By Robin G. Jordan
Clergy and congregations in the Anglican Church in North America faithful to the Bible and the Anglican formularies and standing in the Reformation heritage of the Anglican Church have reached a critical juncture. The decisions that they make over the coming months will impact the cause of the gospel in North America as well as determine their own future and the future of biblical Anglicanism in North America.
What the Anglican Church in North America’s College of Bishops is seeking to pass off as “Anglicanism” is in reality a form of unreformed Catholicism, which conflicts with the Protestant Reformed faith of authentic historic Anglicanism. This form of unreformed Catholicism has its origins in the nineteenth century Catholic Revival and the Anglo-Catholic movement and has received fresh impetus from the twentieth century Catholic Resurgence and the Convergence movement. It is antithetical to the Biblical and Reformation theology of classical Anglicanism.
What the Anglican Church in North America’s College of Bishops is seeking to pass off as “Anglicanism” is in reality a form of unreformed Catholicism, which conflicts with the Protestant Reformed faith of authentic historic Anglicanism. This form of unreformed Catholicism has its origins in the nineteenth century Catholic Revival and the Anglo-Catholic movement and has received fresh impetus from the twentieth century Catholic Resurgence and the Convergence movement. It is antithetical to the Biblical and Reformation theology of classical Anglicanism.
What is involved are not secondary matters—matters of
indifference over which Anglicans may agree to disagree—but the gospel itself. The College of Bishops in the teaching and
practices that it has mandated or sanctioned to date is imposing upon the
Anglican Church in North America a sacramental system at the heart of which is a different gospel from the New
Testament gospel. It is a sacramental system that the Anglican Reformers
rejected on firm Scriptural grounds in the sixteenth century.
This sacramental system and the false gospel associated with
it are inseparable. One comes with the other. There is no way around it. While
the leaders of the Anglican Church in North America may subscribe to the
creeds, they have in the most critical area of all embraced false teaching and
are propagating such teaching.
Their acceptance of the creeds does not mitigate their
propagation of a false gospel. It is not something that can be excused or
overlooked. It is a very serious matter.
How can the Anglican Church in North America be hailed as a
Biblically faithful orthodox Anglican alternative to the Anglican Church in Canada
and the Episcopal Church in the United States when in fact it is not?
Doctrinally and liturgically it does not make the grade. Until it does, it
should not be recognized even as an Anglican province in formation, much less that
its leaders should be given a seat in Anglican councils.
If we are honest with ourselves, North America right now has
no jurisdiction that is Biblically faithful, theologically orthodox, fully
Anglican, and mission-oriented. There are clergy and congregations that, if
they were brought together into a single organization, would meet these requirements.
The challenge is bringing them together into such an organization.
As long as they are comfortable in their present situation,
experiencing no difficulty or uncertainty, they have little motivation to form
a new jurisdiction or any other kind of ecclesial organization.
I suspect that what they are presently experiencing is the
lull before the storm. Right now they have breathing space.
They are inclined to think the way that things are now will
be the way things will always be. They have not given a lot of thought to the
ramifications of final authorization of the Anglican Church in North America’s
proposed Prayer Book and how it will impact the jurisdiction, their diocese or
network, and themselves.
Being comfortable in one’s present situation also tends to
encourage complacency and a false sense of security. When harmful changes are
introduced at a slow enough pace so as not to disturb the equilibrium of a local
church, it is more likely to come to terms with these changes than it is to resist
them.
These dynamics make this stage in the life of the Anglican
Church in North America and the local churches in that jurisdiction a
particular dangerous one. I believe that it is a serious mistake to
underestimate the harmful effects of present developments in the ACNA upon the
jurisdiction and the local church. It is not a time to let down one’s guard.
What makes this stage even more dangerous is the tendency to
dismiss as alarmists those who draw attention to the implications of what is
happening and to listen to those who down play its seriousness. This proclivity
is essentially a defense against the anxiety and discomfort that such warnings
may cause.
The final authorization of the proposed Prayer Book will be
the game changer. The breathing space will disappear. Clergy and congregations
will no longer be able to enjoy the doctrinal and liturgical latitude that
enjoyed before its adoption. The canons require conformity to its doctrine,
which includes the doctrine of the jurisdiction’s catechism. The canons do not
provide any wiggle room.
I do not recommend that clergy and congregations in the
Anglican Church in North America who are faithful to the Bible and the Anglican
formularies and stand in the Anglican Church's Reformation heritage wait until they reach such a tipping point to organize. The advantages
of organizing far outweigh the disadvantages. Banding together with other
Anglicans with whom they share a doctrinal and liturgical affinity will
transform this wing of the Anglican Church in North America. It will open their
eyes to the possibilities for the future of authentic historic Anglicanism in
North America.
The Catholic Revivalist wing of the Anglican Church in North
America, I anticipate, will seek to discourage the organization of the
jurisdiction’s Confessing Anglican wing. While it is leaderless and
disorganized, it represents no threat to the Catholic Revivalist hegemony in
the jurisdiction. The Catholic Revivalist wing has to date shown no inclination
to make a bona fide effort to
accommodate or comprehend genuine Anglican thought and practice in the
jurisdiction. This is clearly evident from the jurisdiction’s governing
documents, its ordinal, its catechism, and its proposed rites and services.
The Anglican Church in North America’s Catholic Revivalist
wing cannot be expected to welcome the emergence of a major nexus of biblical
Anglicanism in the jurisdiction. It is
willing to tolerate the presence of confessional Anglicanism in the
jurisdiction as long as its influence is weak and its adherents are dispersed
throughout the several dioceses of the jurisdiction. At this stage the activists in Catholic Revivalist
wing are content to create an environment in which biblical Anglicanism and its
adherents will have little likelihood of flourishing, anticipating the eventual
disappearance of confessional Anglicanism and its adherents from the
jurisdiction. The unreformed Catholic teaching and practices mandated or
sanctioned in the jurisdiction’s Ordinal, Catechism, and proposed Prayer Book
are not accidental.
Biblically faithful, orthodox Anglicans cannot hope to
survive, much less flourish in their present disorganized state. While they are
likely to face opposition to their organizing, banding together is not just
essential to their survival and the survival of confessional Anglicanism but most importantly it is necessary to safeguard
the truth of the gospel.
No comments:
Post a Comment