Reshaping the Anglican Church for Mission in the Third Millennium (Part 2)

By Robin G. Jordan

In the first article in this series I identified as major barrier to the Anglican Church’s fulfillment of the Great Commission the pre-Reformation Medieval Catholic and post-Tridentian Roman Catholic doctrines and practices that the Romeward Movement propagated into the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA in an unsuccessful attempt to bring about the reunion of these churches and the Church of Rome in the nineteenth century. I explained how these doctrines and practice affect the message of the gospel wherever they exercise a continuing influence upon the life and teaching of the Anglican Church so that the gospel that is proclaimed in these churches is not the true gospel, the gospel of the New Testament. Rather it is “a different gospel.” In this article I examine how else these doctrines and practices severely hamper the Anglican Church in carrying out the mission entrusted by Christ to His Church.

First, these doctrines and practices attribute great efficacy and extraordinary importance to the sacraments to the detriment of the essence of gospel teaching—salvation by grace by faith in Jesus Christ. While the latter may not be completely effaced, it does not receive the emphasis that the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Book of Common Prayer of 1662, the Ordinal of 1661, and the two Books of Homilies of 1547 and 1571 give it.

Second, these doctrines and practices promote sacerdotalism, which ascribes mysterious powers to the presbyterate and claims excessive authority for the clergy. Ordination, they teach, bestows upon presbyters the ability to bring Christ into being in the bread and wine of the Eucharist; to transmogrify the water of baptism so that it washes away sin, original and actual; and to absolve, or pardon, sins. Presbyters serve as icons of Christ, acting as intermediaries between God and his people, making intercessions and offerings for them and declaring God’s will to them. The priesthood of the presbyters is described as distinct and separate from the common priesthood in which all Christians share, if the later receives any mention at all. The laity are relegated to an ancillary role to the clergy who are viewed as the real ministers and to whom the laity serve as assistants when they are not passive recipients of the clergy’s ministry.

Among the consequences of these doctrines and practices are churches that are organized around the ministry of one or more presbyters and regular weekly or more frequent celebrations of the Eucharist. These churches are particularly vulnerable to the effects of changing demographics and economic recession. The rising cost of clergy compensation packages, the failure of the income of congregations to keep pace, a decline in giving to the denomination, and the reduction of denominational subsidies and other forms of assistance has led to a spate of mergers and closures.

Clergy-centered small membership churches do not exhibit the durability that lay-led small membership churches show. If the presbyter dies, retires, resigns, or accepts another cure, and no replacement can be found, they go rapidly downhill, loosing congregants to other churches or inactivity.

Another consequence is a denominational system that is largely controlled by the clergy and in which the clergy jealously guard their prerogatives. They are not open to and supportive of laity filling roles historical reserved to the clergy. While other religious traditions are empowering the laity and adopting open door policies to lay leadership, these doctrines and practices prevent the full use of the spiritual gifts, natural abilities, and experience of the laity in the service of the gospel.

Church planting is limited by the availability of funding. The preferred church planting strategy is to launch a new congregation with a fully credentialed, fulltime resident parish priest from the outset. New churches are generally planted in affluent areas where they can be expected to quickly become self-supporting. Less affluent areas are left to denominations that show an openness and willingness to make use of bivocational pastors, lay ministry teams, and lay pastors.

A third consequence is that the members of churches influenced by these doctrines and practices and organized around the ministry of a priest and the celebration of the Eucharist rarely develop a full grasp of the Great Commission and its implications for them as Christians. If you point to their attention that God has called them to serve him as missionaries in their community and that is why God has placed them in that particular community, you will likely receive a blank look. To them mission is something that the clergy or those with a special calling to missionary work do. They do not see it as a part of their job description. They see their role largely in terms paying the salary of the priest, keeping up the building and the grounds, and receiving the ministry of the priest. Their focus is upon themselves and not upon a world filled with lost people right outside their door. They see the priest as primarily as a chaplain, dispensing sacramental grace to them and otherwise meeting their spiritual needs. Theirs is basically a consumer mentality.

As long as the pre-Reformation Medieval Catholic and post-Tridentian Roman Catholic doctrines and practices that Romeward Movement propagated in the Anglican Church continue to influence the life and teaching of the Anglican Church, they will create serious obstacles in the Anglican Church to its fulfillment of the Great Commission. If the Anglican Church is to become a truly mission-shaped church, it must free itself from their influence. It must become a church that tirelessly proclaims the gospel of grace to all population segments without distinction. It must become a church that not only proclaims the good news but also embodies the good news. It cannot settle for anything less and be faithful to Christ.

Article 19 defines the visible Church of Christ as “a gathering of believing people in which the pure Word of God is preached and the sacraments are ministered with due order and discipline as ordained by Christ.” Article 23 requires that those who exercise the office of public preaching or ministration of the sacraments must have been lawfully called and appointed. Article 23 admits that a duly authorized layperson may preach and administer the sacraments. In a number of provinces readers are licensed not only to read Scripture and assist in the administration of the Holy Communion but also to preach and to baptize. They may be appointed to pastor a congregation and provided a stipend and housing. The creative use of readers and catechists to start new congregations and build up existing ones has contributed to the growth of a number of provinces.

In the United States the use of readers and catechists in this way has been limited. It is traceable to the continued influence of pre-Reformation Medieval and post-Tridentian Roman Catholic doctrines and practices upon the American Church and the expectation of regular weekly celebrations of the Holy Communion. Readers and catechists are seen as a stopgap measure until funds can be found for a priest. This means a large number of communities in the United States will not have Anglican churches due to no funds for a priest even though there may be people in these communities interested starting a new congregation and qualified to lead it. As the cost of the compensation package of an Anglican priest rises, the number of Anglican church plants will drop.

How are churches that do not preach the true gospel, which countenance unbiblical doctrines and practices, and which target only the affluent serving Christ? What does Christ himself think of them? Christ did not confine his earthly ministry to those with a high income, a college education, a middle class background, a home in a newer subdivision, and two cars in the garage. He reached out to all kinds of people, in all walks of life. He had no place to lay his head and often slept out of doors under the stars. He walked wherever he went. On one rare occasion he rode a colt into Jerusalem and fulfilled prophecy. The gap between the life and teaching of these churches and Christ’s is much wider that some of us would want to admit. Time has come for an honest appraisal of what our church believes and does and whether it is consistent with the teaching of Scripture. We owe it to Christ, to all for whom he died, and to all to whom he calls us to proclaim the gospel.