The Most Rev. Samuel Robert Azariah talks with TLC correspondent G. Jeffrey MacDonald about the Church of Pakistan, living as a Christian in a nation that includes Islamic extremism, and how Episcopalians can support Anglicans on the other side of the world.
In this conversation, Azariah outlines the growing need for reconciliation within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
“I also think the Episcopal Church is going through a major time of challenge,” he said. “There is a need of great healing. There is a need for great understanding within the family of the Episcopal Church and within the Anglican Communion here in the United States of America. It is not easy, but it is something which has to be done in love, in faith, in trust upon God, and in not being judgmental to one another.
“I appeal to my brothers and sisters here in the Episcopal Convention — and I also appeal to those Christians and Anglicans who were a part of the Episcopal Church but … do not relate to the Convention — that the time has come when we cannot live like this. Let us not exhibit a ‘holier than thou’ game over here. … Let us stand together and believe in whatever we believe in and continue to do that — but let us not break up the life of the body of Jesus Christ.”
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjxoqDHaa1Y&feature=youtu.be]
G. Jeffrey MacDonald is an award-winning religion reporter, United Church of Christ pastor, church consultant and author of Part-Time is Plenty: Thriving without Full-Time Clergy (WJK Press, 2020). His website is gjeffreymacdonald.com.
