Thew Forrester's Discharge of Chaff

Bishop-elect Kevin Thew Forrester of the Diocese of Northern Michigan has posted a nine-page defense of his theology and practice here.

Kevin is a talented wordsmith and he and I do indeed agree on a few points - these being chiefly that God is love, that God is the creator, that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that, when God's will is complete, "all will be well."

And I do like his phrase, "I behold a cross which reveals the boundless depth and breadth of God's love and forgiveness."

But, again, the trouble is what else the Bishop Elect says. Based on what he says here and in other writings, Thew Forrester believes the cross is not part of God's plan, or that the death of Christ has any intrinsic connection to the salvation God has wrought in Christ.

From 'Approaching the Heart of Faith,' we are led to believe that God's salvation is wrought by the Incarnation alone. Thew Forrester resorts to dubious historical interpretations to diminish the importance of Christ's bloody Cross. He argues that the Church's focus on the bloody cross is a late development, rooted largely in Anselm's desire to promote the Crusades. While for sure there is truth to the claim that medieval piety developed in relationship to the crusader cause, it is nonetheless a Da Vinci Code-like error to reduce the necessity of the Cross for our salvation from such grounds. Notably, the cross and its importance is extremeley well attested to in the Gospels and Epistles -- to say the very least. And while for sure the Resurrection -- as Thew Forrester to his credit rightly points out -- was the main matter of the early kerygma -- that should come as no surprise. After all, seeing folks die on crosses was not unusual to the earliest disciples -- seing folks rise from tombs was. Indeed, though Thew Forrester employs the lovely phrase "Resurrection Paradise," the Resurrection is likewise buried beneath his overwhelming interest in the Incarnation. (See the entry below for an explicit rebuttal of the claims Thew Forrester makes as regards Anselm, etc.)

To this point, precious little attention is paid to either the Resurrection or the Ascension, and this in conjunction with his overwhelming discounting of the imporance and necessity of the Cross. That three of the four key mysteries of the 'Christ-event' are paid short-shrift or largely ignored goes to the concerns folks have about Thew Forrester. Oddly enough, though one of Forrester's axioms is that "recovering this ancient tradition...is inclusive...it neither discards nor dismisses," that is exactly how he appears to handle what many consider to be essentials of the faith.

To be fair, since much of the criticism against him has focused on his view of the cross, it may be that is why he doesn't speak much to the other key mysteries. Nonetheless, it seems clear to me that Thew Forrester is plainly arguing that the key to salvation is the Incarnation, and the cross appears at best to be a tragedy which God did not will, but Jesus nonetheless endured. If that is what he is saying - frankly - that ought to disqualify him.

In his discussion of the Trinity, he rightly attempts to connect the economy of the Trinity with the ecclesiology of the Body of Christ. But, it would appear that this is upheld in some sense over against what the early church discerned to be the relationship between the Gospel and the order of the church. (If any are interested in this, Michael Ramsey's The Gospel and the Catholic Church is the book still to read.)

In his vision of what it means to be a bishop, here I think he again falls off the rails of what might have been a good track. He says he agrees that a bishop is called to be a guardian of the faith. But, he interprets that to mean that the faith received is no more worthy of protection than the faith yet to be received.

In this he reveals his signature move. Since in his view the content of the faith is always unfolding, as a priest (and as a bishop) he would see his leadership in protecting that unfolding. In light of his previous arguments that there are can be no boundaries at all to what "we may know," Thew Forrester appears believe that all aspects of the Church's doctrine and practice are therefore open to change, and not only change, but deep change, and not only deep change, but dismissal and discarding.

This latter point of view undergirds what appears to be his primary modus operandi. His m.o. appears to be that of one singularly focused on innovation (as well as the redaction of doctrine and discipline as seems good to him). He seems to be quite proud to lead a parish which as he says is the diocesan leader in liturgical exploration and innovation. And while that can be a perfectly fine congregational vocation - it does depend on some key specifics. If one goes to the heart of the essential proclamation of the faith as bound up with the church's liturgical expression, and significantly discards or dismisses it, (as we have already mentioned above,) then I think one has gone too far. One can imagine, for example, that if a parish used "Rite III" every week -- in addition to be outside of the canons -- they could pretty much do anything they wanted. We all already know of parishes which do not regularly say the confession or Nicene Creed, and which openly invite the unbaptised to receive the elements. What if an entire diocese largely decided to come up with its own normative forms of baptism, eucharist, etc.? How is this anything but going too far?

I think we could rightly suspect that this is exactly what would "unfold" under the leadership of Thew Forrester in the Diocese of Northern Michigan.

And to put it quite plainly, while I agree that God's revelation is unfolding, for that unfolding to be realized in the normal practice and proclamation of a very small group of people -- which is losing membership at a frightful rate -- in very short order - so as to lead to a form and message quite unrecognizable to so many Episcopalians in various places and contexts -- one might rightly ask the question: "Is it God's will that is unfolding here?" National church statistics reveal that the Diocese of Northern Michigan lost over a third of its baptised membership in the ten years between 1997 and 2007. The average Sunday attendance likewise dropped in that same period from under a thousand to about 700. In the same period, St. Paul's, Marquette, where Thew Forrester is interim, lost twenty-five percent of its baptized membership, and in 2007 had an average Sunday attendance of 75, down from a 100 the year before.

The bishops who have published commentary on their no-votes have already rightly focused on the real issues. And they remain. Firstly, the published writings continue to reveal a theology which is rooted in catholic Christianity, but appears to have adroitly left out significant pieces of the universal whole, and has also sought to take root in other sources, such as Buddhism. This indeed seems more akin to coming up with a Christian-based syncretism than it does putting forward a generously orthodox vision of the Christian faith, suitable for our times and our places. Secondly, his career appears to be one entirely dedicated to coming up with his own stuff and constantly innovating with disregard to the faith and order of the Church as it now is. This is reflective not merely of an awareness that God's revelation will continue to be unfolded, but rather a deep discontent with what we currently uphold as a church of common prayer and practice. Thirdly, as interesting as it may be, the idea of a diocese (again, which is as small as a large parish) having only one candidate for bishop is highly suspect.

While this piece offers some good material - it represents on the whole a cleverly designed discharge of chaff. The Diocese of Northern Michigan has released it into the ether for the purpose of obfuscating the discernment of those yet to have voted in the matter of consent and offering a cloud of material which in some ways seems 'o.k.' and may provide sufficient cover to what is the real location and trajectory of Thew Forrester and perhaps the entire Diocese of Northern Michigan.