Anglicans In The Wilderness Community Blog

The other day, I noted on Twitter that Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) recently stated that he wants ACNA to be "a people who look recognizably Anglican".  So I posted a survey question:   

Here are the results for what it's worth. Perhaps the community which identifies with ACNA will find these thoughts helpful:

1. Scripture, reason and tradition must return as the touchstones of our actions. In the late 20th century the Episcopal Church learned to use reason to spite scripture and tradition. Learn from their mistakes!
2. How about more people of color (who aren't Global South Primates) in leadership of the ACNA?
3. Encourage new churches to try singing in parts. Have hymnals which make this possible. Congregations which exercise discipline from the very beginning learn to sing in parts, and it's truly beautiful. The congregation itself can then be the parish's main choir. This is also beautiful theologically since it recognizes our diversity in the body of Christ.
4. Bring back intelligent, thoughtful and meaningful hymn lyrics that express the depth of our understanding of Christianity.  Get rid of vain and repetitive "praise" songs.
5. Stop saying "And also with you".   "And with thy spirit" expresses the elegance and solemnity that is Anglicanism.
6. Anglicans, even Americans are intelligent enough to understand basic Elizabethan english.   There is no real reason to dumb it down to America's low standards. 
7. The church of the Victorian age engaged in a moderation that frowned on passionate conviction of any kind. Don't go back there. Believe it or not, there is a difference between Victorian culture and Anglican culture.
8. 28 BCP, no women ordained, gently move currently "ordained" women into deaconess positions if they so desire
9. Testimonies after church, not during. Also, what's with that awkward group encounter thing called "The Peace" right in the middle of the Eucharist?
10. The genius of Anglicanism has been to allow different theological temperaments to worship alongside one other, united by common prayer. Unfortunately, there is no longer a common prayer. It's different every time and in every parish.
11. Build and/or preserve classic Church buildings.
12. Clergy could wear attire that would suggest they are priests and deacons of the church. 
13. No talking before the service starts. The Holy Spirit of God is trying to get in a word edgewise.

By the way, I take no responsibility for any of this except of course for the three items which are my own.  I'm particularly interested in #7 which suggests that everything one associates with "Anglicanism" is not necessarily Anglican but rather an affectation of culture.  

Thank you all for your participation.

Hudson Barton - Anglicans In The Wilderness

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In her opening remarks at The Episcopal Church's General Convention, the Presiding Bishop Katharine Schori declared that personal salvation is 'the great Western heresy: that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.'  Conservative Anglicans have reacted to Schori's musings with shock and horror.

But why be so surprised? The theology of collectivist salvation, wherein personal salvation is heresy, has been bubbling up in the Episcopal Church since 1979. Because of a misreading of history, a denial of tradition, and an ignorance of theology the version of the Nicene Creed in the 1979 BCP was changed to say "We believe" rather than "I believe". Episcopalians have been reciting it every Sunday since then. So it is not a surprise that most now see their salvation in collectivist terms.

The true Nicene Creed from the 4th century is a "credo", not a "credemus." Credo suggests that every man stands before the judgement seat alone but for Jesus, without reliance upon man or Church or human institution. It means that salvation is personal rather than collective, that God calls us to have a personal relationship with Him. Ironically, the new ACNA which surely complains the loudest about Schori's collectivist theology of salvation refuses (in most of its parishes) to jettison from weekly liturgy the proximate cause of her revisionist doctrine.

N.B. This is a critique of just one aspect of the Nicene Creed that changed in 1979. There are nine other aspects, each representing a revisionist doctrine that has crept into Anglican thinking in the last 30 years. A critique on all ten points is here.

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The paradigm that Anglican Christians in The Episcopal Church are now living is that of Egyptian slavery. The Israelites could take from Egypt only what they could steal. That's because slaves have no property rights. I'm NOT saying that those who depart TEC have no legal right to property. What I AM saying is that TEC wants its orthodox members to act like slaves. The $3+ million in TEC's litigation budget is their whip. For many Anglicans in TEC, the choice is now coming down to Freedom or Slavery. Property is very often just an issue of pride that interferes with choosing one or the other. For those now struggling with the choice, let's also note that Moses made the Israelites destroy in the Wilderness much of what they took from Egypt, notably their liturgies and implements for worship of foreign gods. The lesson from this would be "just because you can take it (legally or illegally) doesn't mean you should."

The time has come for many orthodox Anglicans in The Episcopal Church to choose.  Robert Frost was recently quoted by the head of the new Anglican Church of North America, saying "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by. That has made all the difference."

How true.

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J. I. Packer is one of the few statesmen of Anglican Orthodoxy. His entire life has been devoted to the defense of Christian faith, but in this speech he sets forth an Anglican ecclesiology. The teaching arrives at just the time when the Anglican Communion seems to need it.
 
Part 1

 
Part 2

 
Part 3

 
Part 4

 
Part 5

 
Part 6

 
Part 7

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A lot of folks in The Episcopal Church are upset about Duncan's recent letter to The Anglican Communion, saying that he is throwing down the gauntlet and creating additional tension.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

By intention, Duncan’s letter is not a strongly worded, and it’s certainly not harsh.  He’s not trying to convince anybody.  It’s just a wistful reflection about “Two roads [that] diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by”  He’s calling, perhaps for the last time for some to follow ACNA into the proverbial wilderness, and to recognize that the whole of the Anglican Communion has reached that same fork in the road.  That’s all it is.  He's saying that if someone doesn’t share that perspective, it’s not going to upset him.  He’s made his peace.

From my perspective, I'm happy to see some recognition that ACNA does not presume to have all the answers, that we are all hoping to rediscover our Anglican heritage in the Wilderness, and that we will one day see our Christian inheritance because of the promise of Christ.    Here is the text of the letter:

... St. Augustine of Hippo in his De Civitate Dei contrasts the City of God and the City of the World, explaining the fate of Rome in terms of the favor that comes from conforming to the behaviors and values of the Heavenly City as over against the Earthly City.

The Anglican Church in North America, whose leaders met at Bedford, Texas, from June 20th to June 25th, embraced the values and behaviors familiar to Christians in every age: daily repenting of human sin in disobeying the one Lord, embracing the need (both personal and corporate) of a divine Savior, and recommitting to the proclamation in word and deed of the gospel of transforming love. The unity at Bedford, despite very real differences, was palpable.

The Episcopal Church, whose leaders met at Anaheim, California, from July 8th to 17th, blessed the values and behaviors of a re-defined Christianity: enabling a revisionist anthropology, budgeting litigation rather than evangelism, and confusing received understandings of Scriptural truth, not least concerning the necessity of individual salvation in Christ Jesus. At Anaheim, there were those who valiantly stood against the revolutionary majority, and their pain and grief at what was happening was heartbreaking for all who saw it, not least for their brothers and sisters in the Anglican Church in North America.

The North American poet, Robert Frost, once wrote: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by. That has made all the difference.” For Anglican Christians, for the Instruments of Unity (Communion), for interdependent Provinces, for ordinary believers, there is a choice to be made. The choice is between two religions, two roads, two cities, two sets of conflicting values and behaviors. In Deuteronomy, chapter 30, Moses sets the choice as between blessing and curse, life and death. For contemporary Anglicanism the present choice is this stark.

I write this humbly and as a sinner. I also write it as one whose hope is in Christ alone, and with deepest love for all for whom He died and rose again.

Faithfully and Obediently,

The Most Reverend Robert William Duncan, D.D.
Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America
Anglican Bishop of Pittsburgh

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Let's just agree that TEC and ACNA now represent such wildly differing perspectives that it is safe to say they are two separate religions, related to each other only by the misfortunate circumstance of having the same parent.  Thankfully, ACNA and TEC have now made their cases with sharp contrast.  Heretofore, some people were confused and thought there was common ground.  The cause of that misperception is now corrected. Of course some will continue to find common ground after GC2009, but in the coming years that too will slip away.

One thing is for sure; a lot of people are not going to continue with ‘business as usual’ after the TEC General Convention just ended… kicking the can down the road as the 32 signatories to the letter are doing.  Would that these 32 TEC bishops learn to think, speak and act with the clarity of either PB Schori or AB Duncan.  They don’t think there is common ground, so why should anybody else?  Vive la difference.

For nearly 10 years new Anglican churches, most of them with singleminded devotion to conservative theology and traditional family values, have been popping up all over the place.  They are getting bigger and stronger by the week as Episcopal churches are getting smaller and weaker. Is GC2009 going to be the final straw that accelerates the trend?  I think it will, but I’ve been wrong before. 

Inevitably, the gulf between the two churches will widen.  For example, TEC will now create liturgies for LGBT, and perhaps ACNA will return to liturgies from before 1979.  How will such changes affect the relative growth rates?  Only time will tell.

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God's Will and our Differing Perspectives on General Convention

TEC's General Convention in Anaheim, CA is ended.  Although it stated its wish to remain "in communion" with other Anglicans, it does not wish to do so if that means restraints on pan-sexual rights and blessings.  More fundamentally, it has asserted once again and with vigor its affection for unorthodox theologies with respect to revelation, salvation and Biblical authority.  There is just one conclusion that liberal and conservative Anglicans can agree upon: We can be thankful that God's Will was done.  

Devoted members of TEC will say that they were honest and stood up as martyrs for LGBT "rights".   Critics will say that "without death there can be no resurrection", and therefore TEC is being drawn into the pit of its own making. Hoping not to be drawn into an argument over differing perspectives, I'm writing this little article just to point out the most likely impacts on various affected communities of interest:

Impact on the Anglican Communion

The Anglican Communion, for its part, appears to be ready to grant TEC its wish to leave.  Separation of large parts of the Anglican Communion from TEC have been facts on the ground for several years, and what happened in Anaheim will accelerate the trend.   We can expect many more provinces of the Anglican Communion to declare themselves out of communion with TEC.  The real bonds of the Anglican Communion are in these bi-lateral agreements between the provinces.  In due time, other bonds will break as well, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Consultive Council.  The timing of it all is still in question, but it is now clear to the majority of Anglicans worldwide that this is the end of the road. After losing TEC, the Anglican Communion will have a distinctly more conservative outlook.  

Having parted ways with TEC, ecumenical efforts toward TEC will also cease as Anglicans regard it increasingly as just a mission field.  Both sides will be able to take pride in their role in upholding America's tradition of religious pluralism and mutual respect.   But real "Anglican Ecumenicalism" will become more of a process of reaching back toward primary Anglican, catholic, and reformed principles, and less like reaching for common ground with people who simply don't agree on things (e.g. Biblical authority)**.  Ecumenical efforts with Reformed, Catholic and Orthodox churches will find much common ground with the new Anglican Communion, and "bonds of affection" should be expected to grow in surprising ways.  

Impact on The Episcopal Church

Many (but not all) bishops and priests returning from General Convention will find it difficult to hold their ranks.  There are priests, laity, parishes and even dioceses which will begin making plans to depart.  Many parishes will suffer large losses of membership.  Some parishes will try to leave (few will be successful).  Several dioceses will try to leave (possibly with more success).  At every level of the church hierarchy, money will be scarce and people will be anxious.  With increasing regularity, property will be sent to public auction.  On the positive side, The Episcopal Church will have found its own voice.  Like the Unitarian Universalist movement that preceded it, an Episcopalian philosophy will arise with its own recognizable characteristics and culture.  They will rightfully take pride in that culture, and some percentage of the American population will be attracted enough to that culture to claim new membership.

Impact on Anglican Church in North America

While ACNA now claims to have just 100 thousand members, the new Province will in 5 years be claiming 500 thousand members or more. I make this prediction because I believe a more accurate count would show that it's well on the way.   New Anglican churches will continue to pop up all over the place in the United States.  For the most part, they will be refugees from TEC... but having separated themselves from TEC's influence they will gain popularity among Christian evangelicals as well.  With time, some groups will merge, grow and find their voice in the new Province. Meanwhile, other disaffected Anglican groups, especially those with Catholic leanings will move toward affiliation.  

Many of the new parishes will be small loosely organized groups with no property.  Members will have scant appreciation or knowledge of Anglican history, tradition, culture or principles.  There will be conflicts aplenty as old ways are recovered and new ways are created.  Missions will be created from scratch.  Resources of people and property will be reallocated, and it will seem for years that everything is in motion, that nothing is stable.  

** This is important for Anglicans In The Wilderness because:

• Its prime objective is to give a voice to Anglicanism's first principles and early traditions, to demonstrate a stable and tangible liturgy which is the foundation of Anglican history, tradition, culture, and principle
• It will offer a clearing house for people and other resources that God calls to be engaged in Anglican mission, supply a platform for amateur Anglican bloggers, and provide a billboard for Anglican events and missions

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Inaugurating this Episcopal General Convention which ironically opened on a full moon in the Disney Convention Center, PBp. Schori declared " ...the great Western heresy [is] that we can be saved as individuals...That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention. Ubuntu... that is really what the word means: I am because we are..."  Full Speech here:  http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=10766&com_id=108984&com_rootid=108984&com_mode=flat&com_order=1#comment108984

I don't care how some might try to make her words mean something else, there is at the core of her statement an understanding of Salvation that is entirely at odds with the Bible. It is a collectivist salvation that opposes Romans 10:9... our core teaching that we receive Christ individually as Lord and Savior.

In her defense, the theory of collectivist salvation has been lurking for 40 years and can easily be extrapolated from the 1979 BCP whose varied liturgies teach a collectivist "Baptismal Covenant" and whose creeds are no longer credo's (I believe) but rather credemus's (We believe). 

When Moses came down from Sinai, he saw the people practicing the liturgies of foreign gods. The most significant decision he made in the Wilderness was to immediately outlaw those liturgies. It's a good precedent for what must be done now: outlaw the liturgies that bear the mark of the idol we should have left behind, the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

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