In a recent press statement by Bruce Mason for the AAC we were told that the AAC Board moved forward with the establishment of a "Network of Confessing Dioceses and Parishes" in the Episcopal Church as the first component of the new realignment planned by the AAC. He cites the President of the AAC, David Anderson, who said that: "This network is intended to be a safe haven for all those Episcopalians who are distressed by the direction that the Episcopal Church has taken over the past 30 years - actions that culminated in the grievous decisions of General Convention this past August."
A Safe Haven
There is general appreciation in the Anglican Communion that a group of concerned churchmen are taking most seriously - as a duty before the Lord - the search for right doctrine, order and unity, as well as seeking to help parishes which are persecuted by radically liberal bishops of the ECUSA.
There is also appreciation by those who have suffered at the hands of the bishops of ECUSA since the 1970s that the AAC President now publicly recognizes that the present "gay" issue is not an isolated matter but is related to at least thirty years of innovations by the General Convention & National Church, that is by the center of the ECUSA, and by the diocese in turn.
I ask:
Does the AAC realize that there are up to 75,000 faithful Anglicans outside the ECUSA and the majority of them left It because of the innovations of the 1970s - the innovation of women priests (then later of bishops) and the innovation of new formularies (including the rejection of the classic formularies of the PECUSA and the Church of England). These Anglicans are committed to that which was the general commitment of the Episcopal Church before the 1970s.
Does the AAC realize that the present doctrinal basis of the AAC commits that organization to the very thing that caused the exodus of these 75,000 or so people and the formation of the Continuing Anglican jurisdictions (which, I accept, regrettably have been too prone to internal division and need to be recalled to unity). Unless I am mistaken, the AAC's foundation recognizes that the 1979 Prayer Book is a genuine Book of Common Prayer and is THE Formulary on which it stands. Further, there is a general commitment in the AAC to the innovation of women priests and this is something that the Continuing Anglicans find difficult to accept as of the Lord.
Does the AAC Board have any sense of vocation for the unity of all Anglicans -- to meet with representatives of the Continuing Anglican Jurisdictions, the Reformed Episcopal Church, the AMiA and other groups in order to find a way together to unite the faithful Anglican household of America on a sure, biblical and classical foundation for the glory of God, the edification of all concerned and the positioning for help from the Primates after their Commission reports in 2004? I submit that the 1979 Prayer Book and its Catechism are not sound formularies on which to build a reform movement!
There is much that the AAC can do. It has made a good beginning but has given the appearance of acting as if the only faithful Anglicans are in the ECUSA and, further, that the foundation on which these Episcopalians now stand is a firm and good one! Let the AAC broaden its vision and change its foundation from one of sand to one of rock (the Sacred Scriptures, the Creeds, the classic Formularies [BCP 1662/1928, Ordinal and Articles and Canon Law as it was in the 1950s/1960s].
The American Anglican Household is called to unity in truth and truth in unity.
TAKE A LOOK AT www.american.anglican.fsnet.co.uk
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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