Where all reformed Episcopalians can all agree

My dear Fr Kim,

Greetings. May I take forward the discussion about what to do in the USA after the Primates' Meeting, whose Statement has disappointed many but pleased others? I ask that this be read alongside the longer Paper written by Dr Tarsitano and Dr Toon and recently distributed by you, a paper which set out various propositions for consideration about how to move forward.

The Supermarket of Religions which is the American religious scene is an amazing testimony to the freedom of religion in the USA as well as to the exercise of private judgment in the reading of the Bible. In the Anglican section of this Supermarket there are many varieties, some of which are not really far from each other -- I mean the churches of the American Anglican Council, those of the Forward in Faith, those of the AMiA, those of the major Continuing Anglican jurisdictions, and also of the Reformed Episcopal Church are near enough to each other so as to begin to find common ground upon which they can be united and possibly form a new Province of the Anglican Communion for the USA. They are so different to the religion of the so-called "National Church."

To find common ground means not going forwards at first but rather looking back and finding our common roots and foundations. There is little doubt what these are -- they are the very foundations of the Reformed Catholic Faith which is the Anglican Way. They are the Canon of Scripture, with its Two Testaments, the Two [or Three] Creeds, the dogma of at least the first Four Councils and the classic, historic Formularies from the 16th century (the Book of Common Prayer, the Ordinal for the ordaining and consecrating of Ministers, and the Articles of Religion). In other words, let us return to the foundation of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA before it was overwhelmed with modernism from the 1960s onwards.

If representatives of the bodies I have mentioned (and others I have not
mentioned) could send representatives to a series of preliminary meetings to discuss this vital possibility & vocation, then it is possible that they will all find (in contrast to what divides them) that there is much that unites them as Christians and as Anglicans. They will see the possibility of creating together an American renewed household of Anglicanism and the producing (for the Primates to encourage and support) a new united and comprehensive Province of the Anglican Way in the USA, which proclaims the Gospel and edifies its members.

There is a Year to make a substantial start and progress in this vocation as the Primates work out how they can act within an autonomous province.

The problem with earlier calls for congresses and the like by the AAC etc. is that they appealed to a far too narrow base and to a foundation of sand. Centripetal forces of grace are now needed to unite those who really belong together. The present Centrifugal forces, of which American society has many varied and powerful examples, do not bring glory to God or unity to the people of the Anglican Way but simply make us all glory in minors and in our separation.

Let brethren of the same Family dwell together in peace in their own land and be also in fellowship with their brethren in others lands in that expression of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church we call "Anglican" (after Ecclesia Anglicana).


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