The Heritage Anglican Network and the Future of Anglicanism in North America

By Robin G. Jordan

I was recently asked, “What role do you envision the Heritage Anglican Network might realistically play in the future of Anglicanism in North America?” I envision the Heritage Anglican Network playing five roles in Anglicanism’s future in North America. These roles correspond with the five aims of the organization delineated in its organizational charter.

A critical role is to bring together into a single organization individuals and groups committed to upholding the historic Anglican formularies—the Thirty-Nine Articles, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and the 1661 Ordinal, to promoting historic Anglicanism, and to propagating “the true gospel and the Reformed, Protestant religion established by law” of the 1688 Coronation Oath Act.

The Glorious Revolution and the 1688 Coronation Oath Act mark the end of what historians describe as the “long Reformation.” By this time the character of Anglicanism had clearly been established as Protestant, Reformed, evangelical, and catholic.

The Tractarians would take upon themselves the self-appointed task of changing the identity of Anglicanism in the nineteenth century. Tractarianism and Ritualism would exert a profound influence upon American Church. Their legacy, however, does not represent authentic historic Anglicanism.

Archbishop Robert Duncan of the ACNA refers to what he calls “American Anglicanism.” But what he describes as “American Anglicanism” is not historic Anglicanism. Calling it “American” may appeal to national pride but cannot hide the fact that it is a hybrid. In a recent article Alex Haley notes that the General Convention of the fledgling Protestant Episcopal Church in its petition to the English bishops stated that the church did not plan to depart from the doctrines of the Church of England. However, fifteen years later the Protestant Episcopal Church was well on the road that would take the church away from those doctrines.

Paul Zahl, former dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, coined the term “contemporary Episcopalianism” to describe the beliefs and practices of the Episcopal Church at the time he wrote The Protestant Face of Anglicanism. Les Fairfield, professor of Church history at TESM, now retired, described them as “Catholic Modernism.” What we see for a large part in the Anglican Church in North America and her ministry partner, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, is a form of contemporary Episcopalianism. While it shows the influence of the Ancient-Future/Convergence/Worship Renewal movement, the charismatic renewal movement, the emergent church movement, and popular American evangelicalism, it comes from the same stock as the form of contemporary Episcopalianism that is seen in churches in the Episcopal Church. It was shaped by the Anglo-Catholic movement—the successor to the Tractarian and Ritualist movements, the Broad Church movement, the ecumenical movement, Latitudinarianism, and the liturgical movement. It has been influenced by liberalism and modernism, and in recent years, by post-modernism.

Congregations and clergy that uphold the historic Anglican formularies and represent authentic historic Anglicanism are a minority in the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Mission in the Americas. They are scattered among the dioceses and networks that form these ecclesial bodies.

I envision the Heritage Anglican Network joining these congregations and clergy together to support and assist each other. An affinity network like the Heritage Anglican Network could provide help in innumerable ways to such congregations and clergy. The only limits would be the limits of the imagination. I also see the Heritage Anglican Network fostering cooperation, fellowship, and unity among these congregations and clergy.

Membership in the Heritage Anglican Network would not require that member congregations and clergy severe their relationship with the present ecclesial body of which they are a part. Membership in the Heritage Anglican Network would, however, enable them to preserve their identity in that body. The support and assistance that the Heritage Anglican Network could offer them would be particularly invaluable should the present ecclesial body of which they are part become openly hostile to their beliefs and practices or put pressure upon them to conform to whatever is the prevailing theology in that body.

At the same time I envision the Heritage Anglican Network encompassing more than these congregations and clergy in the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Mission in Americas. Membership in the Heritage Anglican Network would be open to both individuals and groups who subscribe to the Network’s principles and aims or are sympathetic to them. The Heritage Anglican Network would also provide support and assistance to individuals as well as groups, and foster cooperation, fellowship, and unity among them.

The Heritage Anglican Network would not only bring together like-minded individuals and groups within the ACNA and the AMiA but also such individuals and groups outside of these ecclesial bodies, in and outside of North America. The sphere of ministry of the organization would extend beyond North America and would be international in scope. Building and strengthening relationships with Anglicans outside of North America would not only help overcome the isolation of Anglicans in North America but also help Anglicans outside of North America overcome their own isolation.

I envision the Heritage Anglican Network playing two other important roles. The Heritage Anglican Network would seek to advance the gospel in North America and throughout the world. This could be done in innumerable ways. It would be the most important role of the Heritage Anglican Network. It would undergird the Heritage Anglican Network’s other four roles.

The upholding of the Anglican formularies, the promoting of historic Anglicanism, and the propagating of the gospel are tied to each other. One of the main functions that the Thirty-Nine Articles fulfills is to safeguard the truth of the gospel. The Communion Service of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer gives liturgical expression to the doctrines of salvation by grace and justification by faith. The 1661 Ordinal emphasizes that the three-fold ministry of deacon, presbyter, and bishop is first and foremost the ministry of the gospel. Providing support and assistance to individuals and groups who are members of the Heritage Anglican Network means providing support and assistance to their gospel ministries. Fostering cooperation, fellowship, and unity among them helps on the gospel.

The gospel that the Heritage Anglican Network would be seeking to advance would not be any gospel. It would be what Anglicans have historically understood to be the New Testament gospel. We hear a lot of talk from leaders in the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Mission in the Americas about the proclamation of the gospel but neither ecclesial body has adopted an official statement defining the gospel and requiring the proclamation of that gospel and no other gospel. Indeed they display a reluctance to adopt such a statement lest it expose the divisions within them. The result is more than one gospel is proclaimed in these bodies. The Episcopal Church is not the only church in North America, which identifies itself as Anglican, in which “a different gospel” is proclaimed.

The final role that I envision the Heritage Anglican Network playing in Anglicanism’s future in North America is establishing and growing new Anglican churches in North America and strengthening existing ones. The churches that the Heritage Anglican Network would be planting would be genuinely Anglican churches. They would uphold the historic Anglican formularies and would represent authentic historic Anglicanism. Consequently, they would be gospel churches, gatherings of believing people who not only proclaimed the good news but also embodied it.

Around the world have been established what are called “seedbanks.” In these seedbanks are stored the seeds from numerous varieties of plants particularly heirloom varieties that are no longer grown on a large scale. The seedbanks are a part of a worldwide attempt to protect biodiversity as well as to maintain sources of seeds for planting in case seed reserves elsewhere are destroyed. Since the twentieth century the plants grown for food around the world have been reduced to a few select varieties. The world is at high risk of catastrophic famine in event these varieties prove vulnerable to a fungus or some other type of plant disease or changes in the environment.

Approximately 1 million people died from starvation in Ireland in the nineteenth century when the potato blight devastated the Irish potato crop, which was the main staple of the diet of the Irish people. A million more were forced to emigrate from Ireland. The blight, which originated in the eastern United States, not only affected Ireland but also southern England and the greater part of northern and central Europe. Once it was introduced, it spread rapidly.

The North American Anglican Church has no seedbank where the seeds of heirloom Anglicanism have been stored away in a refrigerated vault in the event of a future calamity. Hybrid Anglicanism, if it can be called Anglicanism, has been allowed to displace authentic historic Anglicanism in North America. The grave disaster for the North American Anglican Church does not lie ahead. It has already occurred. It has been unfolding over the last two centuries. Hybrid Anglicanism has shown itself susceptible to all kinds of diseases. Each disease has caused further mutation. We have come to a time where there is not only a clear need to protect the few gardens where heirloom Anglicanism is flourishing but also to take seeds and cuttings from these gardens and to plant them in new gardens in North America and throughout the world lest millions perish from want of hearing the true gospel.

In upcoming articles I will be exploring how the Heritage Anglican Network might fulfill these roles. I will be taking a look at the principles articulated in the Heritage Anglican Network’s organizational charter—where they came from, what they mean, and their relationship to historic Anglicanism.