The time has surely come for the Anglican Provinces (autonomous churches) of the world to describe their relation one to another in terms of 'federation' or 'denomination' (cf. World Lutheran Federation).
To describe themselves as corporately a 'Communion of Churches' is to state what is untrue or it is to state an ideal that in the immediate future at least is not realizable.
When you have a meeting of Archbishops, Presiding Bishops and Moderators and they cannot on grounds of conscience meet together for one common Eucharist; when you have bishops from various provinces writing letters to the secular press stating with whom they are in communion [see Letter below], and when you have this and that pressure group making the sharing on the one loaf and the common cup a matter of politics, then you have a real mess! Better to be honest and to drop all claims of being a Communion of Churches and claim to be nothing more than a denomination or a federation.
The present situation -- post the Primates' Meeting in February 2005 -- has of course not happened overnight. It began with the ordination of women and was not healed by the introduction of the doctrine of reception (see my booklet on this at www.latimertrust.org), which is merely a kind of band-aid.
All that is now possible for the world-wide Anglican movement is specific communion between provinces and dioceses; for the totality there can be no genuine claim of Communion, if honesty means anything.
Perhaps those American Episcopalians, who see themselves as 'the righteous remnant' of the apostate ECUSA, and who call themselves 'the Anglican Communion Network', need to think again about their title, their commitment, and their future within the world-wide denomination or federation of Anglican churches, which are divided amongst themselves over biblical authority, women's ordination and sexual morality and practice.
Since the USA is pre-eminently the country of denominations (due to the nature of its founding, its polity, its separation of church and state, and the multitudes of immigrants welcomed to its shores with their brands of religion), perhaps the best way forward for Episcopalians inside and outside the ECUSA who want to be traditional, biblically-based Anglicans is this -- to look to each other kindly and wisely under Jesus Christ the Lord and find a way to create an American Anglican denomination, loosely organized, which can then be in communion with Anglican dioceses abroad, that are similar in faith and practice.
The Anglican Communion is now only a Name for it is not truly a communion of churches. The American Anglican scene is truly one big headache and mess, in which are signs of great apostasy and of great potential/hope. Prophetic action, based on a realistic assessment under God of what is possible in the U.S.A. with its supermarket of religions, is needed by American Anglican/Episcopalians leaders to bring the faithful together in a common commitment and cause.
To expect the ECUSA to do a U-turn is to be wholly unrealistic -- in the USA liberal denominations merely tend to get more liberal. To expect real and continued protection and help from overseas Primates for the remnant of ECUSA is also to be unrealistic for they do not have the time or the means. Under God, American Anglicans have to help themselves and they have it in their grasp to do so -- with God's mercy and guidance -- and further they ought to do so now, not next year. Centrifugal moves -- of which there are far too many amongst this and that American group or jurisdiction -- defeat the true cause. Centripetal forces, generated by the Holy Spirit, are needed to bring all faithful American Anglicans together in a unity that is generous and comprehensive and is honoring of God.
http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/news05031101.asp
Mainstream - Letter to London Times
11th March 2005
Dear Sir
We have read the letter of the Bishop of Salisbury and his 5 colleagues carefully ( Letters, Monday March 7). We are intrigued by their presumably carefully chosen phrases about their relationship to other parts of the Anglican Communion: could they please explain the difference between 'full sacramental fellowship', 'seek to remain in full communion' and 'continuing solidarity'? As it takes two to remain in communion, it would be helpful to know whether the Salisbury six have consulted their fellow bishops in the other provinces about these descriptions of their relationship to them.
It is reliably reported that 16 archbishops did not take holy communion with Bishop Frank Griswold of ECUSA at Newry, which represented their own provinces' state of broken sacramental communion with him and ECUSA. The Salisbury six have declared that they are in full sacramental fellowship with churches in Canada and the US whose actions pose 'a very real question about whether they are willing to accept the same teaching on matters of sexual morality as is generally accepted elsewhere in the Communion' (Newry Communiqué). Will the 16 archbishops recognize these six bishops as being now in Communion with them? And will these six bishops also be in Communion with the faithful Anglicans in the USA who find themselves in impaired communion with Bishop Griswold and his colleagues who consecrated Gene Robinson?
These questions need clear answers.
Yours sincerely
Dr Philip Giddings
Canon Dr Chris Sugden
Anglican Mainstream
21 High Street
Eynsham
Oxford
OX29 4HE
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