In explaining to those outside the Episcopal Church of the USA what are the different parties or schools of thought within It, I state that there are four. However, not a few dioceses, parishes and persons have each leg (or part therof) in a different camp. So this a general not a precise map!
The FOUR are (a) the radical liberal; (b) the affirming catholic; (c) the affirming evangelical or charismatic; and (d) the traditionalist who may be high or low church. [Presiding Bishop Griswold could be said to have a leg in both (a) and (b).]
What unites all schools of thought and expression are (a) a common history;
(b) a common pension fund for clergy; (c) one General Convention; (d) a desire to be part of the world family, the Anglican Communion; (e) a desire to see the Episcopal Church grow in size and quality; (f) a use of the Bible as the basis for doctrinal and ethical guidance; (g) a respect for tradition; and (h) the positive use of religious "experience" or "experience of God".
However, the way in which each school interprets the common history, the Bible, tradition and religious experience is different from the others and the differences are sometimes great.
Schools (a) & (b) & (c) agree amongst themselves that (1) the ordination of women is acceptable, that (2) the Prayer Book of 1979 is a genuine "Book of Common Prayer" in the Anglican tradition of Common Prayer, that (3) divorce followed by marriage is acceptable in most circumstances for clergy and church members, and that (4) there is no need whatsoever to recover the classic Anglican Formularies [the 1662-1928 BCP, the Ordinal & the Articles of Religion] which were discarded by the Episcopal Church in the 1970s.
Further, schools (a) & (b) and (c) are not in agreement amongst themselves over such matters as whether stable, same-sex relations between consenting adults are approved by God and can be therefore blessed by his Ministers. School (a) and perhaps (b) are generally in favor, while School (c) seems to be universally against any acceptance of homosexual practices. On this matter the evangelical/charismatic School reads and interprets the Bible as the Church has done throughout history, while in the areas where it agrees with Schools (a) and (b) on divorce & women's ordination it arrives at its position by using the Bible in a thoroughly modern way.
School (d), which is not defined by churchmanship, should not really still be within the Episcopal Church if the will of General Convention determined the providence of God! This minority School, which hangs on by the skin of its teeth, sees itself as expressing the Reformed Catholic approach of the mature English Reformation. Thus it holds to the final authority of the Scriptures, interpreted in the light of the Creeds and the classic Anglican Formularies. It does not believe that the innovation of women priests is right and neither does it think that the 1979 Prayer Book is actually "The Book of Common Prayer" (rather it is a "Book of Alternative Services"). So it uses either the BCP of 1662 or that later edition of 1928. Further, it accepts that the classic, traditional, Anglican approach to marriage does not allow for remarriage in church except in rare instances and it certainly does not allow for divorced persons to function as parish priests. As the evangelical/charismatic School, it is opposed to all forms of active homosexuality amongst Christians because of the teaching of Scripture and holy tradition.
One major question for the future (bearing in mind the recent Meetings in Dallas - October 7-9 - and in London - October 15-16) is whether or not those (schools c & d) who are opposed to the homosexual agenda of school (a) and of many in (b) have sufficient in common to cooperate seriously and devoutly and create the basis for a new Anglican Province for America, which can then petition the Archbishop of Canterbury for admittance to the Anglican Communion of Churches.
(Note that the schools of thought in the Protestant Episcopal Church, as in the C of E, of the period up to the 1960s were all basically united in a common center and differed on secondary matters such as ceremonial and historical interpretation. Put simply the schools were -- the anglo-catholic, the broad church and the conservative evangelical. All schools accepted the Scriptures, Creeds and Formularies as the basis of the Anglican Way. BUT, since the 1970s the common center has become smaller and smaller until now in 2003 it hardly exists in a meaningful way. Thus the four schools in 2003 are held together by what they have in common in the institutional ECUSA.)
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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