Stand Firm Interviews: The Rev. Timothy L. Jones

The Rev. Tim Jones was born in Leeds, England in 1967. He earned a degree in history from the University of York, and a degree in theology and Diploma in Ministry from Oxford. He was a seminarian at Ripon College, Cuddesdon (one of the three Anglican seminaries associated with Oxford University), was ordained deacon in 1994 and priest in 1995. Jones served as curate in an economically disadvantaged urban area of Middlesbrough until 1996, after which he was a prison chaplain until 1999. In 2002 he became the Vicar of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Corinth, Mississippi. Jones is married; his daughter was born in 2000. I spoke with The Rev. Jones during the week of July 29, 2004.

Tim Jones: The context for my position is one of having been in the past fairly active in support of gay rights. I have marched in public demonstrations for gay rights, and have written and spoken in the past against the homophobia which gay and lesbian people have to endure in society generally, and often from the Christian church in particular.

I am dismayed by the actions of General Convention. This is for three main reasons, though this by no means constitutes a comprehensive account of my thinking:

First, ECUSA betrayed the trust of our fellow Christians. At the Lambeth Council of 1998 it was agreed not to proceed with any divisive actions concerning human sexuality, to give the Communion a breathing space, time to reflect and pray together about the issues involved and their implications. GC2003 cuts right across those prayers and conversations. The bishops of ECUSA agreed to do one thing, and then did the opposite. It makes any future conversations with fellow Christians anywhere very difficult - why should ECUSA be believed or trusted? Just because we believe we are right about something does not mean we can do what we like.

Stand Firm Interviews: Dr. Kendall S. Harmon

Part 4 of 4

The Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall S. Harmon is a graduate of Bowdoin College, received his D.Phil. from Oxford University, and is Canon Theologian for the Diocese of South Carolina. He is editor of The Anglican Digest, which has the highest circulation of any periodical in the Anglican Communion, and he runs the web site TitusOneNine. He is one of America's leading voices of orthodox Anglicanism. I spoke with him via instant messenger during the week of July 12, 2004. All four installments of this series are available as a print-friendly PDF document. All 4 entries in blog format can be found here.

Dr. Kendall S. Harmon: We are in a culture and a church under judgment. God's judgment has many ways of working itself out, but sometimes the judgment is particularly direct in the midst of a people. That was the case in Jeremiah's day, and it is also the case in ours. One of the greatest challenges of being in a time of judgment is this: Not to decide is to decide. The boat is going out from the shore. You can try to keep one foot on the land and another on the boat, but it is unsustainable. If I ask a person like that and they say, "I have not decided," the reality is they will fall off the boat and quickly be on the shore.

This is the case with the Network, and where one stands in relationship to it. The Network is saying, "This is a decisive moment. The gospel really is at stake. If we do not stand now we will never stand. Will you stand with us?"

There are now only two broad possibilities of what is to occur: Either the international leadership will propose a very serious and meaningful solution, or there will be some kind of a tragic bifurcation. In either case, the presence of the community of the Network will be pivotal.

Stand Firm Interviews: Dr. Kendall S. Harmon

Part 3 of 4

The Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall S. Harmon is a graduate of Bowdoin College, received his D.Phil. from Oxford University, and is Canon Theologian for the Diocese of South Carolina. He is editor of The Anglican Digest, which has the highest circulation of any periodical in the Anglican Communion, and he runs the web site TitusOneNine. He is one of America's leading voices of orthodox Anglicanism. I spoke with him via instant messenger during the week of July 12, 2004. All four installments of this series are available as a print-friendly PDF document. All 4 entries in blog format can be found here.

Dr. Kendall S. Harmon: I do not think it is possible to describe all reappraisers that way, no. That is painting with too broad of a brush. There is a wide spectrum among both reasserters and reappraisers. Among the latter, there really are some who have adopted an epistemology, a way of believing how we know what we know, where the experiencing self is the key arbiter of that decision. That really is a hugely different perspective from a Christian worldview which says we were crated in the image of God, but now are fallen, and can know only very little through "natural" knowledge and need to know what we know about God through what God reveals to us. I would say that only characterizes some reappraisers, but it is a vocal, influential "some."

In the Episcopal Church, a lot of it was far more innocent than that. Good people had leadership which lost its theological vision, and so they adopted the ways of knowing and deciding by default from the world around them. If you take someone like that and place them in the "I feel, therefore I am" type of atmosphere – such as General Convention 2003 in Minneapolis – they will be swayed by clever-sounding but specious epithets like "God is doing a new thing," or "this is the way I am," without raising all the necessary questions which go along with assertions like that.

Stand Firm Interviews: Dr. Kendall S. Harmon

Part 2 of 4

The Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall S. Harmon is a graduate of Bowdoin College, received his D.Phil. from Oxford University, and is Canon Theologian for the Diocese of South Carolina. He is editor of The Anglican Digest, which has the highest circulation of any periodical in the Anglican Communion, and he runs the web site TitusOneNine. He is one of America's leading voices of orthodox Anglicanism. I spoke with him via instant messenger during the week of July 12, 2004. All four installments of this series are available as a print-friendly PDF document. All 4 entries in blog format can be found here.

Dr. Kendall S. Harmon: It is important to state the giving issue clearly: Are all Episcopalians giving as much this year as they did last year to the national church? The answer to that question is no.

The way some national church officials are painting the issue is: What is the giving of DIOCESES to the national church year over year? They are not the same question.

Anyone who is aware of what is occurring in individual dioceses knows that things are not well, and that this is only the beginning. Because of the creation of the Lambeth Commission and the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, a lot of people are still Episcopalian who would not otherwise be. Their patience and perseverance has been remarkable. But they are in strong disagreement with what has been done, and a number have redirected their giving.

Let us just consider some examples:

Stand Firm Interviews: Dr. Kendall S. Harmon

Part 1 of 4

The Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall S. Harmon is a graduate of Bowdoin College, received his D.Phil. from Oxford University, and is Canon Theologian for the Diocese of South Carolina. He is editor of The Anglican Digest, which has the highest circulation of any periodical in the Anglican Communion, and he runs the web site TitusOneNine. He is one of America's leading voices of orthodox Anglicanism. I spoke with him via instant messenger during the week of July 12, 2004. All four installments of this series are available as a print-friendly PDF document. All 4 entries in blog format can be found here.

Dr. Kendall Harmon: The worldwide communion I would consider very frail right now. It is clear that the whole Anglican family has never before been confronted with a rift this strong and deep. On the one hand you have a minority of people, mainly in Western Churches such as those in the United States and Canada, who believe it is a matter of gospel justice to insist that people who experience same sex attraction should be able to be involved in committed non-celibate relationships and still be ordained (I call this group the "reappraisers"). On the other hand you have the majority of world Christendom, as well as the majority of the Anglican Communion, who believe that ordaining as leaders people in these relationships is a matter of rejecting Gospel truth (I call this group the "reasserters"). Underneath the presenting issue of the clash over whether the church should repudiate or bless non-celibate same-sex relationships, you have the deeper issues of the nature of humanness; the nature of a sacrament (and in particular the consecration of a Bishop); the nature of marriage; the way authority is dispersed in the church and how the church uses that authority when it makes decisions; the issue of the authority and interpretation of Scripture (those two for me are inextricably intertwined); and even the nature of the Gospel itself.

As if all that is not enough, one needs to consider the context in which the decision is made. In the West, you have mainly white, mainly affluent, mainly shrinking Anglican Churches who, according to the perception of a significant majority of other Anglicans, are seeking to impose a non-Christian teaching on them which they believe will lead their church members away from God. This pressure is being placed upon a mainly black, mainly poor, mainly growing segment of the Anglican Communion. So one piece of this struggle is a battle between the Global North and the Global South over the shape of Christianity at the beginning of the 21st century. When you have genuine feelings by a solid group of Anglicans that this action is in part imperialism and may be tinged with racism, those are explosive dynamics beneath the surface.

Stand Firm Interviews: Mark Galli

Mark Galli (pronounced "galley") is managing editor of Christianity Today magazine. He has also been an editor at Leadership and Christian History. He is the co-author of Preaching That Connects, and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Prayer, and Francis of Assisi and His World. I spoke with Mr. Galli via instant messenger on June 25, 2004.

Greg Griffith: You were an ordained Presbyterian minister for 10 years.

Mark Galli: Yes, and I served in Sacramento, California, and English-speaking congregations in Mexico City.

GG: But you're now an Episcopalian?

Mark Galli: Yes. I became an Episcopalian when I moved to the Chicago area to begin a career in journalism. I had been using the Book of Common Prayer for some time in my prayer life, and I became increasingly enamored with a more sacramental approach to the Christian life. When I attended an Episcopal church here, I became hooked. I regretfully had to give up my ordination to become a member, but other things came together to make the decision final.

Stand Firm Interviews: Douglas LeBlanc

Douglas LeBlanc is one of the leading journalists covering the Episcopal Church. He is a former associate editor of Christianity Today magazine, and along with Terry Mattingly runs the blog Get Religion. Among the many publications in which his work has appeared are Episcopal Life and The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. LeBlanc will be in Jackson covering the training seminar at St. Andrew's Cathedral by the group Via Media. I spoke with him via instant messenger on Wednesday, May 19, 2004.

Greg Griffith: Rumor has it you've got some Cajun blood in your veins. Where were you born and raised?

Doug LeBlanc: I was born in Baton Rouge, and Dad was indeed a Cajun who spoke with a thick Cajun accent. He also tended to speak very softly, so he was difficult to understand sometimes. I grew up in the very Anglo-Catholic parish of St. Luke's, from which Clarence Pope was elected as the second bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth.

When I was about 13, my parents and I all came to a more charismatic and evangelical understanding of our faith, and Dad moved our family to St. Augustine, which at the time was a hotbed of charismatic renewal in Baton Rouge. I lived in Baton Rouge until I was 29.

GG: Where's your home base now?

DL: I now live in Chesterfield, Virginia, which is a suburb of Richmond. We moved here last September for my wife, Monica, to take a job with a chemical and pharmaceutical company. Monica has all the math and science brains between us. I am an arts and humanities type who barely survived Algebra II in high school.

GG: So were you raised Episcopalian? Catholic?