Assembly: FiFNA On The Move

For the bishops, priests, and laypersons at the 24th annual assembly of Forward in Faith, North America (FiFNA) here July 11-13, it was – more decidedly than ever before – not about where they’ve been, but about where they’re going.

Meeting again at Our Lady of the Snows, this year’s FiFNA assembly/family reunion focused much more on mission and the positive teaching of the catholic faith than on legislation and resolutions.

But it was more than that. The “despondency” that one participant said had dogged the Anglo-Catholic organization not so many years ago seemed in Belleville to have been eclipsed by a “new confidence” about FiFNA’s vocation - including about the need to begin (re)presenting the case for historic holy order among the minority of its allies who remain unpersuaded on the matter.

In short, FiFNA is on the move, in good spirits and in good Spirit, so to speak. Read more

I noted with concern the presence of Canon Kevin Donlon at the meeting of the FIFNA Assembly and his promotion of a restructuring of the Anglican Communion "through the application of catholic (read "Roman Catholic") principles." FIFNA President Bishop Keith Ackerman and others are in agreement about "another ambitious effort"--"a new Oxford Movement, and particularly another Tractarian Movement...."

While recognizing that its pushing for a moratorium on woman's ordination is bound to create tensions, the FIFNA Assembly proceeded to adopt a resolution calling for such a moratorium. I especially noted the willingness of the FIFNA leadership to exploit any deference that Archbishop Robert Duncan may enjoy from the members of the ACNA. This prompts me to wonder if the FIFNA leadership are trying to force the proponents of women's ordination out of the ACNA by heating up tensions over this issue.

FIFNA has an agenda, which is to Catholicize the doctrine, order, and practice of the ACNA. Eliminating the ordination of women is only a step toward achieving its aims. I am NOT a proponent of women's ordination but I am also NOT a proponent of the further Catholicization of the ACNA. The ACNA has gone too far in the direction of Rome in its doctrine and governance structure as it is.