Anglican experiment "is over"

This lovely photo has reached my desk from the latest CANA consecrations, reported by BabyBlue, who has a video. The story is also on Thinking Anglicans.  Martyn Minns delivered an address to the CANA council that preceded the consecrations. The Times' Tom  Baldwin reports today from Washington today that San Joaquin has formally severed its ties with The Episcopal Church, the first to do so. Meawhile, Jim Rosenthal has taken time out from his St Nicholas duties to issue a denial that Rowan Williams has endorsed the actions of Gregory Venables in providing a safe haven for dioceses such as San Joaquin. (More photos here.)

This shows Peter Akinola presenting the new bishops.

Recently, Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh visited Britain and spoke to a number of bishops here. He left some of them at least convinced that TEC could not remain within the Anglican Communion if it was to retain any credibility as a Christian community. "The Episcopal Church has just gone too far away from Scripture," one of the bishops he met told me last week, when I asked him if there was any way at all that TEC could be dealt with, and given time. This same supremely orthodox bishop also spoke warmly of Rowan Williams' leadership skills. In the House of Bishops, during their meetings, he has got into the habit of delivering powerfully expert biblical expositions that are both provoking and reassuring.

Bishop Duncan gave me an interview during his visit. He said: "It is hard to imagine how the Communion can be kept together. The American church remains committed to its progressive direction." He compared it to US foreign policy. "The American Episcopal Church, rather like American foreign policy, is determined the world will go precisely the way it wishes. It seems a split is almost unavoidable at this point."

A great many people observing the situation, he said, are speaking in terms of the "Anglican experiment" being over. "That is a great sadness. The question for the rest of us is whether we can again be both Reformed and Catholic. The jury is out. Will it simply disintegrate or will it break into two parts? It is a long-term historical question. The 21st century will give an answer to it but we are only at the beginning of that century."

From my personal perspective, I have to say, things look a little different. My own church, packed every Sunday even though it is is in a large and ancient building, is pretty traditionalist in an Anglican sort of way. It is both Reformed and Catholic, modest in its profile and content to be no more than a parish church. There must be thousands of churches like this throughout England. In spirit, it is a bit like the Archbishop of Canterbury. Maybe his equivocation can provide an answer yet. We can but pray.

Comments

[Rhea]

I praise San Joaquin for their hard and yet brave step. The Episcopal Church in the US has gotten so liberal that at times I question if it's even Christian anymore. It's no longer just an issue of it being a form of "liberal Christianity" but it has, in ways, become so liberal to have potentially moved outside of Christianity. I believe that those in power in San Joaquin are making the right move in order to protect the sheep in their flock.

[Michael Stevens]

Hasn't the C of E been through big ructions before and survived? The non-Jurors in the 17th C, the Catholic revival in the 19th C, the 1928 Prayer Book all come to mind.

They all caused upheaval, and renewal to some extent, as the Church struggled with its place in a changing society.

I think your tale of your parish mirrors many here in NZ, where parishoners and priests simply try to get on with things.

This drive to try and pin everything down to one dogmatic approach has never really worked in Anglicanism as far as I can see.

Perhaps it is time for us to remember the approach of the Eastern Orthodox who maintain "a pious silence" over some things that just can not be hammered out by human logic.

[Craig Goodrich]

There is no question that the Communion is toast unless TEC is clearly and unambiguously ejected as a Province from it; as has been repeatedly shown over the last couple of decades, TEC's dominant theology is simply unrecognizable as any sort of catholic Christianity. It has become The Church of Jesus Christ of the Terribly Modern Nice, complete with its own scripture and unique prophetic revelations.

The real question is whether the Communion's "bonds of affection" can be restored to allow it to function once again as unified branch of Christianity, or will other internal tensions eventually cause it to disintegrate?

Once rid of TEC (and probably the ACCanada), the Communion's challenges will just be beginning. Pray for the whole state of Christ's Church.

[Fr Mark]

Craig: the Terribly Modern Nice church is just what the Church of England has been for ages, so I don't see why this is such a problem in N America: the child merely resembles the parent. I don't where these theological conservatives have been living all these years, but it can't have been in the C of E, which has always been the most liberal of the mainstream churches.

[Mike Homfray]

I can't see the CofE agreeing to throw out a third of its members which would be the logic of Craig's suggestion.

But there does need to be a split. The divide is just too wide. It won't be just slicing off a couple of provinces though - expect a worldwide divide with the conservatives looking elsewhere but to Canterbury.

And good riddance to them!

[pendennis88]

I think the personal perspective of Ms. Gledhill points to a lot of the problem. In the US, the orthodox are a minority in TEC - probably even more of a minority than in the CoE. Estimates by TEC spokespeople around 2003 were about 18% of membership, which most believe translated to about 1/4 to 1/3 of average Sunday attendance. (And the growing and younger part, too.) But my sense of the CoE has always been that it has been much more tolerant of evangelicals and anglo-catholics. If an evangelical parish wanted an evangelical priest, it could have one. In the US, on the other hand, for years, the revisionist bishops and leadership at the national church have been trying to drive out orthodox priests and bishops. Does your parish want an evangelical priest? Sorry, no more in this diocese is the usual answer. Does a candidate for ordination want to go to an orthodox seminary like Trinity? Forget about it. It is this drive to replace orthodoxy, rather than tolerate it, that brought about the departures. "Adequate alternative oversight" was the solution that would have prevented splits in the US like CANA and San Joaquin. Not the disagreement over scripture, but the split by the orthodox in order to continue to exist. But TEC rejected that along with the broad church generally. It would involve a loss of power. Deposition of the orthodox and scorched earth litigation tactics in the US will undoubtedly increase. And many in TEC are looking forward to it.

[Alan Marsh]

The Anglican "experiment" is clearly over in the USA, and probably in Canada too. But they are just two out of some 38 provinces, and it remains to be seen what the remaining 36 decide to do.

[Fr Michael Gollop SSC]

Even in the traditionally "tolerant" parts of the Anglican Communion, the acceptance of differing theological perspectives has depended upon little more than realpolitik - a political balance of power among liberals, evangelicals and catholics which has prevented one tradition from outright dominance. This no longer seems to hold true anywhere. Traditional Catholics in the Church of England are certainly under pressure due to the liberal stranglehold on higher appointments which has beeen apparent since the Runcie era. But in the British Isles if you really want to see the future, look no further than the Church in Wales, which has a bill to ordain women to the episcopate before its Governing Body which will, if passed unamended, succeed in driving out historic Catholics altogether. Sadly, as we have seen in the U.S.A. and are beginning to see in Britain, ecclesiastical "liberals" (particularly those who were influenced by the ideological trends of the 1960s) when in positions of authority tend to behave in an extraordinarily illiberal way. They are proving themselves to be the theological cuckoo in the Anglican nest.

[Robert Ian Williams]

Could some one enlighten me....the departing dioceses and the receiving province talk of " Biblical Orthodox Anglicanism."

Is it the Anglo-Catholic vision of seven sacraments, prayers to the dead and to the Saints, worshippoing the consecrated Communon elements as God.....or is it the rank Calvinist Jim packer ( joined the Canadian branch of Southern Cone) who believes that there are only two sacraments, no real presence and prayong for the dead and to the saints is idolatry.

Will the real Biblical Anglicans please enlighten me...so far it looks like a coded expression for "any fudge here as long as it is not pink."

[Lapinbizarre]

Sunday's "Observer" contained a heart-rending report on the abuse of child "witches" in the Christian delta region of Nigeria. In the words of Tracy McVeigh, author of the report, "preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush ........ it is American and Scottish Pentecostal and evangelical missionaries of the past 50 years who have shaped these fanatical beliefs."

One might take the claims, not to mention the Christianity of Archbishop Akinola and his fresh-minted North American bishops, a little more seriously if they showed evidence of concern at this beam in their own eye, rather than posturing about the perceived and exploited mote in the eye of TEC.

"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

[Rev.Lee Stewart]

I have been in the US since 2003 & it is getting worse all the time! Sadly, here, well California at least will let parish & priest just attempt to be simply "worshippers Together". They want to put you in a "camp" & then decide if you friend or foe. This starts at the parish level & goes right up to the top. Most clergy here are frightened to death of getting caught up in all the fighting & If you say the wrong thing, the Bishop revokes your licence, which has happened alot. San Joaquin are brave, but it's the best, rather than answering to the Dictatorship of ECUSA. I hope Rowan Williams will not disown them. For while this seems to be a an American problem, it will hit the CofE & CiW eventually.

[An Anxious Anglican]

Lapinbizarre wrote, "it is American and Scottish Pentecostal and evangelical missionaries of the past 50 years who have shaped these fanatical beliefs." So why are you laying the responsibility for these events relating to the so-called "child witches"(if they actually happened) at the foot of Archbishop Akinola?

[John]

I do not think the comparison to US foreign policy is relevant. All Bush is suggesting is that democratic countries have a way of being a bit more civilized and less troublesome. That's not an " our way or the highway " stance - just good common sense. The TEC has relied on its own set of rules, created at conventions where the gays create extraordinary lobbying efforts prior to votes on issues by clergy and laypeople who are hand-picked by the in-crowd - there's no democracy or will of the people involved. Gene Robinson is a little creep who loves the attention. His parents, who were sharecroppers, had more innate sense than he ever gained at seminary. However, naming him Vicky in the mistaken belief he was a girl, probably didn't help.

[Lapinbizarre]

Read my post and you'll see that I'm not laying responsibility for "these events" on Akinola, Anxious Anglican. What I do blame him for is wasting his energies on North American sexual politics instead of combating evils on this scale in his own country. I am also disturbed that any individual posting as a Christian could say of the events described and depicted in McVeigh's piece "if they actually happened".

[dave paisley]

I've personally suffered through six years of a parish priest from Trinity. If his two-faced, backstabbing ministry style is typical of Trinity graduates you can keep them all.

And what exactly do people mean by orthodox anyway? I think Traditionalist is a better word, because there's precious little good news in their gospel. There is, however, plenty of pre-WW2 status quo.

[Neale Adams]

Jim Packer has not to my knowledge joined the Southern Cone. He is still a priest of St. John's Shaughnessy in Vancouver, and is licensed as an honorary assistant there by Bishop Michael Ingham. This may change. But I hope not since he is a valuable and much respected theolgian.

[Robert Ian Williams]

Have you seen Jim Packer's realignmeent speech, Neale ...it is on Stand Firm.

[John]

It seems the experiment IS now over, with the publication of the Archbishop's Advent Encyclical, and the news that there will be no primates' meeting, no change in course, and a Lambeth Conference which will be attended only by those who intend to ignore any decisions it may take - as TEC has done since 1998.