Episcopal Gaslighting

Responding to Liberal, Passive-Aggressive, Institutional Undermining without Fear, Reaction or Anger

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

Anglicans have a lot of things for which we need to repent. Not least amongst the long list of problems and errors in our midst is the plethora of bishops chosen for managerial, rather than pastoral and doctrinal reasons. Many of these paper-pushing, agenda-setting, office-managing bishops are more focused on "conflict resolution" than on "rightly dividing the word of truth." The biggest definer of such men (and, in name only, women) is their desire for change without a call to repentance.

Many leaders focus on projecting an agenda that focuses on change, implying that anxiety or fear on the part of others is the resistance to their agenda. This is clever, because without stating it directly, it implies that their enemies are unstable, fearful or anxious (and possibly, mentally ill). The typical mode for these movers and shakers is to propose something outside of the scope of the received tradition, be it women's ordination to the priesthood or lay-led Eucharists, focus on the less informed, more reactionary angry protests about such an infringement, ignore all reasoned defenses of the Tradition, and then hold the line that ALL those who don't comply with this agenda are exactly the same as the ignorant reactionaries that have attacked them. If they can control the discussion, theme and tone, of the conversation through expert use of media, they will win the debate. They win because lay people, lamentably, have not be well catechized and don't know doctrine, so they are generally compliant with what the culture reinforces.

Media controls culture, churches follow culture, unless there is a very strong commitment to allowing the episcopal hierarchy to do what it is sworn to do, uneffected by the opinion of the world. This is why, in general, the Eastern Churches have stood up to the problems of liberalism and compromise better than the Anglican or Roman Catholic worlds.

While I firmly believe that a married episcopacy should be allowed, I don't think that it should be given precedence over the monastic episcopal discipline. The reason being that monasticism builds metal in a man's soul, pushes him to reject his own natural passions, and makes his whole goal the preservation of the Church up and against the world. This is why all truly Apostolic Churches treasure and uphold the monastic vocation, and why most (but not all) of them require this discipline to undertake the episcopal order.

We must push back against this liberal episcopal and managerial gaslighting, not allowing ourselves to feel guilted into compliance with things that are obviously outside of the bonderies of Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the combined experience of the Church. If change is for change sake, we will become unrecognizable to the God who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. God's Word has been revealed, the Messiah has come, and it is our responsibility to remain faithful to the end, not out of the fear or man, but out of fear of the Lord, who will hold an account of all things we've done in our bodies.

We are not called to "change" but to "repent," which, literally, means "return." We are called to return to our baptism through confession and absolution, to return to communion with our estranged brothers and sisters and with Christ, to return to the foundations of the faith once received by returning to, time and again, faith and practice that has been received and affirmed by the Whole Church. This is the constant motion of repentance and returning, the cycle of the Life of the Church, that gives us a center of gravity, and allows us, like a gyroscope, to always right ourselves and keep things balanced and strong. We are in constant motion, but we are always returning, in the the liturgy of the cosmos that God created to bask in His Light, to our central position - the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Uncreated Life of the Holy Trinity.

If we repent and are constant in our obedience, we have nothing to fear, for Christ is merciful and has won our salvation. But, if we are using Church and its offices as an excuse for iniquity, gathering up power for ourselves, and seeking what we like instead of what God commands, we should be afraid. Christ said that he will tell these false servants "depart, for I never knew you!"

This is why, ultimately, our rejection of the forced changes of unfaithful bishops, the popular managerial gaslighting of the Anglican Communion, is not based on fear or anxiety, but based on the fact that this vision of change can simply not compare to the life-transforming and spirit-imparting function of repentance and return. This can only occur in humility, self-abasement and mutual love that occurs within sincere obedience to the revealed truth of the Christian Tradition. We see that change for change sake is eclessial entropy, not a true way forward or a way to receive grace, which is Life from God.