These are the bishops on their way out: Niagara’s Michael Bird; Toronto’s Colin Johnson; Primate Fred Hiltz; and now, Rupert’s Land’s Donald Phillips.
They are all liberal and heartily endorse same-sex marriage. Why have they all decided to leave now? Do they know something we don’t about the fate of the ACoC? Are they concerned that there is no future for them in the ACoC because they are all heterosexual? Have they reached that stage in life when ambition yields to the sad realisation that all the ecclesiastical mayhem that can possibly be inflicted on the Anglican Communion in one lifetime has already been wrought during their climb up the greasy clerical pole?
We may never know but at least it is satisfying to bid them adieu.
From here:
Diocese of Rupert’s Land Bishop Donald Phillips plans to retire in the fall after the election of a coadjutor bishop this June, saying that it’s important to “go out on a high note.”
Phillips, who is 63, says the decision was “more personal than diocesan,” coming as it did after his wife’s retirement last summer. “I’m thinking, 18, 18 and a half years—that’s a good long run.”
[……]
Moving forward, Phillips sees the challenge of maintaining stipendiary ordained ministry as pressing for the diocese of Rupert’s Land and the Anglican Church of Canada. “Increasingly now, we’re having parishes that can’t afford to close, but they can’t afford a full-time priest…the way that [clergy] are deployed will hopefully start to change.”
It’s a long time since I heard Stottie say about unsound bishops, “Where there’s death, there’s hope”. He wasn’t referring to retirement; but of that perhaps it could be said instead, “Where there’s time for amendment of life, there’s hope”.
These revisionists are all at or close to the typical retirement age of 65. So most likely they are looking at this as the appropriate time for them to leave their jobs. Notice the subtleness in this. They are not looking at being a Bishop as a “calling” which would be spiritual and life long, but as a “job” which is secular and limited. Just another indication of how far they have drifted away from the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith.
Adieu?
“The New Forcers of NO Conscience..whose sin ye envied, not abhor’ed…by tricks and plots and packings (i.e. loading Commissions, Synods, ‘Presbyterian Record’)..read this clearly in your charge:
old Priests are but new Presbyters writ large…”.
Case in point: The May 11, 2016, Letter (online) of the late (March 4, 2017), The Reverend Dr. William Klempa, Emeritus Principal, Presbyterian College, Montreal, to ‘Editor’/ACC activist, David Harris, of the now defunct (December, 2016) ‘Presbyterian Record’:’Speaking Truth in Love’.
Here’s the link: http://www.presbyterianrecord.ca/2016/05/11/letter-editor-re-speaking-truth-love-william-klempa/
Thank you.
Dr. Klempa had taught Reformed doctrine at Knox College;
then, as Principal at Presbyterian College, Montreal, both Reformed doctrine and Presbyterian polity.
As a standing member of the PCC Church Doctrine Committee
he had voiced clear Biblical + I Corinthians 6 opposition to the first anti-Scriptural foray (which originated in the Presbytery of Montreal) of this destructive lobby at the 122 General Assembly convened in Charlottetown, PEI.
With no small degree of distressing irony, his funeral in Toronto was conducted from Rosedale Presbyterian, where he had served as Minister of WORD and Sacrament:the same Church that has proven to be the epicenter, by both its Incumbent Minister and his Kirk Session, of this making anti-Scriptural “shipwreck” of the faith once given + Jude 3.
Just to add, Archbishop John Privett, on the Diocese of Kootenay’s website, has announced his intention to retire. I think there is a diocesan synod later this year.
Under the current canon, bishops and priests have to retire before the age of 71. It is a good thing. Otherwise, some of them may decide to die in office. When there is a vacancy, there is hope. Any change can be an opportunity for God to do a new thing in an imperfect church. In the darkest hour of the Church, God brought forth Martin Luther and John Calvin five hundred years ago. Surely God can do it again. For those who continue to preach the false gospel, watch out, God will deal with you justly and appropriately, sooner or later. Almighty God is in charge of the entire universe. The God, who sees the past, the present and the future at a single moment, will always triumph.