I wish to make two points with regard to what John Howe wrote in his ten points against the Anglican Mission in America a few days ago.
First of all, I want to repeat what I have said of all the bishops who have formed the Network. They are courageous. Thus Bishop John is courageous. They are so in the sense that they have stood up against the leadership of the Episcopal Church where that leadership believes it is being most innovatory and thus is being most progressive and relevant in the modern secular world of the West. They have stood up against the new sexuality which celebrates same-sex partnerships as allowed and blessed by “God”. They will pay the consequences of this opposition, even if they have support from Primates. (Please recall that in the late 1970s and 1980 those who opposed the ordination of women and the imposition of a book of varied services which was falsely called the BCP likewise showed great courage. Let us not forget this for from them came the Continuing Anglican Church movement and the whole phenomenon of Extra-Mural Anglicans, -- a phenomenon which the Network seems to undervalue. Strangely within the Network of 2004 are those who were happy to persecute the courageous souls of this earlier period, those who formed the Continuum.)
Secondly, I want to quote the great Benjamin Franklin, who in 1776 is reported to have said: "If we do not hang together we shall most certainly hang separately." Whether he said it or not, it is a fine quotation. And, regrettably, as not a few brethren who have long been around the Episcopal scene have told me, Anglicans have been hanging their brethren out separately for a long time, beginning in my experience with those institutionalist Anglo-Catholics who were quite willing to condemn those who stuck by the 1928 BCP, such that the motto of self-proclaimed Orthodox Anglicans of 1979 or 2004 appears to be "No friends to the right."
Let us take a large view. The Network needs and should welcome the friends to the right – the AMiA, the REC, the APA, the historic Continuing Churches (ACA,PCK,ACC) and their offshoots and so on. Likewise those on the right need and should welcome those to their left! In fact, all who aspire to be genuine Anglicans need each other and, further, and importantly, the only basis on which they have any hope of being united is on the historic formularies, which though belonging to yesterday, are in fact the basis for unity today and tomorrow for Anglicans of all kinds in the USA.
Built upon the Scriptures, Creeds and classic Formularies there can be Anglican unity with principled comprehensiveness, that is unity in diversity of churchmanship and origins. On the one hand, the Network needs to recognize quickly that the 1979 prayer book cannot ever be a formulary and, on the other hand, the extreme anglo-catholics of the Continuum need to realize that the Anglican Missal cannot ever be a formulary -- however both books may be seen as permissible alternative services not as the true Common Prayer.
Let those on the left look to the right and those on the right look to the left and let all walk together with the Spirit as soldiers in the one army of the Lord.
Feb 3, 2004
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.),
Christ Church, Biddulph Moor & St Anne's, Brown Edge
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