Archbishop Duncan Compares Bedford and Anaheim to Jerusalem and Babylon, Respectively

Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America has released an excellent open letter to the members of the Anglican Communion. I heartily recommend this letter for your perusal, Dear Reader, most especially because it makes my hometown of Bedford, Texas, sound so marvelous. :-) It contrasts the faithfulness to our Lord Jesus and dedication to spread "the faith once delivered to the saints" displayed at last month's ACNA meeting here with the recent actions and attitudes at TEC's Anaheim, California, triennial General Convention, which concluded late last week. Hat tip to Stand Firm.

A few choice bits:

There are times in the history of God’s people when the prevailing values and behaviors of those then in control of rival cities symbolizes a choice to be made by all of God’s people. For Anglicans such a moment has certainly arrived. The cities symbolizing the present choice are Bedford, Texas, and Anaheim, California. In the last month, the contrasting behaviors and values of the religious leaders who met in these two small cities made each a symbol of Anglicanism’s inescapable choice.

Jerusalem and Babylon come to mind as the Scriptural cities which are enduring symbols of choices to be made by God’s people, and of what can happen when God’s people make a choice for something other than God’s Way, God’s Truth, God’s Life, as set out in God’s Covenant, whether Old or New. ...

For Anglican Christians, for the Instruments of Unity (Communion), for interdependent Provinces, for ordinary believers, there is a choice to be made. The choice is between two religions, two roads, two cities, two sets of conflicting values and behaviors. In Deuteronomy, chapter 30, Moses sets the choice as between blessing and curse, life and death. For contemporary Anglicanism the present choice is this stark.