THE CHURCH AS HOLY A Paper Written and Delivered by The Rev ...

It is my great honor and pleasure to speak with you this morning on the note of
holiness as we consider the relationship of orthodox Anglicanism to the One, Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Church. As you no doubt are aware, the note of Holiness is
not included in the translation of the Nicene Creed as it appears in the Traditional
Book of Common Prayer. Was its exclusion best explained as a printer’s error
Perhaps the omission of the word Holy was a providential foretelling of the desperate
state into which the Anglican Communion has plunged in this Third Millennium
after the birth of Jesus Christ. As for those of us who decided to continue
Anglicanism outside of the Anglican Communion, the presence of actualized holiness
has eluded much of our own short history as well. However, all of us present at the
Symposium are bound together in our separate jurisdictions by our claims and
counterclaims to Apostolicity and Catholicity as well as our common need of a
deeper penetration by the Holy Spirit who is the source of all holiness within any
branch or twig of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Almost 30 years ago, I made my exit from the parish ministry of the Episcopal
Church after spending almost 10 years as a parish priest. During the late 60’s and
early 70’s, I had become absolutely convinced that the ferment of liturgical trial use
was opening the gates of a more Catholic and evangelical future for the Episcopal
Church. I had survived Virginia Theological Seminary with my Catholic theology
intact. I had no doubt as the youngest rector in the Episcopal Diocese of
Washington in 1969 that the next edition of our Book of Common Prayer would
advance the Holiness, Catholicity and Apostolicity of the Episcopal Church through
new, all be it pre-Nicene, rites and ceremonies.
During the early 1970’s, as I grew my small parish in the distant suburbs of
Washington into a center of liturgical renewal, I became increasingly disillusioned
by the events in the Episcopal Church both nationally as well as in the Episcopal
Diocese of Washington. While I had been active in the urban training program in
the innercity and had done more than my share of foot-soldiering in the civil rights
movement, I was uneasy as an ever-changing kaleidoscope of groups came into focus
on the Episcopal Church scene. In rapid succession, the rights of women, youth
and, eventually, homosexuals began to emerge as central organizational concerns
within the Episcopal Church.
Rather than remain in the ferment of the late 70’s in a parish of the Episcopal
Church, I left active parish ministry in the Church, as well as my founding
membership in the Washington Episcopal Clergy Association and my seat on the
Diocesan Council. For the next 18 years, I engaged myself in the specialized
ministry of pastoral counseling, personal growth as a client in psychotherapy, and
graduate work in pastoral theology and clinical psychology. I earned my living as a
staff member in both ecumenical and marriage and family counseling agencies. My
academic interest has been in the relationship between Catholic faith and practice
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