazine calling for the creeds to be removed from the liturgy “because they interrupt the flow” of the services, and who cited the Gnostic, apocryphal Gospel of Mary in support of his position, ought not only to not have been published, but should well have led to his removal.

But, as I noted in reply no. 13, I have decided against this particular course of action as it would constitute tempting Episcopalian clergy to sin. It would be, I have realized, morally improper to create a contrived scenario to bait them into excommunicating me for the normal practice of Christianity; there are better ways to get the message across to the Episcopalian hierarchy that their church is severely broken, and is endangering the Anglican Communion owing to its inability to form a strong, coherent moral position on human sexuality and several other things, that is compatible with the teaching of our Lord and His apostles.

What is more, as far as an expose is concerned, there already exists in the Episcopal Church a massive potential scandal I recently discovered, which has not been brought into the limelight simply because it is concealed by layers of obscurity; detecting it required familiarity with a small and poorly known parish and also the specific details of the history of race relations in the Far East; I only recently realized it existed while engaged in light reading about the Warring States Period and also the history of what is known as literary persecution in China.

 

I could join the Jehovah's Witnesses, but I certainly would not be 'in communion' with them....

 

I found this blog very interesting today, as I do every day, where it discusses the point we need to consider if we are perfect in our own faith before considering the lack of perfection in the faith of others: "Typology is the answer" (http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/). The entire blog post is not on this topic but does raise it.

 

I have a specific connection with the Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran and Congregational traditions by virtue of having been baptized a Methodist, with Lutheran godparents, and my ancestors in the US being of the Congregational and Anglican persuasion. I did not choose to become Orthodox; rather, the situation in the local Methodist parishes became intolerable, a local Episcopal parish provided refuge for a time, but the priest was retiring, and his impending retirement meant the end of traditional Anglicanism in that era (he was one of the last, possibly the last, traditional Anglo Catholic priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles).

Thus I have a vested interest in seeing the restoration of these churches, which represent my family’s religious patrimony, and the beauty of these denominations is they have a high degree of commonality with my adoptive Orthodox religion, so I believe it is possible to serve the Church Catholic and not betray my Orthodoxy in any sense by assisting Anglicanism to any degree needed, even to the extent of joining a traditional Anglican parish.

At the same time, to the extent that the ECUSA can be exposed for what it is, which is an organization which is not only morally bankrupt in terms of sexual morality, but also as the website Stand Firm documented before closing, blighted by corrupt bishops (see the land deals involving the Bishop of Los Angeles), and also, arguably, institutionally corrupt (spending $40 million on legal fees to prevent parishes and dioceses from leaving for ACNA during the tenure of Katharine Jefferts-Schiorri, whose speeches represent a rejection of the Christian faith).

There are also worse things. I am presently contemplating, and have been meaning to ask @Stalwart, @Anglo-cracker , @anglican74 and @Shane R for suggestions as to what to do with what I uncovered concerning a high profile Episcopal parish.

As I see it, the best chance for traditional Anglicanism to be completely restored, while a slim chance, would be a scenario wherein the public is made aware of the true nature of the Episcopal hierarchy, and Anglicans in the Episcopal church, using the democratic process by which bishops are elected, are finally moved to clean house, on the basis that, when it comes down to it, the corporate behavior of the Episcopal Church towards traditional Anglicans and other groups it is opposed to fails to meet the standard of simple Christian decency, setting aside for the moment the controversial issues of human sexuality, the ordination of women, etc, that caused the initial division. This is particularly a shame given the exceptionally good charitable work Episcopalians, including liberal Episcopalians who we would otherwise disagree with, continue to do across the country in terms of charity work; I have seen first hand some very excellent programs in terms of food banks, homeless shelters and so on. So I also happen to feel that those decent people, even though we disagree with them on important questions of morality, still deserve better from the leadership of the Episcopal Church. There are people in the hierarchy and the administration who see the path forward largely in terms of selling off the real estate; the sale of parcels of land on the public, church-owned park surrounding St. John the Divine in New York City has been actively discussed.

 

This seems like a theological version of slamming one's head against a brick wall.

 

Yes, but if one did get excommunicated by someone whose theology is akin to that of John Shelby Spong, that would be a compelling validation of one’s doctrinal catholicity.

However, I realized that I could not ethically pursue this idea, as much as @Stalwart and I like it, because I can’t figure out an approach to it which would not constitute creating an artificial and potent temptation that could provoke a bishop into sinning. It would be like sending a gambling addict to Las Vegas with a check for a million dollars in their pocket,