Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The ACNA Prayer Book and the Future of Confessional Anglicanism in the Anglican Church in North America


By Robin G. Jordan

For the time being congregations and clergy that accept the authority of the Bible and the Anglican formularies and joined the Anglican Church in North America can use whatever Prayer Book they were using at the time they joined the ACNA provided the bishop of the diocese or network approves that Prayer Book. This will change once the ACNA’s liturgical commission has completed its compilation of a Prayer Book for the ACNA and the College of Bishops has authorized its use.

I am not holding my breath for the College of Bishops to abide by the ACNA’s constitution and to refer the book to the Provincial Council for final approval in the form of a canon authorizing its use—a decision that would require the ratification of the Provincial Assembly. This might lead to lengthy debate over which the bishops would have no control and the rejection of the book in part or in entirety or its approval by a very narrow margin. It might draw attention to the theological divisions in the ACNA and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of the different special interest groups to influence the doctrine and worship of that body.

I am not expecting a major shift in the direction that the College of Bishops is taking the Anglican Church in North America. The ACNA’s Fundamental Declarations, its canons, its “theological lens,” its Ordinal, and Texts for Common Prayer provide clear indications of that direction. It is certainly not back to the Bible and the Anglican formularies.

Once a Prayer Book is authorized for use in the Anglican Church in North America, all congregations and clergy will, under the provisions of the ACNA’s canons, be required to use that Prayer Book. At that point Anglicans who accept the authority of the Bible and the Anglican formularies will be forced to come to terms with some cold, hard truths. They are not going to be able to maintain an enclave for Anglicans like themselves in the ACNA. They will have to abandon their beliefs; leave the ACNA for a confessional denomination or church; or secede from the ACNA and form a Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church in North America. They have already to a large extent compromised their theological integrity in participating in the ACNA. They have deceived themselves by thinking that they might be able to affect change in that body. They have further deluded themselves by believing that the ACNA might over time become more genuinely comprehensive. This is not going to happen. They are well on their way to becoming marginalized in that body.

In the Nairobi Communiqué and Commitment the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans commits itself to “authorising and affirming faithful Anglicans who have been excluded by their diocese or province.” “The main thrust of work here,” the communiqué states, “would be devoted to discerning the need for new provinces, dioceses and churches — and then authenticating their ministries and orders as Anglican.”

The communiqué does not define what it means by “faithful Anglicans.” Presumably the communiqué is referring to Anglicans who are firm in their adherence to the teaching of the Bible and the doctrine of the Anglican formularies. This understanding would be consistent with the Jerusalem Declaration and Being Faithful: The Shapeof Historic Anglicanism Today. If that is the case, excluding faithful Anglicans from a province or diocese can be understood to mean not making room for them and their beliefs and practices in the province or diocese. It also can be understood to mean relegating faithful Anglicans to an unimportant or powerless position in a province or diocese.

The Fundamental Declarations and the canons of the Anglican Church in North America already exclude faithful Anglicans unwilling to compromise their theological integrity. With the adoption of the ACNA “theological lens,” the authorization of the ACNA Ordinal, and the approval of Texts for Common Prayer the College of Bishops is now excluding faithful Anglicans who were members of one of the founding entities of the ACNA and became a part of the ACNA upon its formation, or became a part of the ACNA under the various protocols with its sponsor provinces. In light of the direction the College of Bishops has so far taken the ACNA, the authorization of a Prayer Book for use in the province in all likelihood will further exclude these Anglicans.

The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans has to date taken no action to authorize and affirm the faithful Anglicans the College of Bishops is excluding. The GFCA has done nothing to give official approval to them, to recognize their authenticity as Anglicans, or to support them. Indeed the inaction of the GFCA is emboldening the ACNA bishops to take the ACNA even farther away from historic Anglicanism in the direction of unreformed Catholicism. This is another cold, hard truth that Anglicans faithful to the Bible and the Anglican formularies and presently a part of the ACNA must face.


The Anglican Church in North America in its own formularies—in its Fundamental Declarations, its canons, its “theological lens,” its Ordinal, and now Texts for Common Prayer—has rejected the authority of the Bible and the Anglican formularies. For Anglicans faithful to the Bible and the Anglican formularies, and with a confessional understanding of Anglicanism, their future in the Anglican Church in North America looks quite bleak. The Fundamental Declarations, the canons, the “theological lens,” the Ordinal, and Texts for Common Prayer are like nails driven into the lid of their coffin. The ACNA Prayer Book and Catechism will be the final nails.

See

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Once they require we abandon the 1928 BCP, we're out.

Robin G. Jordan said...

The Anglican Church in North America's canons do not make any provision for the use of any other service book beside its 2019 Book of Common Prayer once the book is completed. With its completion authorization to use any other service book, including the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the Church of Nigeria's 1996 Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican Church of Kenya's 2002, 2003 Our Modern Services, and the Reformed Episcopal Church's 2003 Book of Common Prayer, ceases in the ACNA with no exceptions. Unless the Provincial Council enacts new legislation extending the authorization for use of these books and the Provincial Assembly ratifies the legislation, they are a thing of the past. Folks in the ACNA put too much trust in their leaders at the time of the adoption and ratification of the ACNA governing documents. The same leaders did not encourage close examination of these documents and public discussion of their contents. It was less than three months between the time they were made public and the time they were adopted and ratified--insufficient time for most folks to have given them the careful scrutiny that they deserved. Any feed back the Governance Task Force received was largely ignored. Now folks in the ACNA are faced with the consequences of not insisting upon a more extended public review of their contents.