Sounding Off: Church dispute is about property, not sexuality

I am writing to respond to the column written by Brady Rhoades (“Faith and ongoing debates,” July 24).

I am rector — senior pastor — of St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach. It was with great interest that I read Rhoades’ column, as he did not contact me, our attorney or anyone on our staff to understand our story. He wrote that St. James parted ways with the Episcopal Church due to theological differences and because of the consecration of a gay bishop in 2003. In truth, our members overwhelmingly elected to leave the Episcopal Church in August 2004 due solely to long-standing theological differences, specifically regarding the authority of Holy Scripture and the Lordship of Christ.

What do those two phrases mean? Authority of Holy Scripture asks, “Does the Bible say what it means and mean what it says?” At St. James we believe that the Holy Bible is God’s word. We take to heart its teachings and do our best to live by its tenets. The lordship of Jesus Christ asks, “Is Jesus who the Bible says he is — the son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, who died for our sins, was resurrected, and is with God in heaven?” The Bible teaches this and we believe it to be true.

Over the course of several decades, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the national Episcopal Church stepped further away from the Bible’s traditional teachings — to the point that many Episcopal leaders now deny Christ’s virgin birth and his resurrection from the dead. Just this month, the presiding bishop of the national Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts-Schori, proclaimed that having a personal relationship with Christ — a core tenet of evangelical Christian belief — is the “great Western heresy.”