What has changed in 25 years?
From September 11-13, 2002, there will be a Conference entitled: “Recapturing the Spirit of St Louis: A Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Affirmation of St Louis,” organized by the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen.
Twenty-five years ago,1977, marked the origins of the Continuing Anglican Movement, with the Affirmation of St Louis as its original charter or statement (meant to go alongside the classic Anglican Formularies). The apostasy left behind in the ECUSA by the people who gathered at St Louis in 1977, and then left to form a replacement Anglican Church for the USA, centered on the innovation of the ordination of women to the presbyterate and on the rejection of the classic Book of Common Prayer (1789/1892/1928) in favour of a new book (1976/79) by the same name but with innovative content. Behind these innovations was seen a departure from the authority of Scripture and the rejection of holy tradition. Thus the Affirmation insisted on adherence to Scripture and to the teaching of the Seven Ecumenical Councils (thereby requiring more dogma than regular Anglicanism).
We are all aware that the Continuing Church formed in 1977 has had its growing pains and its divisions and is now known by a cluster of names – Province of Christ the King, Anglican Catholic Church, Anglican Church in America etc. And since 1977, which was mostly an anglo-catholic departure, there have been further departures from the ECUSA which have been more charismatic or evangelical, the latest being the Anglican Mission in America. These groups, along with the previously existing Reformed Episcopal Church from the 19th century, now have over 100 bishops between them. IF they could be brought together into a working unity they would be a reasonably sized American jurisdiction/denomination which could ask for membership of the Anglican Communion.
What has changed in 25 years?
On the surface not a lot, for we still have the phenomenon wherein some of those those who claim to be orthodox believers insist in staying in the ECUSA while others making the same claim insist on leaving the ECUSA.
That is, there are still those who think the ordination of women is wrong and who have doubts about some of the innovations of the 1979 Prayer Book (and many more about the soon-to-exist new Prayer Book) who remain in the ECUSA. For example, much of the membership of the Forward in Faith N/A movement, including its President, Fr David Moyer, who is now a priest of the diocese of Pittsburgh, where women priests are seen as perfectly legitimate.
At the same time there is a continuing drift of those who think that the ordination of women is wrong and who have serious doubts about the doctrines and practice of the ECUSA. Here the most publicised expression of the moving out has been that of Fr Sam Edwards into the Province of Christ the King.
What seems to be markedly different in 2002 from 1977 is that the commitment of the majority of the leadership of the ECUSA to a decidedly revised form of worship, doctrine and discipline is now very obvious. The few saw it in 1977 but now the whole world is aware of it and the ECUSA publicises it far and wide.
In 2002 the revisionism is clearly focused and seen in the attempts within the Church to satisfy the demands of feminists and lesbigays. This means that what was previously seen as heresy and immorality is now celebrated as the new order of Episcopal religion by many. The previously transcendent, holy “Thou-God” of masculine gender is now the accepting and familiar “You-God” of all genders. This new religion (which has been developing since the 1960s) is what forced Fr David Moyer out of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. (The religion that was rejected by the original Continuers in 1977 would not have driven him out.)
Nevertheless there are pockets of resistance within the ECUSA (e.g., the diocese of Fort Worth) where an attempt is being made to hold on to as much as possible of the received Anglican Way.
The providence of the all-wise Father almighty appears to guide some to stay in the ECUSA and others to leave. Precisely why this is so I do not know. Nevertheless, I ask: Is not the time ripe for the coming together of those who wish to live within the Anglican Way in a biblical and orthodox manner (and a cordial spirit of comprehensiveness!) in order to form a national Anglican Church for America?
Sept 8 2002.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
Minister of Christ Church, Biddulph Moor,
England & Vice-President and Emissary-at-Large
of The Prayer Book Society of America
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