And, Will the Network Bishops ever seriously talk to the Bishops of the major Continuing Jurisdictions?
An exercise in Christian optimism!
The Anglican/Episcopal Family on US soil is so divided that members in one part do not know of the existence of other members in the same town and region. Or they know of them by repute but not face to face. Cousins and second cousins have never met!
Now there are many kinds of Baptists and various types of Methodists, Lutherans and Presbyterians, and all these denominations have the same problem of being divided into various sub-divisions which are not on talking terms, less fellowship terms, with the others. However, the Anglican problem is that it only has a million or so real membership, which is much less than any of the others mentioned, and right now as a family it is the most dysfunctional and divided.
On the one side the largest part of the family, the majority of dioceses of the Episcopal Church, is way off into progressive liberalism which has little in common with dynamic, biblical Christianity or virtually all other Anglicans in the world; and, on the other side, the smallest part, represented by smallish traditionalist groups seeking to be as the Episcopal Church was in the 1950s in terms of doctrine and liturgy, has put up such high doctrinal barriers that it finds it difficult to find any other Anglicans with whom fellowship is remotely possible. In between these are many different groups, small or very small, which seek to embody the worship, doctrine and witness of the Anglican Way as they have received it or as they have sincerely invented it.
In this middle area is the Anglican Communion Network which is primarily made up of dioceses and parishes within the Episcopal Church, who protest primarily against the recent innovations in sexual doctrine and conduct adopted by this Church. [It seems to be reasonably happy with, or not too upset by, the major innovations from 1960-1990 in worship, doctrine, morality, polity and discipline; but yet wholly opposed to the innovations of the late 2oth & early 21st century.]
Associated with this Network are groups, missions, jurisdictions and congregations which are by choice outside the Episcopal Church but who would like to be, or see themselves as within, the Anglican Communion of Churches – e.g., the Reformed Episcopal Church, the Anglican Province of America, the Anglican Mission in America, many individual congregations with overseas bishops and so on.
Outside the Network, and right now probably not interested in being inside it or even in fellowship with it (or with the Anglican Communion), are the traditional Continuing Anglican Jurisdictions whose origins go back to the Covenant of St Louis of 1977 when a goodly number of determined souls left the ECUSA en bloc on grounds of conscience. The major results of that schism are now the Anglican Province of Christ the King, the Anglican Catholic Church and the Anglican Church of America (= Traditional Anglican Communion].
I do not know whether or not any of the ECUSA diocesan bishops in the Network has actually approached the bishops of these Continuing Churches to invite them to participate in the Network. For the sake of charity, I hope that they have and in doing so have learned a little about the dynamic and content of the traditional Anglican mindset. If they have not, then I do hope that Bishop Duncan and his colleagues will sit down with the Episcopal leadership of the real Continuers and find out what makes them who and what they are.
Here I can only indicate what they have told me in numerous conversations face to face and by e mail and on the phone about why they seem (to Network folks) to be stand-offish. To put it simply, they have, for the sake of God’s honor and revelation, decided that they are and will be wholly for the doctrine and practice of the Anglican Way before the major innovations of the 1960s into 1970s arrived to distort it and put it off track.
So they affirm,
the doctrine of marriage in the Bible and classic editions of the Book of Common Prayer and they repudiate the 1973 Canon of Marriage of the ECUSA which made Christian marriage an option not a necessary doctrine;
the doctrine of the Threefold Ministry of male clergy as provided in the traditional Ordinal attached to the BCP and they repudiate the Ordination of women legislation of the 1976 General Convention and the Ordination Services in the 1979 ECUSA prayer book, which allow for women to be bishops, priests and deacons as well as lowering the standards of clergy;
the classic BCP of 1662/1789/1892/1928 of the Episcopal Church which the ECUSA rejected and put into the archives in 1979 – calling a book of alternative services by the name of BCP;
the full authority of the Scripture in all matters of faith and conduct and as interpreted by the guidance of the teaching of the Fathers, the Reformers, and the standard divines of the Anglican Way (e.g. the great Caroline divines).
So to their way of seeing things, the Network, however well meaning, is committed to most of the major errors and heresies of the Episcopal Church since the 1960s and is itself in error ; the only point where they truly agree with the Network is that the recent innovations in sexual doctrine and conduct approved by the ECUSA are immoral and sinful. YET, at the same time, they know that the Network folks are Anglican and are members of the family, if only second cousins, and that they are embraced by our Lord and Savior despite their shortcomings in doctrine!
Where do we go from here?
As the Network is much the larger entity and makes large claims for its comprehensiveness, good will and intentions, and as the Continuing Anglican Jurisdictions have limited resources and are somewhat backed into a corner, I would suggest that the senior Bishops in the Network make immediate attempts to contact the bishops of the major Continuing Jurisdictions for prayer, dialogue and fellowship in the Word. For second cousins to talk may be difficult; but, if they have good intentions, the end product may surprise all of them and all of us!
We look forward to good fruit from these conversations! The One Family needs to find ways to be a true Family.
The Revd Dr Peter Toon January 28, 2006
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