It is hardly a novel observation that the Episcopal Church (the American version of the Anglican Church) is in freefall — its once-immense cultural influence reduced to a mere whisper, its ancient liturgies now little more than quaint relics in a world that has long ceased to value the transcendent. . . .

The leadership, having spent decades more preoccupied with virtue-signaling on fashionable social justice causes, identity politics, and the moral imperative of appeasing the ever-changing winds of political correctness, now finds itself on the brink of irrelevance. It is as though the church has decided to exchange its eternal spiritual heritage for the transient concerns of modernity, only to discover, with a bemused shrug, that the transaction has rendered it hollow. (source)

A May 2023 article from the Anglican Watch titled “It’s official: The Episcopal Church is dying” states:

The past 18 months have been rough, but for the Episcopal Church, things are about to get worse. Specifically, the results of the annual parochial reports are about to come out, and they won’t be pretty. And that’s not the worst of it—folks who left the church during the pandemic, by and large, won’t be coming back. Nor is the church willing to face facts. In other words, the Episcopal Church is no longer just declining. It’s dying. (source)

Interestingly, a comment left on the blog where that article was posted, written by a long-time Episcopalian man named Joseph, stated:

The problem began when Episcopal priests started apologizing for instead of proclaiming the Gospel. The last time and I mean the last time I attended an Episcopal service, the priest on the first Sunday of Lent, greeted me with “Namaste:” (a Buddhist greeting) from the pulpit and then turned things over to a guest speaker. A black woman who harangued the congregation for 45 minutes about the “1619 Project” and our hereditary guilt as white people of “racism” and our perpetual obligation to apologize to and serve blacks. Missing was any mention of God, Jesus, forgiveness and sin. My family has been Episcopalians for at least four generations. Combine that with the cowardly compliance of the anti-Christian social engineers in Washington during the Covid “Pandemic” has completely turned me off.

The Episcopal Church has had severe spiritual deficits for a long time (long before Covid), but perhaps members such as Joseph didn’t see this coming. Just the fact that the denomination welcomed ex-communicated Catholic priest Matthew Fox into its fold a few decades ago tells a lot. After being defrocked by the Roman Catholic Church, Fox became a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1993 and brought with him his New Age views and his book The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, which teaches that all humans have christ-consciousness and God within. Ray Yungen explains Fox’s beliefs:

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ is a book in which New Age leader/Episcopal priest Matthew Fox puts forth the idea that “mysticism” should become the praxis around which all the world’s religions can unite—something he calls “deep ecumenism.” The “cosmic Christ,” Fox explains, is the “I AM in every creature” and Jesus is someone “who shows us how to embrace our own divinity.”1

So while it may seem to some Episcopalian members, such as Joseph, that their denomination took a tailspin after Covid under the influence of wokeism and “progressivism,” the downfall started long before that. And you can be sure it began even before Fox entered the picture. No church or denomination goes directly from Scriptural integrity (which the Episcopal Church may never have even had) to Matthew Foxism. As Yungen puts it, it’s a “creeping” effect2 that takes place where the deception enters in one increment at a time . . . And occasionally some big leaps take place (such as welcoming someone like Matthew Fox into the denomination).

The “Missing” Link

But the Episcopal Church isn’t the only denomination that is guilty of allowing dangerous incremental steps of deception into its fold. Just about every evangelical denomination today began at some point allowing contemplative spirituality (via the Spiritual Formation movement)* into the framework of church life. It largely began in 1978 with Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline, where he stated that “we should all without shame enroll as apprentices in the school of contemplative prayer.”3 After that, Christian publishers that had trusted reputations within the church (e.g. Navigators, InterVarsity Press) began pouring into Christianity hundreds, if not thousands, of books promoting and teaching contemplative spirituality and Spiritual Formation.

And just in case there are some reading this article who are wondering why we are connecting contemplative spirituality with churches (like the Episcopal) that have gone “woke” and “progressive,” this is really the “missing” (ignored?) link that explains so much yet is usually overlooked. Here’s a nutshell explanation: Catholic mystics (e.g., Thomas Merton, Basil Pennington, Thomas Keating) who were having esoteric experiences while in altered states of consciousness brought on by contemplative meditation morphed into panentheists (God is in all) and interspiritualists (all paths lead to God). This is basically the “fruit” of contemplative prayer.

As Ray Yungen so carefully and meticulously showed through his years of research and study, the reason the fruit of contemplative prayer is identical to the outcome of New Age mystics is because both are drawing from the same source (i.e., the occult). The occult, which is the heart of the New Age movement, is panentheism (God is in all) and interspiritual (all paths lead to truth or God). Those who enter mystical states through mantra-type meditation often begin to embrace the view that God is in all religions and in all people. We believe this happens because the mystical realm entered is a realm of familiar spirits (i.e., the occult) that draws practitioners away from the Gospel and into an interspiritual belief system that negates the view that Jesus Christ is the only path to God and salvation (meaning a rejection of the Cross).

In his book A Time of Departing, Yungen was able to clearly show the connection between the New Age/occult and “Christian” contemplative prayer. One of the most compelling pieces of evidence was his quote by occultist Kirby who said, “The meditation of advanced occultists is identical with the prayer of advanced mystics [contemplatives]: it is no accident that both traditions use the same word for the highest reaches of their respective activities—contemplation.”4

So Foster’s contemplative prayer was the open door to bring the occult into the church; once that happened, the stage was set for the formation of the emergent church (birthed through the efforts of Bob Buford, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels, all who promoted the Spiritual Formation movement),5 which eventually became the woke progressive church). Show us a church or Christian college that has gone woke, and we’ll show you the incremental steps that began with contemplative spirituality. We see Christians scratching their heads, asking, “How did my church become woke so fast?” Well, it didn’t happen fast. It just looks that way because the dots haven’t been connected.

A Deadly Path

Fast forward to today, and we see evangelical churches behaving just like the Episcopal church, where this New Age/occult contemplative prayer has conditioned the ground for seeding heavy-duty apostasy and thus, the sudden burst of growth. Some may think that’s an extreme and irrational thing for us to say. But just look at Catholic panentheist Richard Rohr, who, according to one of his publishers, has as his biggest readership young evangelical men. And that’s just one example of countless ones.

By the way, one of the other “fruits” of contemplative prayer is a move away from believing in substitutionary atonement (i.e., the Cross where Jesus Christ paid the penalty for mankind’s sins, taking them upon Himself). Episcopalian priest Alan Jones (who is also a New Age-sympathising contemplative mystic) stated:

The Church’s fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end, and the place of the cross must be reimagined in Christian faith. Why not? Because of the cult of suffering and the vindictive God behind it.

The other thread of just criticism addresses the suggestion implicit in the cross that Jesus’ sacrifice was to appease an angry god. Penal substitution [the Cross] was the name of this vile doctrine.6

For those who still can’t see the link between contemplative spirituality and wokeism, consider this statement by Alan Jones: “I see the mystical and contemplative as the necessary grounding for social action and involvement in issues of justice.”7 These “issues of justice” that identify the contemplative/woke church include promotion of LGBTQ, transgenderism, evolution, critical race theory, and mystical meditation. Is that really what the evangelical church wants to be known for? You can be sure that there is no room for the Cross where these “issues of justice” prevail. As one prominent New Age meditation figure said, “The era of the single savior is over.”8

If the evangelical church keeps going down the contemplative/Spiritual Formation path, like the Episcopal Church has so heartily done with their Matthew Fox and their Alan Jones, then the Cross of Jesus Christ will be squeezed out, and truth will be replaced with apostasy. Perhaps the Episcopal Church is indeed dying out, and perhaps that is for the best. But it’s long past time for the pastors and leaders of the evangelical church to wake up and see they are heading down the same path.

*For those who are unfamiliar with the terms “contemplative spirituality” and “Spiritual Formation,” please refer to this article: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/booklet-highlight-is-your-church-doing-spiritual-formation-important-reasons-why-they-shouldnt.

Related Articles Regarding the Episcopal Church (2006-2014):

(2006) Marching Toward Global Solidarity

(2007) Episcopal Priest: “I Am Both Muslim and Christian” — OK With Emerging Church

(2008) Episcopal Church and the Resurgence of the Labyrinth and Meditation

(2009) Mystical Practices Lead Episcopalian Priest Into Interspirituality

(2010) Episcopal Church ordains 2nd openly gay bishop

(2012) Episcopal Church Approves Same-Sex Blessing Rite

(2013) Spiritual Directors and Episcopalians

(2013) Episcopalian National Cathedral Leader: ‘Homophobia’ a Sin; Same-Sex Marriages Will Be Performed

(2014) In a first, Washington National Cathedral to host Friday Muslim prayer service

(image from istockphoto.com; used with permission)

Endnotes:

1. Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing (Roseburg, OR: Lighthouse Trails, second edition, 2006), p.37, citing Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1988), pp. 154, 232.
2. Ibid., p. 94.
3. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1978 edition), p. 13.
4. Richard Kirby, The Mission of Mysticism (London, UK: SPCK, 1979), p. 7.
5. In Roger Oakland’s 2007 book Faith Undone, he chronicled the birth of the emerging church, dating back to the 1950s with Peter Drucker, who eventually inspired another business guru, Bob Buford. Around 1998, Buford’s organization, Leadership Network, with encouragement and enthusiasm from Leith Anderson, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels, pulled together a group of youth pastors from around the country to form what would become called Terra Nova. Some of these young men included Brian McLaren, Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt. Chris Seay and Tony Jones.
6. Alan Jones, Reimagining Christianity, p. 132, 168. On page 133, he suggests that the doctrine of the Cross is a myth made up by man. He also said the following in the book: “The image of the child Jesus sitting on the Buddha’s lap appeals to me and captures the spirit of this book. It is an image of the Kingdom. “The Kingdom” is a sort of shorthand signifying an inclusive community of faith, love and justice.” p. 12 “The phrase, ‘I am a practicing Christian but not a believing Christian’ is extraordinarily wise.” p. 16 “Christianity as a set of beliefs doesn’t work for me. At the same time, I acknowledge the need for ritual and celebration in my life and find fulfillment and joy in many traditional practices. I light candles and ask for the prayers of the saints. . . . These disciplines . . . do not require me to believe literally in angels and the Virgin Birth.” p. 31.
7. Ibid., p. 88.
8. Neale Donald Walsch, The New Revelations: A Conversation with God (New York, NY: Atria Books, 2002), p. 157.