By Robin G. Jordan
On Stand Firm Sarah
Hey draws attention to a number of issues that divide the Anglican Church in North America. They include the
selection of bishops for dioceses and networks by the College of Bishops
opposed to their election by the dioceses and networks themselves and the
consolidation of existing ACNA judicatories into geographically contiguous dioceses
and the abolition of non-geographic affinity networks in the ACNA. The need for
“catholicity” is given in both cases for doing away with diocesan/network
election of bishops and affinity networks. The exact meaning of “catholicity,”
however, is not clearly defined.
The election of a bishop by his diocese is a much older
practice than selection of a bishop for a diocese by a pope (the Roman Catholic
practice) and the selection of a bishop of a diocese by a province’s bench of
bishops (the Eastern Orthodox practice). Historically both the clergy and laity
of the diocese were involved in the bishop’s election. The only role that the
other bishops of the province played was to confirm his election, which they
did by consecrating the bishop-elect.
In the English Church the canons of the diocesan cathedral
would come to represent the clergy of the diocese in the election of the bishop
and the English monarch to represent the laity. Only candidates nominated or
approved by the English monarch could be elected and only the English monarch
could issue a call for the election of a new bishop.
The English monarch could and did suspend bishops, place
them under house arrest, and appoint royal commissioners to carry out all but
their sacramental responsibilities.
The Episcopal Church in its adoption of the practice of the
election of the bishop of the diocese by the diocesan convention or the diocesan
council (another name for a diocesan convention) was restoring an ancient
practice in that denomination.
Arguably for the choice of a bishop and even an archbishop
to be genuinely Anglican, the laity must play a substantial role in making that
choice.
Non-geographic affinity networks are not a modern
innovation. They have a long history in the Roman Catholic Church. In addition
to parishes affiliated with territory-based dioceses, the Roman Catholic Church
also has parishes affiliated with non-territory based religious orders.
Overlapping jurisdictions are common in the Eastern Orthodox
Churches in which jurisdictions are ethnically and linguistically based and
operate within the same geographic territory.
To this day the Church of England has what are know as "peculiars," places of worship outside the jurisdiction of the bishop and archdeacon of the diocese in which they are situated. They include archbishops' peculiars which are subject to the direct jurisidiction of an archbishop and royal peculiars which are subject to the direct jurisdiction of the monarch. Among the royal peculiars is Westminster Abbey. The whole deaneries of Jersey and Guernsey are also royal peculiars.
To this day the Church of England has what are know as "peculiars," places of worship outside the jurisdiction of the bishop and archdeacon of the diocese in which they are situated. They include archbishops' peculiars which are subject to the direct jurisidiction of an archbishop and royal peculiars which are subject to the direct jurisdiction of the monarch. Among the royal peculiars is Westminster Abbey. The whole deaneries of Jersey and Guernsey are also royal peculiars.
In From Geography to Affinity: How Congregations Can Learn From One Another Lyle E. Schaller,
“often called America’s foremost church consultant, and the author of more than
fifty books on church leadership during the last four decades,” makes a
strong case for establishment of affinity networks—“groups of congregations
that share particular goals and visions”—at the judicatorial level in
denominations. He argues that judicatories should be formed around “a
particular sense of mission or distinctive theological stands” rather than
organizing them on the basis of state or regional boundaries.
The literature suggests that affinity networks enjoy greater
success at extending the mission of congregations and making their ministries
more effective than do territory-based judicatories. They are particularly
effectual in planting new churches since the sharing of common goals and
visions fosters a higher level of cooperation
Among the drawbacks of making state or regional boundaries
the organizational principle by which congregations must align themselves
within a denomination is that congregations so aligned often have very little
in common. When disparate schools of thought are represented in a
territory-based judicatory, factionalism is frequently the result. This can
lead to one school of thought dominating the judicatory at the expense of the
others. In the Episcopal Church, in dioceses in which liberals gained the
ascendancy, conservatives were marginalized. Their marginalization contributed
to the formation of the Anglican Church in North America.
The one issue that is bound to affect the continued
existence of non-geographic affinity networks in the Anglican Church in North
America is the eventual mandatory use of the ACNA rites and catechism, which,
while they are generously permissive toward Anglo-Catholic, Roman-Catholic, and
even Eastern Orthodox doctrine and practice, do not extend a similar license to
Protestant, Reformed and evangelical doctrine and practice. This development
will effectively rule out theologically-based affinity networks since
ordination candidates and clergy (including bishops) will be required to
conform to the worship and doctrine of the ACNA.
It must be noted that the Anglican Church in North America
does not appear to recognize a common theological, liturgical, and
ecclesiological outlook as a basis for the formation of an affinity network,
only previous association. The guidelines for recognition of a new diocese or
network state:
The new province is committed to organizing itself around the historic principle that parishes form around a bishop. Simultaneously, it recognizes that either geographic proximity or affinities because of relationship are equally valid ways of practicing that principle. The additional principles that follow are designed to respect the choice of each congregation for either affinity or geography as its organizing principle.
It should also be mentioned that the oldest parishes in
North America, in what is now the United States, were not formed around a
bishop. See George Conger’s article, “The Parish as the basic unit of the Church.”
In its insistence that ACNA parishes must form around a
bishop, the Anglican Church in North America is promoting an Anglo-Catholic
ecclesiology. Anglo-Catholics have historically viewed the parish as ancillary
to the diocese while conservative evangelicals have historically viewed the
diocese as ancillary to the parish.
Article 39 defines “the visible Church of Christ” as “a
congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and
the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those
things that of necessity are requisite to the same.” It is not referring to a
diocese but to a parish—to a congregation in a particular locality. Nowhere in
the Scriptures, it must be, added, do we find any reference to dioceses. They
are purely a human institution, modeled upon the civil administrative districts
of the ancient Roman Empire.
The issues that divide the Anglican Church in North America
are ultimately theological, liturgical, and ecclesiological.
Behind the movement to do away with diocesan/network
election of bishops and non-territory based affinity networks appears to be a movement
to impose a rigid uniformity upon the Anglican Church in North America. None of
the theological statements that have been produced by the ACNA to date display
any commitment to a policy of comprehension that would make ample room in the ACNA
for Anglicans who are Protestant, Reformed, and evangelical in doctrine and
practice.
Further Reading:
2 comments:
Robin,
Kudos. You have been almost alone in drawing attention to the inconsistencies in ACNA. Pity that so few have heeded your warnings. Now Matt Kennedy and others are whining, but they only have themselves to blame for being blindly loyal company men. They have the leaders they deserve. But who will leave? They have burned almost all their bridges and will have to go down with the ship.
A number of people were under the impression that the Anglican Church in North America would be more comprehensive as far as the Anglo-Catholic-conservative evangelical divide was concerned. They apparently thought that the ACNA would be moderately comprehensive with some concessions to the Anglo-Catholics who were skittish about joining a coalition that included folks who did not share their views. Some folks still cling to that erroneous impression.
Archbishop Duncan in several speeches made reference to Calvinists in the ACNA and may have reinforced that mistaken idea. People like myself who paid close attention to what Duncan did—championed unreformed Catholic practice--as well as what else he said—called for a new settlement and emphasized the need for regression (i.e. turning back the clock to before the Reformation)—acquired a completely different view of Duncan’s position.
What has happened in the ACNA is essentially what happened in the short-lived first Anglican Church in North America but minus the drama. Those who want to reconstruct Anglicanism along unreformed Catholic lines have gained the ascendancy in the ACNA—at least where it matters. This is what happened in what eventually became the Continuum.
While the “Southern Phalanx,” those who were content with Anglicanism as it was and did not see any need to make the Anglican Church more “Catholic,” at first appeared to be the most influential faction or party in the original Anglican Church in North America, this did not over time prove to be the case.
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