Those who claim that there is no single way to be Anglican
are displaying the influence of Anglo-Catholicism and liberalism. Both
Anglo-Catholicism and liberalism have sought to expand the boundaries of
Anglican comprehensiveness beyond those set by the Thirty-Nine Articles.
According to one liberal view Anglicanism embraces anything and everything that
a church identifying itself as Anglican believes or practices. All the church
needs is some kind of historical connection with the Church of England and the
recognition of the See of Canterbury.
While the eighteenth century latitudinarians may have been
the first to assert that Anglican comprehensiveness is broader than its
sixteenth century limits, the nineteenth century Anglo-Catholics were the most
aggressive in pressing beyond those limits. They were intent on carving out a
space for themselves in the Anglican Church. However, they were not satisfied
to be one church party or faction among many. Their ultimate goal was to take
over the entire church.
Their vision in the nineteenth century was to so Catholicize
the Church of England that the Pope would readmit the English Church to the
Roman fold. Their vision is still to Catholicize the Anglican Church. The Pope
Leo XIII’ declaration of the invalidity of Anglican orders in 1896 and more
recently Pope Benedict XVI’s creation of the Anglican Ordinariate have forced
Anglo-Catholics to abandon the hope of reunification with Rome. In place of
that vision they have settled for making Edward Bouverie Pusey’s theory of
Anglicanism as a third great branch of Catholicism a reality.
In the second half of the twentieth century Anglo-Catholics
found allies in the adherents of the convergence and Ancient Future worship
renewal movements. The convergence movement began as a movement among evangelical
and charismatic churches in the United States
to blend charismatic worship with liturgies from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and other sources. The
Ancient Future worship renewal movement is a particular expression of the
convergence movement that has encouraged evangelical and charismatic churches
to incorporate liturgical forms and other traditional practices into their
worship. The convergence movement would lead to the formation of the so-called
“convergence communions.” Convergence theology has strongly influenced the
Anglican Mission in the Americas and the Anglican Church in the North America.
One of the developments in the convergence/Ancient Future worship
renewal movement is a growing receptivity toward Catholic doctrine, order, and
practice. While supposedly bring together the three streams of Catholicism,
evangelicalism, and Pentecostalism into one river, the Catholic stream has
proven to be the strongest current in the river. This stream is not the
reformed catholicism of historic Anglicanism but the unreformed Catholicism of
Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.
The Catholic stream is so strong that what is happening in
churches in which the influence of the convergence/Ancient Future worship
renewal movement is the strongest may be described as a Catholic resurgence. Among
the characteristics of the convergence/Ancient Future worship renewal movement
is a rather naïve, romantic view of the early and medieval Churches, a penchant
for antiquarianism, and an aversion to the Reformation. These same characteristics
marked the Anglo-Catholic movement and the Catholic revival in the nineteenth
century.
Adherents of the convergence/Ancient Future worship renewal
movement claim what they perceive as the bringing together of the Catholic,
evangelical, and Pentecostal traditions is the work of the Holy Spirit. One of
the implications of this claim is that the Reformation was not the work of the Holy Spirit. Historically evangelicals have understood the Reformation to be the
Holy Spirit’s work and have traced the roots of evangelicalism to the
Reformation and its recovery of the Bible and the gospel. This may explain in
part the redefinition of evangelical and evangelicalism in convergence circles
and their claims of the existence of “Ancient Evangelicals.” Evangelicalism is
reduced to an emphasis on the Bible and evangelism.
Adherents of the convergence movement are not the only ones
who claim that the Holy Spirit is at work in their movement. So do liberals.
The nineteenth century Anglo-Catholics also believed that the Holy Spirit was
at work in their movement.
A part of the appeal of convergence theology to North
American Anglicans is its claim that the convergence of the Catholic,
evangelical, and Pentecostal traditions the Holy Spirit is bringing about is taking
place in the the Anglican Church in
North America and the concomitant belief that the leaders and members of the
ACNA are particularly anointed by God. As well as meeting a need for meaning in
people’s lives, these beliefs also appeal to a common human weakness—pride. North
Americans in the United States have also long viewed themselves as set apart by
God for greatness: They have in their own estimation a special destiny to
fulfill.
What is emerging in the Anglican Church in North America
is a synthesis of Pusey’s theory of Anglicanism as the third great
branch of Catholic Christianity and convergence theology’s notion of one river
in which flows three streams. The two views complement each other in a number
of ways.
How do these developments have any bearing upon
comprehensiveness in the Anglican Church in North America? They are actually
very pertinent to why the ACNA is not more comprehensive than it is.
Anglo-Catholics have a history of demanding room for their theological tradition in the Anglican Church while at the same time refusing to make room for other theological traditions. In the nineteenth century they tried to drive the evangelicals out of the Church of England. Through their intransigence in response to the plea of conservative evangelicals for modest revisions in the American Prayer Book they forced these evangelicals out of the Episcopal Church.
Anglo-Catholics have a history of demanding room for their theological tradition in the Anglican Church while at the same time refusing to make room for other theological traditions. In the nineteenth century they tried to drive the evangelicals out of the Church of England. Through their intransigence in response to the plea of conservative evangelicals for modest revisions in the American Prayer Book they forced these evangelicals out of the Episcopal Church.
For Anglo-Catholics, as for liberals, tolerance is a one-way
street. You can travel down it only in one direction. They expect, even demand
to be tolerated but are quite intolerant themselves. They expect others to
compromise but are unwilling themselves to compromise. Where they do
compromise, it is on matters that are not of great importance to them.
Anglo-Catholics favor the kind of comprehensiveness, if
it can be called that, which provides ample room for their beliefs and
practices but affords very little room for the beliefs and practices of other theological
traditions, which are not compatible with theirs. It calls for the acceptance or
tolerance of Anglo-Catholic views and the dismissal of incompatible views. It
is essentially saying that Anglo-Catholic views should be recognized over the
views of other traditions because Anglo-Catholic views are right and the views
of other traditions are wrong. It is not really comprehensiveness.
Those who adhere to convergence theology display similar
attitudes to Anglo-Catholics. They expect tolerance of their views but they are
intolerant of views not in agreement with theirs. They are persuaded that the
Holy Spirit is uniquely at work in themselves and that they are fulfilling a divine
mission. Those who do not agree with them are either spiritually unenlightened
or blind or they are deliberately opposing God. Convergentists suffer from all the
shortcomings of the Corinthian pneumatics even though they as individuals may
not have experienced the baptism or release of the Holy Spirit and may not
practice the sign gifts such as speaking in tongues.
Like Anglo-Catholics, convergentists believe that their views should be
accepted or tolerated because they are right and those who do not share their
views are wrong. Tolerance of their views includes not putting up an argument,
staying silent, and going along with whatever they say or do.
In their tendency to ignore or minimize the differences
between the Catholic, evangelical, and Pentecostal traditions, adherents of
convergence theology overlook the fact the Catholic and evangelical traditions
represent not only conflicting interpretations of Scripture but disparate views
of the Bible and revelation. As I previously noted, they take a reductionist
view of evangelicals and evangelicalism. The end result is that unreformed
Catholicism tends to dominate their theological outlook as well as their piety
and practice.
A notable trend in convergentist circles is to equate the
Pentecostal tradition that is converging with the Catholic and evangelical
traditions in the Anglican Church in North America with Eastern Orthodoxy and
its pneumatology, and not with the twentieth century Pentecostalism and the charismatic and third-wave movements. Those who take this view appear to be
trying to redefine the Pentecostal tradition and provide it with Catholic
credentials. Twentieth century Pentecostalism has its roots in the holiness
movement and Wesleyanism and ultimately the Reformation and Protestantism.
Adherents of convergence theology favor the same kind of
comprehensiveness as Anglo-Catholics. It would make plenty of room for themselves
and those who have similar beliefs and practices to theirs but would give very
little space to those who do not. The latter group would be required to go
along with the beliefs and practices of the other two groups. As I noted
earlier, it is not really comprehensiveness.
You may have noted that I do not refer to convergentists as
charismatics. The convergence movement is an outgrowth of the charismatic
movement. However, those who subscribe to convergence theology are not all
charismatics. They may have a continualist view of the gifts of the Holy Spirit
and they may have adopted the more free-flowing style of worship associated with
charismatic churches. But they may not themselves have experienced the baptism
or release of the Holy Spirit. They also may not practice the sign gifts. They
do exhibit the tendency to view themselves as a spiritual elite, a tendency
that marred the charismatic movement.
The limits of historic Anglican comprehensiveness are
defined by the Thirty-Nine Articles. As J. I. Packer points out in The Thirty-Nine Articles: Their Place and
Use Today, doctrinal requirements are kept down to the minimum and the
maximum of flexibility and variety are allowed on secondary matters:
The Articles are in this sense minimal (they are the shortest of the Reformation confessions.) But they are meant to ensure that all Anglican clergy, whatever their views on other matters, should unite in teaching an Augustian doctrine of sin and a Reformed doctrine of justification and grace – should, in other words, unite in proclaiming what the Reformers took to be the New Testament gospel.
Within these limits, High Church Protestantism flourished
alongside evangelicalism in the Church of England.
The “evangelical comprehensiveness” to which the Thirty-Nine
Articles sets the boundaries is too restrictive to the tastes of
Anglo-Catholics, convergentists, and liberals. They prefer a comprehensiveness
the limits of which they themselves define and which benefits them the most. It
is not inclusive of Anglicans faithful to the teaching of the Bible and the
doctrine and liturgical usages of the Anglican formularies. It leaves out those
who from perspective of the Anglican formularies are genuinely Anglican.
The situation in the Anglican Church in North America in the
early twenty-first century parallels that in the Episcopal Church in the early
twentieth century. Anglo-Catholic elements in the Episcopal Church joined with
Broad Church elements in that province to remove the Thirty-Nine Articles from
the back of the American Prayer Book and to produce the retrograde 1928 Book of
Common Prayer. Traditionalist Anglo-Catholics in the ACNA have joined with
convergentists—the new Anglo-Catholics—in the ACNA to produce an ordinal and
eucharistic rites that also can be described as moving backward—returning to
the beliefs and practices of unreformed Catholicism.
This partnership also produced the Common Cause Theological
Statement which would be adopted as the Fundamental Declarations of the ACNA—a
document that equivocates in its acceptance of the authority of the Thirty-Nine
Articles; includes the Medieval Sarum Missal, the partially-reformed 1549
Prayer Book, and the retrograde1637 Scottish Prayer Book in its standard of
worship; and takes an Anglo-Catholic position on the necessity of the
episcopate to the existence of the Church. The Fundamental Declarations
effectively bars from the ACNA faithful Anglicans who are firm in their
adherence to the teaching of the Bible and the doctrine of the Anglican
formularies and are unwilling to compromise their beliefs.
The canons of the Anglican Church in North America also
contain doctrine, both stated and implied, over which Anglicans historically
have been divided. The Thirty-Nine Articles reject the Roman Catholic
sacramental system but the ACNA canons accept it.
For those who were paying attention, a number of then Bishop
Robert Duncan’s speeches were red flags warning them of what lay ahead. In the days before the most recent
Lambeth Conference Bishop Duncan dismissed the Elizabethan Settlement as being no longer
relevant to the contemporary Anglican Church and talked about the need for a
“new settlement.” The Anglican
formularies—the Thirty-Nine Articles, the two Books of Homilies, and even the
1662 Book of Common Prayer and the 1662 Ordinal—are an integral part of the
Elizabethan Settlement. The 1662 Prayer
Book and the 1661 Ordinal are essentially the Prayer Book and Ordinal of the
Elizabethan Settlement. In later
speeches he spoke about the need for regression in a time of crisis, for
turning back the clock to an earlier time in the faith and life of the Church.
I personally question the genuineness of the Anglican
identity of the Anglican Church in North America for the reasons I have
outlined in this article. I do not believe that the ACNA can be viewed as
Anglican because one group of faithful Anglicans who adhere to the teaching of
the Bible and the doctrine of the Anglican formularies are presently
maintaining a tenuous existence in that body. They are making compromises which
eventually will lead to the erosion of their Anglican identity. The ACNA has
not made any major changes to accommodate them.
The existence of this group of Anglicans in the Anglican
Church in North America is not an indication that the ACNA is comprehensive in
a true sense of the word. It might be
described as an accident. Some might describe it as providential but they are
more optimistic than I am. The preponderance of evidence, when weighed, leads
me to conclude that the days of this group of Anglicans are numbered. Those who
exercise the most influence in the ACNA’s doctrinal and liturgical commissions
and its College of Bishops are moving the ACNA in the direction of unreformed
Catholicism. They are not making room for this group of Anglicans and their
beliefs and practices. This group of Anglicans will, with the adoption of the ACNA Prayer Book and
Catechism, be expected to conform more closely to the doctrine, discipline, and
worship of the ACNA. If they are unwilling to do so, they will be given the
option to leave.
Photo: Overwhelmed by Grace
No comments:
Post a Comment