Loading ...Arkansas rejects syncretic bishop
flockwoodThe Rev. Larry Benfield, the Episcopal Bishop of Little Rock, has voted against the confirmation of Kevin Genpo Thew Forrester as bishop of Northern Michigan.
In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Benfield said he was concerned that Thew Forrester had altered the denomination’s rite of baptism without the approval of the broader church. The rite is included in the Book of Common Prayer.
Instead, Thew Forrester has used and promoted a “Trial Baptismal Liturgy” which removes any mention of Satan and adds New-Age style language.
The Book of Common Prayer is one of the instruments of unity in the Anglican Communion and unites Episcopalians across the United States and Anglicans around the world.
The American version was last revised in 1979.
“I think it’s incumbent upon bishops in the church to decide that we are going to worship using the Book of Common Prayer and have the discussion in the community about if and when the prayer book should be changed,” Benfield said.
Thew Forrester’s candidacy has been criticized by orthodox Episcopalians for several other reasons:
1.) He included a reading from the Quran in one of his church services and referred to the Quran as “the word of God.”
2.) He participated in a “Buddhist lay ordination”, took a new Buddhist name and announced in his diocesan newsletter: “I now walk the path of Christianity and Zen Buddhism.”
3.) He has taken some theological stances that appear to contradict the Nicene Creed.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Like many liberal Episcopalians, while I will tolerate no end of doctrinal variance, I cannot accept the bastardization of the Book of Common Prayer. As Frank says, it is the touchstone that unites 80 million Christians in the Anglican Communion, and should be inviolate.
I’ve got no problem with Bro. Genpo’s interest in Buddhist spirituality; I, too, try to follow some tenets of zen buddhism, and think that the Buddhists have made genuine contributions to the practice and philosophy of spirituality. But we’re Anglican first, and while I adhere as much to the Anglican “Thousand Faces of God” theory as anyone, when we conduct our own worship services, they should be Anglican in nature, and from the prayer book, or with authorized variations of it, not something made up on the spot.