Episcopal Press and News
Controversial Roman Catholic Theologian Will Become Episcopal Priest
Episcopal News Service. April 21, 1994 [94087]
The controversial Roman Catholic theologian and noted author, Matthew Fox, has joined the Episcopal Church and will be recognized as an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of California later this year.
Fox, an ordained Roman Catholic Dominican priest for 27 years, was dismissed from his order in March 1993 by the Vatican. His dismissal marked the end of a decade-long struggle with the Vatican over his controversial views. In 1989, the Vatican's Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith imposed a mandatory year of silence against Fox so that he would not take public positions that it contended were opposed to Roman Catholic teaching.
Fox's theology, known as "creation spirituality," calls for a return of spiritual power from institutions to individuals and their communities. Rather than a preoccupation with personal redemption, it emphasizes an active awareness of the cosmic creation story emerging from science, and of the struggle of oppressed peoples for human liberation and ecological justice.
Fox said that his decision to join the Episcopal Church was not an easy one, but that he found it necessary. He said that Episcopalians have "common sense when it comes to issues of the ordination of women, birth control, participation of lay people, and keeping bureaucratic structures to a minimum."
"I have had occasion to question Matthew Fox concerning his Christology and can easily see that the foundation of his understanding of Jesus Christ is both orthodox and biblical," said Bishop William Swing of the Diocese of California. "What makes him so controversial is that he attempts to translate the central revelation of Christianity in a vocabulary that is not easily recognized in traditional circles and he attempts to be a conduit for allowing a new generation to come to terms with creation and the primary human need to worship God."
According to Swing, Fox was officially received into the Episcopal Church in January at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. When Fox completes a course of Anglican studies, he is expected to be recognized as an Episcopal priest in December.
Fox said that he will continue to work with English youths on efforts to reinvent forms of worship. "I was deeply moved by what I experienced in an Anglican community in England, where young people are reinventing the language and form for liturgy through rave music and dance, techno art and electronic media," he said. "They are creating the new forms that will inspire a renaissance."