I was just a few months older than my oldest son, Skip, when I was confirmed at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, Texas. It was on August 31, 1963 that Bishop C. Avery Mason laid his Episcopal hands upon my head and said, "Phillip, receive the seven-fold gifts of the Holy Spirit."
What are those seven-fold gifts? Memory fades, over the years, new teachings invade the community, old teachings are cast out or not emphasized, and old teachings are forgotten.
Our memories fade. Now just what ARE those gifts? There ARE seven, aren't there?
During the early 1970's, during the original Brady Bunch era, black felt tipped pens were the in thing, along with polyester leisure suits. Like the suits, felt tips are out, for many reasons, not the least of which is their likelihood to fade. I remember Bishop Barnds, who ordained me to the diaconate refusing to use the felt tip handed him because he said he was not sure it would stand the test of time and light. Indeed, many of the documents signed during that era HAVE faded. When I recently moved to a new office in Donelson, I put my ordination certificates on my wall, and was astounded at how the writing, while still legible, has faded to light grey rather than the bright black they were years ago. But Bishop Barnds, who valued things that were old and true, his signature is bold to this day.
Our beliefs fade too. What DOES the Episcopal Church believe about the Sacrament of Marriage? What does the Episcopal Church believe about divorce and re-marriage and re- divorce and re-re-marriage? Say it like that and it brings to mind an Episcopal priest in an Episcopal church near my home who, before moving, had married, divorced, and re- married four times! We used to talk about how she must work hard not to grin when, in Blessing a marriage, she asked if the couple saw marriage as a life long union.
What does the Episcopal Church believe about ordaining sexually active, non-celibate homosexuals and lesbians? After studying the issues for nine years, the Episcopal Church, in its last national convention, admitted it still did not know what TO think, or more importantly, what it does think, and must study the whole issue for an additional three years. When the Body of Christ, the Church, is unable to agree within itself, and is unable to clearly state its belief to others, it can be said that its precepts have faded, and it is adrift.
What DOES the Episcopal Church believe about abortion and protecting the preborn? Again, allowing Political Correctness to invade Episcopal Councils, we find Episcopal Priests on both sides of the Right-To-Life / Abortionist struggle, with the church itself paralyzed in its inability to discern and proclaim the Mind of God, and leaders claiming that since it is now a political, not a dogmatic issue, the church must refrain from any position under the guise of separation of church and state.
I could go on. I hold in my hand a gift to me by the priest who presented me for ordination to the Priesthood 22 years ago, and made smooth by years of use. It was given to him by his father who was the Bishop of Long Island, at his own ordination, and given to his father by his father's Bishop at his ordination 25 years before that! It is a pocket Oil Stock holding Oil Infirmorum. Once upon a time, Episcopal Bishops blessed oil each Maundy Thursday and distributed it to their Priests to administer to the sick. Once upon a time priests regularily carried it, with the symbol of their office, a ribbon stole, with the anticipation that the faithful would call upon the sacraments of the Church. Once upon a time, when the faithful were preparing to have surgery, or suffering in illness at home, Episcopal Priests were asked to come and offer the Sacrament of Unction, and the priests would make themselves available and go, and they would have oil available, and unction would be offered and received. And that now fades. When I mentioned Holy Oil at a recent clericus, my colleagues could only think of Minute Lube! The sacrament of healing fades.
And, I could go on. Once, Episcopal Priests regularly participated with their congregations in the Sacrament of Penance or Personal Sacramental Reconciliation. Now, about the only time you hear of a Priest or Bishop being associated with Confession in the Episcopal Church is when another Priest or Bishop has been arrested for sexual misconduct. The Sacramental means of individual Reconciliation fades.
Vivid memories for me are a series of meetings between the Presiding Bishop, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the heads of the main Orthodox Churches in the world, while I was in Seminary in New York City. While it was exciting to have daily breakfast and dinner with the Archbishop and other world famous people, our excitement soon turned to confusion and pain as the Orthodox Church theologians abruptly adjourned the meetings and left us with the statement that has rung in my ears for these 22 years. "You Anglicans, you Episcopalians, you don't know WHAT you believe. Let us resume our conversations when you are able to clearly say what it IS that you believe." We have been in internal confusion, debate, revision, and "study" ever since.
You see, it isn't what it is that we, as individuals, or a parishes, or as independent dioceses believe, but what does the Anglican, or Episcopal, Church believe about abortion, or non-celibate gay and lesbian ordinations? Our inability to know, say, or proclaim our belief will be demonstrated HERE today the moment I finish preaching.
While the majority of pew-sitting Episcopalians have no idea that the Nicene Creed has even been under study for potential re-writing for the last nine years, focusing on the "filioque clause". (that's the clause in the third section of the creed that states our former belief that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father AND THE SON.) That phrase AND THE SON has been under covert study by the national Episcopal Church for 9 years, and last November the General Convention simply cut it out. CUT IT OUT! However, having voted no longer to believe it, parishes are required to continue to say it, as we just did, until the year 2006 when the Prayer Book is scheduled to be revised. My informal survey shows that most parish priests are not sharing this changed belief with their congregations, and that, further, the change doesn't really concern them. For me is was cathartic and cataclysmic. The very definition of a gnostic religion is any religion that publically proclaims one belief, as we will momentarily, while those who are truly initiated know that the proclaimed belief is not the true belief.
Our Orthodox friends were right. Even among ourselves, we are unable to state the true belief of the church.
And so, with great happiness and excitement, I share with you now that I've come to some conclusions and I've made some decisions, and I, and my family, delight in these decisions. My youngest son, Benjamin, has a very important role to play in this Eucharistic celebration. He will make available to each of you who might wish one, a letter expressing my distress and describing my joyous decision. Ben will make them available at the back of the church as soon as the service is finished.
But now, let us make Eucharist together. Let us know that Our God WAS before time, and IS among us today, here... now. Let us take comfort that He has given us a means of communion with Him as we take and eat and drink his very Body and precious Blood in His timeless Sacrifice of the Altar.
And, Thank you for celebrating this immutable fact with me this day.
Phillip Laine Blansett, Sr.
Presbyter
Click Here To respond to Dr. Blansett's Final Episcopal Letter to Clergy.
March 2, 1995
Beloved in the Lord, Jesus Christ:
When The Right Reverend A. Donald Davies, in the third year of his consecration, in the Diocese of Dallas, laid his Apostolic Hands upon my head, imparting inward and spiritual grace through that outward and visible symbol as countless thousands of catholic Bishops standing in the Apostolic Succession have done, he said "Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained..."
In those days, the Church (Episcopal) taught and proclaimed belief in the Sacraments being a wonderfully intimate interaction between God, his earthly Body the Church, and the individuals involved. A Priest is a Priest, forever. The outward and visible sign of the laying of a Bishop's Hands onto the Head of one being Priested conveyed with it an inner and spiritual grace as, in the line of Apostolic Succession, Priests have been ordered, brought into the brotherhood of that Apostolic Succession,and empowered to exercise ministry within that Apostolic Succession.
Within that Apostolic Succession, and with unswerving belief in the Scriptures and the faith that they contain, as compiled and interpreted by those in that same Apostolic Succession, without contradiction or error, I have faithfully ministered for over 22 years. All of the marriages I've blessed and consecrated have been within that Apostolic model and under the seal of that Apostolic Succession. All of the sacramental Confessions that I have heard and for which Absolution has been granted have been within that Apostolic Succession. And each Blessed Consecration of the Holy Eucharist has been a participation in the eternal meal with the entire congregation of Heaven and Earth and within the Apostolic Succession.
I now stand at the same door that summoned Priests before me. Certainly not of the same stature as Episcopal Priests John Wesley, and his brother Charles, or John Newman, I nevertheless draw the same conclusion that they have drawn. The Episcopal Church flounders in its attempts to please its human followers, seeking revelation through focus groups, appeasement, and the most popular phrase of the 90's, re-inventing theology.
I have, therefore, concluded, that the Episcopal Church has moved away from the One Catholic and Apostolic Church I once knew it to be, and having no hope of its return, I have, consequently, stepped through that door. I renounce nothing with respect to my vows taken or sacerdotal functions performed, and will actively challenge any statement that might convey even such a hint. I do embrace a higher spiritual walk as I explore the provisions established by the Vatican's Congregation For the Doctrine of the Faith to Accommodate Anglican/Episcopal Clergy and Their Congregations Who May Wish To Become Roman Catholic.
I pray God's Blessings on the Episcopal Church and the souls entrusted into its care, with the intention that the faith of the Church, received in revelation and guarded in its transmission through faithful generations, may be soon restored.
Sincerely,
-signed-
Phillip L. Blansett
presbyter