A Plea to Confessing Anglicans

By Robin G. Jordan

Anglicans who are faithful to the Bible and the Anglican formularies and committed to the Biblical and Reformation faith of the Anglican Church have a hard row to hoe if their church is a participating church in the Anglican Church in North America. They are not only faced with increasingly secular population in North America but also a denomination unsympathetic to their faith and GAFCON leaders oblivious to their plight.

For those unfamiliar with the phrase "hard row to hoe," it dates from the 1800s and perhaps even earlier and refers to the practice of hoeing cotton fields to eliminate the weeds growing in the rows of cotton. At one time cotton was the main crop grown in the southern United States. Hoeing the weeds was backbreaking labor, originally done by slaves and indentured servants and later by sharecroppers. Those who hoed the cotton fields worked from daybreak to nightfall. Some rows were longer than others. Some rows had more weeds than others

Like those who labored in the cotton fields, these Anglicans cannot expect to see any lasting results from their efforts. They may reach and engage the unchurched in their community, enfold them into a new church, and disciple them, only to have a new pastor who does not share their faith come along and undo their work.

The Anglican Church in North America has no mechanisms to ensure that Biblically faithful, genuinely Anglican, gospel-sharing congregations always have Biblically faithful, genuinely Anglican, gospel-sharing clergy. The ACNA does not even extend official standing to their faith. The official faith of the ACNA is a form of unreformed Catholicism, close to Roman Catholicism in its teaching and practices.

Those leaders who are imposing this particular ideology on the ACNA are making increasingly difficult for these Anglicans to practice their faith. The same leaders give every indication of being only too glad to see them leave. Their departure would eliminate an obstacle to these leaders’ vision for the denomination.

The same leaders would also be able to exploit their departure, claiming that they themselves and their particular ideology represent genuine Anglicanism, not the Biblical and Reformation faith of those who left.

The longer Biblically faithful, genuinely Anglican, gospel-sharing Christians are exposed to this particular ideology, the greater the likelihood they will compromise their own beliefs. Those leaders who are imposing this particular ideology on the ACNA are fine with that too. Indeed it appears to be a part of their strategy.

This is the predicament that such Christians face in the Anglican Church in North America. They need the prayers of like-minded Anglicans outside of North America. They also need their support and help. They should not be left to twist in the wind.