By Robin G. Jordan
What I am advocating in my recent articles is that Anglicans
who are part of the Anglican Church in North America and who believe that
historic Anglicanism is sufficiently catholic and does not need to adopt
unreformed Catholic teaching and practices, Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox,
to become more fully Catholic take their future into their own hands. This
requires bold action as I have pointed out in these articles.
Those who maintain that there is plenty of room in the
Anglican Church in North America for such Anglicans do not appreciate their
precarious position in the denomination. They underestimate the strength of the
convictions of those who are a part of the Anglican Church in North America and
who want to make the denomination more Catholic. Every doctrinal statement that
the College of Bishops has endorsed to date has moved the Anglican Church in
North America in the direction of unreformed Catholicism and away from historic
Anglicanism.
If the College of Bishops had a genuine commitment to a
policy of comprehension, the College would not be taking the denomination in
that direction. It would be endorsing doctrinal statements that affirmed the
beliefs and values of all schools of thought represented in the denomination.
It has done nothing of the sort. To date it has endorsed:
Its actions are not the actions of a College of Bishops
committed to comprehending the beliefs and values of all schools of thought
represented in the Anglican Church in North America. They are the actions of a
College of Bishops that seeks to Catholicize the doctrine, order, and practice
of the denomination.
As I have also pointed out in previous articles, Anglicans
who are part of the Anglican Church in North America and who believe that
historic Anglicanism is sufficiently catholic have no standing in the
denomination. They are not recognized as a distinct group with its own beliefs
and values which must be considered in the development of rites and services
and a catechism for the denomination.
How anyone can claim in the face of this and other evidence
that there is plenty of room for such Anglicans in the denomination boggles the
mind. They are clearly permitted in the denomination on sufferance and then
mostly likely due to their gifts, numbers, and resources, which are presently
needed for the denomination to grow. They, however, are apparently not needed
enough to accommodate what they believe and value.
I am convinced that the College of Bishops will pursue its
present direction as long as it does not encounter any major obstacles or
serious objections. The College of Bishops in this regard is like a teenage who
is testing how far he can push the limits. The more successful a teenager is in
pushing the limits, the more emboldened he is to push them. At some point he
will get totally out of control unless firm limits are set and enforced. This
includes allowing him to experience the negative consequences of his actions.
When parents fail to set and enforce such limits, outside intervention is
required for the teenager’s own good.
The Anglican Church in North America unfortunately has very
few mechanisms for holding its bishops accountable for their actions. It has no
provincial synod that must approve the decisions of the College of Bishops and
which acts as a counterbalance to the College. The Provincial Council is the
official governing body of the denomination but the College of Bishops has to a
large extent usurped its authority and effectively bypassed the Council as a
policy-making body.
Due to the kind of system created by the present
constitution and canons of the Anglican Church in North America and due to the
way that it operates, lobbying the Provincial Council and the College of
Bishops is pointless. Bringing about change in this type of closed system
requires taking the initiative and acting independently of the system.
Among the steps that proponents of a second province within
the Anglican Church in North America can take to lay the foundation for such a
province are these ten steps:
1. Form a voluntary association of Biblically faithful
Anglican congregations and clergy who are part of the Anglican Church in North
America and who accept the Scripture-based doctrine and principles of the
Anglican formularies. This association would be organized into regional and
district branches, each composed of congregations and clergy affiliated with
the association in a specific geographic area and having its bylaws, own
general meeting, executive board, and officers. Provision for a form of
affiliation with the association would be made for congregations and clergy who
are not located in an area that has a district branch and for private
individuals sharing its beliefs and values and sympathetic to its aims.
2. Develop and implement credentialing processes to
establish the qualification of clergy and other ministry leaders and to assess
their background and legitimacy. These processes would include screening
candidates for ordination or licensure and overseeing their formation and
training.
3. Establish and maintain a central registry of clergy and
other ministry leaders meeting association standards. Congregations seeking to
call a senior pastor or to hire additional staff would be able to access this
registry in their search for suitable candidates. Congregations and clergy affiliated
with the association would as a condition of their affiliation agree to employ or
appoint only clergy and other ministry leaders on the registry or otherwise
accredited by the association. They would also agree to require their clergy
and other ministry leaders to sign an agreement at the time of their employ or
appointment to the effect that they would tender their resignation in the event they ceased
to subscribe to the Scripture-based doctrine and principles of the Anglican
formularies. This would help ensure that only clergy and other ministry leaders
meeting association standards would serve association-affiliated
congregations.
4. Develop and produce or approve training modules for
clergy and other ministry leaders. One of the aims of the association would be
to help affiliated congregations to recruit and develop new leaders. Such
leaders are critical to congregational growth.
5. Develop and implement a united plan of giving through
which affiliated congregations give a percentage of their undesignated receipts
in support of their respective regional branch and the association’s missions
and ministries. Every year affiliated congregations would decide how much of its
undesignated gifts would be committed to reaching people in the region and
throughout the world through the association. They would then forward this
amount to their regional branch.
Delegates to the regional branch’s general meeting would decide what
percentage of the gifts by affiliated congregations stay in the region to
support regional branch missions and ministries. They would also determine what
percentage would be forwarded to the national association for the association’s
North American and international missions and ministries. Delegates to the
national association’s general meeting from each regional branch would decide
how the gifts received from the regional branches would be distributed among
national association entities. These gifts would be used by national
association entities to send and support missionaries, train clergy and other
ministry leaders, provide relief for retired clergy and widows, and address
social, moral, and ethical concerns related to the association’s belief and
values and its families. *
6. Plant and grow new congregations. This would be primarily
the responsibility of regional and district branches and local congregations.
Association-wide church planting initiatives could also be launched at the
national association level targeting unreached, unengaged people groups and
focusing and supporting regional, district, and local church planting efforts
in relation to these people groups.
7. Compile and publish liturgical resources which reflect
the Scripture-based doctrine and principles of the Anglican formularies. These
rites and services would include orders for Morning and Evening Prayer,
alternative forms of morning and evening worship, services of the Lord’s Supper,
baptism services, confirmation services, marriage services, services of
thanksgiving for the birth of a child and the safe delivery of the child’s
mother, services for the funeral of an adult and the funeral of child, forms of
prayer for use with the sick and dying, services for the communion of the sick,
services for the commissioning of lay readers, catechists, and evangelists, services
for the installation of a senior pastor, and ordination services for deacons,
presbyters, and bishops, and services for the installation of a bishop, and the
like. They would use modern day English and have sufficient flexibility for use
in a variety of settings by congregations in a variety of circumstances. They
would be easy to understand and use and would have a minimum of rubrics.
8. Issue doctrinal statements on key issues such as the
sacraments, articulating positions that are consistent with the Scripture-based
doctrine and principles of the Anglican formularies. Offer webinars on the
theology of the English Reformers, the history of the Anglican Church, the
Homilies, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and The Book of Common Prayer. Publish
popular and scholarly articles related to these topics. Produce videos for use
at regional branch, district branch, and local congregational gatherings.
9. Develop and publish a catechism and other instructional
material for adults and children in line with the Scripture-based doctrine and
principles of the Anglican formularies.
10. Establish and build relationships with like-minded
Anglicans outside the Anglican Church in North America. Form mission and
ministry partnerships with such Anglicans.
What other steps do you think proponents of a second ACNA
province might take to lay its foundation?
What step should they make their first priority?
*What I am describing in this paragraph is a giving plan similar to the Southern BaptistConvention’s Cooperative Program. I adapted the description of the Cooperative Program which appears on the Southern Baptist Convention website.
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