"Like a River glorious."

The Anglican/Episcopal Bishops who met for the Lambeth Conference in 1948, after the horror and devastation of World War II, were optimistic about Anglican Faith & Order. Here is their way of communicating that optimism:

"The Anglican Communion today is like a river that is made up of streams, each of which passes through a different country, each with a colour drawn from the soil through which it passes, each giving its best to the full strength of the river, flowing toward that ocean symbolic of a larger comity when the Anglican Communion itself will once again become part of a reunited Christendom. No one stream is superior to another. The glory of each is its contribution tot his river which, while being enriched by all, enriches all the countries of the world wheresoever it flows." (Lambeth Conference 1948, page 83)

Here we have an evocative image which emphasizes in a positive way: (a) the unity and communion of the autonomous Anglican national churches (provinces); (b) the integrity and unique nature of each autonomous province; (c) the equality of the provinces, and (d) the ecumenical vocation of the Anglican Communion of Churches.

We could add to the image that the river starts at a "spring" called Canterbury, flows through England and the British Isles before entering and passing through other lands on its way to the ocean of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Some six decades on from the time when this image/metaphor/model was first used, we can now perhaps say that instead of being a description of the Anglican Communion of Churches as IT is, it is now a description of what IT should be, indeed ought to be. Taking "colour from the soil through which it passes" has not meant in recent decades enrichment but pollution of the flowing "water"; and this pollution has gone from some of the streams into the river itself. The fact of autonomy & self-determination has become the occasion of being overcome by the spirit of the secular world and the assertion of sinful self-will.

Whether removing some of the pollution - as the conservative Primates intend to seek to do at their London meeting on October 15-16 - will be enough at this stage to save the river from permanent contamination is something that God alone knows. It would appear that not only the pollution but also the pollutants need to be dealt with, and here we meet a complex set of causes arising from human sinfulness, autonomy and self-seeking. To deal with these is a long-term commitment and will entail much pain, but there is in this life usually no real gain, without enduring pain.

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)