Jesus’ humanness confirms and restores the dignity of all persons, according to an Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) bishop preaching at a prayer service preceding the annual National March for Life.
Missionary Diocese of All Saints Bishop Darryl Fitzwater spoke at the event sponsored by Anglicans for Life and the ACNA Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic held at The Falls Church Anglican outside of Washington, D.C.
Participants at the January 24 prayer service heard testimony from Deacon Georgette Forney as part of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign.
“Abortion aftercare programs helped me to grieve for the child that I had aborted,” Forney shared, highlighting the importance of local church ministry among post-abortive women and their families.
“All I did was make myself available and give my sin back to God,” Forney recounted, describing God as taking human brokenness, healing it, and using it to build his Kingdom.
Pro-Life ministry, Forney explained, has expanded to address euthanasia and assisted suicide.
“Everything in God’s Word upholds the sanctity of life,” Forney insisted. “Once life is regarded as a burden or inconvenience, that life begins being treated differently.”
Forney shared her own story of admitting her elderly father to a hospital, with a doctor strongly and repeatedly pressuring him to sign a “Do Not Resuscitate” order in the early hours of the morning. Her father declined to sign the order, but Forney saw it as a sign of how the medical community is changing and that churches need to prepare their congregants for such external pressures.
“If we are going to be change agents for our culture and communities, it will require us to say ‘yes’ to God,” the Anglicans for Life Director charged.
In his sermon, Fitzwater sought to emphasize the unchanging nature of God and his Word.
“If it was ever a sin, it still is. If it was ever his character, it still is,” Fitzwater preached. The West Virginia bishop shared about the spiritual nature of Christ and about his humanity.
“Spiritual does not mean to be ghostly: to be a spiritual people does not mean we are fixed on disembodied things,” Fitzwater noted. “Jesus is so spiritual, he goes around healing physical bodies. Spiritual means the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.”
The Anglican bishop insisted that “Christ is sanctifying the entire family structure.”
“In the cases of life, there are times when the circumstances and scenarios by which a woman becomes pregnant are not ideal, but that life is always sacred. It is always blessed. It is always given dignity,” Fitzwater stated. “The response of the Church must always be: how do we step in to not snuff out a smoldering wick? To not break a bruised reed, but to rightly and truly set bones so that they heal and grow into the fullness of the grace that God has already amply poured out through Jesus Christ.”
Following the service, participants loaded onto buses that took them to the National March for Life beginning at the National Mall in Washington and concluding on Capitol Hill.
“When we go out into this march today, we aren’t just walking with the people next to us, we are enveloped, immersed by a cloud of witnesses whose lives and legacies are pleading to God,” Fitzwater exhorted. “Let us not forget that the chief responsibility, the chief end in those moments, is to join with the prayers of all of God’s people.”
More from IRD:
Fifty Years Post-Roe, Anglicans and Episcopalians Diverge on Abortion
Anglicans Advancing a Culture of Life
Remembering Pro-Life Prisoners
Comment by Anglican Seminarian on January 24, 2025 at 11:33 pm
Why is it always an emphasis on the unborn with a slight nod to euthanasia and assisted suicide? What about capital punishment, refugees, legal and illegal immigrants? Why doesn’t AFL have an official stance on the death penalty?
Perhaps because to have a pro-life position on the death penalty would confuse the “vote for life” aka “republican” stance. As an ACNA seminarian, AFL is difficult to support.
Being Pro-Life is easy—Jesus commands it. Being pro-life in the way in which AFL promotes is incomplete. An honest and more accurate name might be “Anglicans Against Abortion” which is absolutely important and needed, but not wholly pro-life.
Comment by Deborah on January 25, 2025 at 12:57 pm
Mr. Seminarian, there is a huge difference in an unborn baby and someone facing capital punishment, illegal refugees, those making decisions on assisted suicide (either performing it or having it administered) or someone on death row. An unborn baby has not made decisions on choices, consequences, or life itself. Most of these others that you have written of have made choices that have consequences…just like choosing, or not, to believe in Jesus and follow Him has consequences. It is time that the conservatives refuse to accept the false terminology that the left have been dishing out and expecting us to accept. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have accounts of a group of men that were well educated religious men that Jesus spoke quite harshly to and about. Pharisees. I am done with the religious left speaking down to me and others like we are fools. I am done with someone deciding that a word has a new meaning or that God has evolved. Thank God He never changes and never will. He is my solid Rock and my Redeemer!
Comment by ACNA Seminarian on January 25, 2025 at 3:42 pm
Deborah,
I am not arguing that the lives of the unborn are anything other than precious and innocent.
I am not arguing that actions do not have consequences.
My question is this: To God, is the life of the criminal sentenced to death less precious than that of a child in the womb? I contend the answer is no. Killing another human being, regardless of the situation or context is antithetical to a Christocentric understanding of what it is to be ‘pro-life.’ Your contention that there is a huge difference is valid, but is not for me or you to decide. Our sovereign God will have the final say and in the meantime, we are to honor all life—we can do this within our (flawed) criminal justice system, but should stop short of the death penalty. I don’t know why it’s hard to fathom a March for Life or Anglican For Life advocating for an end to all murder—not just abortion (again, absolutely necessary to do). Otherwise, can we call it what it is—March Against Abortion.
Abortion is evil. Abortion is murder. Murder is evil. There is no context in which the killing of another human being is ‘good’ short of the Lord expressly commanding it as He did throughout Israel’s history. These were specific instances and instructions. I don’t believe the Lord is still giving those kinds of instructions to His people—Gentile and Jew.
My issue is this: the Christian obligation to defend the sanctity of life does not end with the unborn, but unfortunately our political system has successfully divided the sanctity of life into partisan politics. The solution is easy, but it requires Christians to abandon any kind of political identity (Republican or Democrat) and identify with Jesus. There is no political position that fully encompasses being ‘pro-life’—at least not in any major political party, and we’ve tricked ourselves into believing that one or the other does (the argument goes both ways).
As a Christian who opposes abortion, opposes capital punishment, seeks to care for the orphan and widow (regardless of their citizenship), I am politically homeless. I don’t claim to have everything right or have it all figured out, but I long for the bride of Christ to see the sanctity of life in all people, knowing that God’s promises are true and judgment/condemnation is in His hands.
On another note (and this will only increase your certainty of my ‘left-ness’ but I don’t really care if you call me left, right, moderate—I’ve been called each, and much worse) it’s interesting that because I’m a seminarian, you made the assumption that I am a ‘Mister.’
Like you and alongside of you, I also praise God that He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is my solid Rock and my Redeemer.
Comment by April Used on January 25, 2025 at 4:55 pm
Dear Seminarian. Perhaps AFL doesn’t have a staff of dozens and a budget of millions to take on additional social causes. Perhaps the ones you mentioned are those you should spearhead. I suspect AFL is working as hard and fast as they can. Rather than ask “why” they don’t do more, ask “how” you can help.
Comment by Thomas on January 26, 2025 at 10:33 am
ACNA Seminarian, you are confusing the issues. Anglicans for Life cares for life where it is mure vulnerable. If you have a problem in supporting their ministry, you might have a problem with ACNA too. ACNA supports a culture of life, where you can put your other social issues concerns. As for the death penalty, ACNA still doesn`t have an official stance. However, I doubt if they decide to adopt one, they wouldn`t be against it.
Comment by Dan W on January 27, 2025 at 6:22 am
Seminarian, take the win. If Anglicans, or Christians in general, agree with you on protecting the unborn, it’s a win. If they disagree with you on protecting violent criminals, you may have to agree to disagree. Locking someone away doesn’t guarantee they won’t harm anyone. I am reminded of a case where a man murdered his pregnant fiancé and was sentenced to prison, where he murdered another prisoner, and tried to murder a corrections officer. Also, we are approaching the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Do you feel the Ukrainians were wrong to defend themselves?
Comment by Wilson R. on January 29, 2025 at 3:51 pm
Seminarian:
My experience has been that most who call themselves pro-life (not all, but most) are more accurately described as selectively pro-life.
But at least there are some. By contrast, I’ve never met a self-described Biblical literalist who wasn’t actually a selective literalist. Not a one.