WHAT’S IN A NAME?

What shall we call those outside the official Anglican Communion in the USA who use “Anglican” liturgy and confess “Anglican” doctrine?

A Name is important. Giving a person or a group the wrong name can do them great harm. In contrast, rightly naming him or them can bring great benefit.

There is in the world what is called “The Anglican Communion of Churches” and it is made up of 38 independent National or Geographical Provinces or Churches. The historic center is the Ecclesia Anglicana (the ancient Church of England, reaching back to the Patristic era). Obviously members of the parishes of the dioceses of the national provinces of this Communion are rightly called “Anglicans” and so we state that there are 75 millions of them world-wide. They differ amongst themselves in race, language, culture & churchmanship, but they are united by strong bonds of common worship, faith and polity – or nearly so for we have admit that there are erring dioceses and even an erring province.

For a very long time there have existed outside these Provinces dioceses and parishes which claimed to be authentically Anglican, in that they have held to received Anglican polity, worship and doctrine – e.g., the Church of England in South Africa, the Free Church of England and the Reformed Episcopal Church.

For a relatively short time – since the 1970s – there has been the existence of congregations and dioceses whose basic membership has seceded from the Episcopal Church of the USA because they judged that Church to be in serious error or to be apostate. This secession now constitutes a very varied set of groups, which may be as many as forty, and which reflect a wide churchmanship. The Continuing Churches so-called (which trace their origins to the St Louis Congress in 1977) generally use the historic Book of Common Prayer (edition of 1928) and have no women clergy at all; but, the newer seceders such as the AMiA tend to use the 1979 prayer book of the ECUSA and have some women clergy (though only as deacons for the long term).

The question arises: By what name do we call these seceders who desire to be what they believed the ECUSA, as a Province of the Anglican Communion, was called to be and has failed to be? Just to call them “Anglicans” is not sufficient for it does not clarify their position as being “outsiders”.

We could call the older seceders from the 1970s and early 1980s the “Abandoned Anglicans”, for when the ECUSA made its massive changes (e.g., abandoning its basic Formularies) the rest of the Anglican Communion stood by and did nothing for those who for conscience had to leave or were pushed out. Likewise we could call them “Anglicans in Exile” that is outside the official Communion; and also we could call them “Extra-Mural Anglicans” that is outside the “walls” of the official Communion.

As to the newer seceders from the last decade or so, we can also could call them “Extra-Mural” for they are outside but have contacts within (e.g. via Rwanda Province). And those who used to be said to be on the Canterbury Trail and who now we say are in search of a liturgical Christianity in new “Anglican” congregations, these we can call “potential Anglicans”.

The point is that there is NEED for the remnant of those who in the ECUSA who desire truly to be authentic Anglicans ( not merely in name but in terms of worship, doctrine & discipline) and those outside who are “in Exile” or “Abandoned” or “Extra-Mural” or “Potential” and who also want to be authentic Anglicans, to draw nearer together, to find common roots and to work for a common framework into which they can all fit, in order to present a credible alternative – even a province -- to the present deformed ECUSA, which does not witness faithfully to the glorious Gospel of the Father concerning his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

www.american-anglican.fsnet.co.uk

The Rev’d Dr Peter Toon, November 8, 2003.