The Bishop of Bray

Heresy is better than schism, says the Episcopal bishop of Virginia. Bishop Peter J. Lee had for many years been viewed as a moderate, tilting to this side or that in order to keep his little barque afloat. Virginia is a wealthy and important diocese in the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA), and for twenty years Lee was thought to personify the archetypically Anglican knack for tasteful ambiguity that precludes the vulgar dialectic of yes or no. “So, is it both/and or either/or, your Grace?” “Well, surely we must say it’s both, mustn’t we?” It’s a talent developed to an art form in the Anglican tradition. Recall the stout and uncompromising law of the Vicar of Bray in a time when men were losing their livings and, sometimes, their heads over questions of principle:

And this is law, I will maintain,
Unto my dying day, sir,
That whatsoever king shall reign,
I will be the Vicar of Bray, sir!

But then the Bishop of Virginia up and voted at the General Convention of ECUSA in Minneapolis to seat the Bishop of New Hampshire, despite the latter’s having deserted his wife and family in order to live with his male partner and celebrate what he describes as their sacramental sex. Now parishes in Virginia are up in revolt and withholding hundreds of thousands of dollars from the diocesan budget. What got into the exquisitely moderate Bishop Lee to prompt him to take such a controversial position? I don’t know, but from what he says I expect he does not think that he has violated the law of the Vicar of Bray. The controversial position among Episcopal bishops, certainly the minority position, would have been to uphold historic Christian morality. (“Episcopal bishops” is such an odd phrase. Episcopal episcopoi , as though to insist that they really are bishops.)

In any event, the bishop explained his rationale at the annual meeting of the diocesan council. “If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy. For as a heretic you are only guilty of a wrong opinion. As a schismatic, you have torn and divided the body of Christ. Choose heresy every time.” This met with applause from most of the assembly. The bishop offers a deeply interesting rationale. It would seem to assume that the schismatic position would have been to oppose the consecration of an openly gay man who is living and teaching in defiance of historic Christianity and even of the official position of ECUSA, if that still is the official position. Certainly he is saying that Virginia parishes that reject the sodomite heresy are acting in a schismatic way. What, he appears to be saying, is a little heresy among friends? And, beyond friendship, the solvency of the diocese is at stake. “I would remind you,” said the bishop, “that Christian communities often consist of solidarities not of our choosing.” Indeed. Jesus said, “You have not chosen me. I have chosen you.” ECUSA has chosen you to pay your parochial dues. The resisters should not feel that going along with heresy compromises their faith. As the bishop put it, “Our faith teaches that people with who [sic] we differ often have important truths to teach us.” Indeed again. And shame on Augustine”to cite but one example”for not letting himself be instructed by Pelagius. (Actually, Augustine did learn from Pelagius, and what he learned most importantly is that the teaching of Pelagius was incompatible with the faith.)

Also noteworthy is the bishop’s solicitude for the unity of ECUSA, or maybe just of the Virginia diocese, while ignoring the schism precipitated in the worldwide Anglican communion by the action of the General Convention. He strikes a touchingly parochial and distinctively Episcopalian note in referring to the two million-member ECUSA as “the body of Christ.” “If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy.” In fact, we are never in a position of having to make that choice, since heresy is by definition schismatic. Choosing heresy in order to avoid schism is a guaranteed formula for ending up with both.