By Robin G. Jordan
As well as promoting and defending the centrality of the Bible,
the Anglican formularies, and the Anglican Church’s Reformation heritage to
authentic historic Anglicanism, I have identified twenty-two other reasons why Confessing
Anglicans should band together in an organization of their own in North America.
Advocacy
1. Monitor the state of relations between Confessing
Anglicans and the bishops and other clergy of their judicatory; uncover,
investigate, and document discriminatory practices affecting Confessing
Anglicans; maintain a file of specific cases of discrimination by bishops
and other clergy against Confessing Anglicans; publish an annual report on the
state of Confessing Anglican relations in the Anglican Church in North America, rating each judicatory on the basis of its treatment of Confessing Anglicans
2. Work to eliminate discriminatory practices against
Confessing Anglicans in specific judicatories and in the Anglican Church in
North America in general.
3. Intervene in specific cases of discrimination on the
behalf of Confessing Anglicans.
5. Arrange for alternative oversight for Confessing Anglican
congregations and clergy involved in theological disputes with their bishops
particular over the use of the ACNA Catechism and the ACNA Prayer Book, the
denial of ordination to Confessing Anglican candidates on the basis of their theological
views, and the denial of appointment and/or licensure to Confessing Anglican
members of the clergy on the same basis.
6. Work for the reform of the Anglican Church in North
America particularly in the areas of its teaching and practices, its form of
governance, the methods by which it selects bishops, the term of office of
bishops, and its disciplinary canons.
Church Planting
7. Develop and publish practical guidelines for Confessing
Anglican churches to help them in planting new churches.
8. Recruit, train, and deploy Confessing Anglican church
planters who unreservedly subscribe to the teaching of the Bible and the
principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Anglican formularies and who
genuinely stand in the Reformation heritage of the Anglican Church.
9. Provide grants-in-aid to new church plants.
10. Take what other steps may be needed to create a culture
of multiplication in Confessing Anglican churches and to transform Confessing
Anglican congregations and clergy into a church planting movement.
Clergy Deployment
11. Maintain a central register of Confessing Anglican
clergy who unreservedly subscribe to the teaching of the Bible and the
principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Anglican formularies and who
genuinely stand in the Reformation heritage of the Anglican Church.
12. Develop and publish practical guidelines to help
Confessing Anglican congregations select a new pastor.
Ministry Development
13. Evaluate and recommend seminaries and theological
colleges for the training of Confessing Anglicans preparing for gospel ministry
14. Provide supplemental courses on the Anglican formularies
and the Anglican Church’s Reformation heritage leading to a Certificate in
Anglican Studies for clergy, candidates for ordination, and other gospel
workers seeking to minister in Confessing Anglican churches.
15. Provide scholarships and other financial assistance to
Confessing Anglicans preparing for gospel ministry
16. Sponsor internships for Confessing Anglicans preparing
for gospel ministry.
Worship
17. Develop and publish forms of service consistent with the
teaching of the Bible, the doctrinal and worship principles laid out in the
Anglican formularies, and the Anglican Church’s Reformation heritage for the
use of Confessing Anglican clergy and congregations.
18. Develop and publish other worship resources for the use
of Confessing Anglicans
19. Offer seminars and workshops on planning and leading
worship.
20. Evaluate and recommend worship resources for the use of
Confessing Anglicans.
Christian Education
and Formation
21. Develop and publish a catechism consistent with the
teaching of the Bible, the doctrinal and worship principles laid out in the
Anglican formularies, and the Anglican Church’s Reformation heritage for the
use of Confessing Anglican clergy and congregations.
22. Evaluate and recommend Bible study, theological education,
leadership development, and ministry training materials for the use of Confessing
Anglicans, as well as develop and publish materials of its own.
What about the APA?
ReplyDeleteIf you are referring to the Anglican Province of America, it is not the American Episcopal Church of which it once was a part. Under the leadership of Bishop Walter Grundorf the APA has moved away from comprehensiveness that was a mark of the AEC. Most of its clergy are Catholic Revivalists.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons the merger with the Reformed Episcopal Church failed is that, while the REC itself was experiencing a Catholic Revival of its own, the APA was far too Anglo-Catholic for the REC.
From what I gather, the APA is a ministry partner of the Anglican Church in North America. Only organizations that accept the ACNA fundamental declarations which water down the authority of the Anglican formularies and take a Roman Catholic position on the historic episcopate may become ministry partners with the ACNA.
The APA is also a jurisdiction in decline. Its clergy and congregations are aging.Its population base is shrinking. A number of churches have closed.
Among the factors contributing to its decline is a lack of leaders with the capacity to lead an ecclesial organization in the twenty-first century.
When Grundorf retires or dies, I am expecting the ACNA to absorb the remnants of the APA.
The challenges that the APA faces are not unique to that jurisdiction. They are common to a number of Continuing Anglican jurisdictions. The use of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and in a number of churches the Anglican Missal limits their appeal to a relatively tiny segment of the population—a segment of the population that is disappearing. Young people who are attracted to their particular style of traditional worship are themselves a very small group.
ReplyDeleteMost Continuing Anglican churches have become inwardly-looking and highly-resistant to change. They may realize that they need more people in order to survive as a church but they do not want to make the necessary changes needed to attract these people.
They have lost their connection with their communities if they had a connection with their communities in the first place. Not only have their congregations shrunk but so have the relationship networks of the members of the congregation, depriving them of an important source of potential new members.
The form of Catholic Revivalism that flourished in the Continuing Anglican jurisdictions has contributed to their present state. It emphasized the sacraments and the sacramental ministry of a priest. As a result Continuing Anglican churches tended to become chaplaincies, a group of families with their own priest-chaplain, not too different from the household chaplaincies of the seventeenth century. The focus of their life together was the celebration of Mass and the reception of Holy Communion. In some Continuing Anglican churches it also included the adoration of the sacramental species.
This particular form of Catholic Revivalism deemphasized the central task of the Church—spreading the gospel and making disciples from all people groups. The idea that all Christians are missionaries and that every local church is a missionary outpost on the mission field received very little attention if it received any attention at all.
Jurisdictional leaders also contributed to the present state of the Continuing Anglican jurisdictions. As well not adequately emphasizing the importance of the Great Commission and missions, they also became fixated upon one ministry target group—dissaffected Episcopalians. This ministry target group, however, underwent a number of changes after the 1970s. Its Prayer Book became the 1979 Book of Common Prayer; its hymnal became The Hymnal 1982. It became accustomed to using contemporary worship songs as well as traditional hymns in its worship and to a more charismatic style of worship. A segment of this ministry target group would come to support women in ordained ministry. What had been the Continuing Anglican jurisdictions’ approach to reaching this ministry target group—emphasizing the use of the 1928 Prayer Book and the older hymnal and a 1950s style of traditional worship—did not work with it.
This development exposed the weaknesses of Continuing Anglican jurisdictional leaders in three important areas—church planting, church revitalization, and evangelism. They do not have the capacity (knowledge, skills, experiences, gift-mix, passion, etc.) to lead their jurisdictions in these three critical areas in the twenty-first century.