Who do you say I am?

http://www.wednesdayjournalonline.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=7349&TM=83178.69

[Wednesday Journal] 11 Apr 2007--We see this very differently," said Rev. Paris Coffey, pastor of St. Christopher in Oak Park, "and we're in the same deanery, so you can see how difficult it is to talk about how the whole church sees the issue."

Coffey believes that, at it's core, the issue is identity. To explain, she told a personal story. When she was a teenager in a conservative Presbyterian church, she was "kicked out" of the congregation for arguing about the doctrine of predestination. When she tried out an Episcopal church, she discovered that "not only were the questions tolerated, they were welcomed and encouraged." She said, "My great love of the Anglican Church, since my introduction to it, was the great freedom for many diverse opinions to be held in one community, understanding that the gospel was larger than any single issue."

Rev. Shawn Schreiner, the Priest in Charge at Grace Episcopal in Oak Park, agrees with Coffey. "What's at stake is what it means to be an Anglican. For over 500 years, we have said that to be part of the Anglican Church, you can bring a lot of theological perspectives. The movement right now personally feels like they are trying to make us more of a confessional church."

I posted this article because it illustrates how liberal Episcopalians are seeking to redefine Amglican identity, telling their own rival story of the Anglican Way, while suggesting that orthodox Anglicans are the ones trying to reinterpret the Anglican tradition. However, it is they, and not orthodox Anglicans who are trying to substitute their definition of Anglicanism for how Anglicans has historically seen their tradition. It is important to remember that the Episcopal Church relegated the Thirty-Nine Articles to the historical documents section of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. For other Anglican provinces this formulary has normative authority.