Thursday, November 06, 2003

What US Episcopalians & Anglicans should aim for: The Polity of the Anglican Way

www.american-anglican.fsnet.co.uk

The Anglican-American religious mind is so deeply affected by denominationalism within the competitive nature of the supermarket of religions of the USA that it finds the basic concept of the Anglican Way difficult to grasp. This is in part a problem of imagination – of not seeing Anglican polity aright – but it is also a problem of the will – a refusal to give up autonomy, a majoring on minors and upon individualism. It is an opting for plausibility instead of credibility and of refusing to work for the genuinely common good.

The Polity of the Anglican Way is to have a National Church or a National Province in each country or in each geographical area. The original was the Ecclesia Anglicana, the Church of England, from which by various routings have emerged the 38 Anglican Communion of Churches [national Churches or national Provinces].

Therefore, however difficult and however problematic it is, the vocation of American Anglicans/Episcopalians ought to be for One Province, One National Church. Any other vision and vocation is false and is a capitulation to the forces of sectarianism and denominationalism.

Even as the formation of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA and its acceptance by the Church of England was the beginnings of the Anglican Communion of Churches in the 18th century, so it seems that the ECUSA will be the first Province to leave that Communion of Churches, which will then have 37 not 38 members. The internal reason will be apostasy and the external reason will be non-acceptance by the other Provinces.

This means that there is a space and a place on American soil for the creation of that which will be the replacement of the ECUSA. The vocation of faithful Anglicans and Episcopalians is to rebuild the American Anglican Household. This will not be easy for its potential membership is suffering from all the faults (the centrifugal pulls) of the American denominational & sectarian scene. The centripetal unifying grace of God the Father by the Holy Ghost is urgently needed to bring together those who have the same name, the same heritage, and the same potential for being a diversity in unity & members of a comprehensive Province which has a common center in the Bible, Creeds and classic Anglican Formularies. (Right now the potential membership is hopelessly divided into many groups and jurisdictions, with more on the way!)

Those who have been called into the Anglican Way who are presently in the ECUSA (represented by the AAC & FinFNA for example) or in one of the many groups outside the ECUSA (comprising some 75,000 members I think) must recover the basic vision of the Anglican Way as One, Reformed Catholic, National Province in each country or geographical area. To this end, they will need to be ready to give up both many of their characteristics which currently advertise them as members of American denominations or ECUSA dioceses, and also many of their accumulated clergy positions and officers. Further, they will need to major, not on minors and on what divides them and makes them different from each other in the American supermarket, but rather on what they have in common and on their common vocation to be members of the one Province. Personalities (especially the 130 or more bishops involved!) will need to become submissive to the Person of Jesus, the Lord.

Further, what the Provinces abroad & the new Archbishop’s/Primates’ Commission need urgently to s in the USA are nor more and more calls for help but rather evidence of the centripetal forces of grace and of sound reason pulling together would-be orthodox, bible based, faithful Anglicans/Episcopalians all over America into dialogue, co-operation, and into a unity in diversity as an Anglican Household – leading to a new Province in the USA. (See further suggestions at www.american-anglican.fsnet.co.uk)

Short cuts - e.g. looking for some kind of protection from this or that Primate or even by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or forming an imitation of the Anglican Communion and pretending this is credible – must be avoided. The Vocation is to go for the real thing, the big thing, the credible thing, the one orthodox province of the USA, which then, within the Communion of Churches, can be a beacon of renewal and reform by the grace of God.

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

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