By Robin G. Jordan
What is so difficult about networking and organizing for the
purpose of defending and advancing doctrine and principles in which one
believes? Across the planet Anglicans who are faithful to the Bible and the
Anglican formularies and committed to the spread of the gospel and the
fulfillment of the Great Commission are taking this step if they have not
already taken it.
Why are North American Anglicans who stand in the
Reformation heritage of the Anglican Church so reluctant to do the same thing?
Why do they resist the idea of uniting together in defense of their convictions
and for the advancement of their beliefs?
Catholic Revivalists have no such qualms. They recognize the
value of networking and organization.
To me it does not make sense. If you are really serious
about something, you do all that is within your power to further that about
which you are serious.
When a fire dies down and you want to make it blaze again,
you rake the hot coals together and add new fuel to the fire. You do not rake
the coals apart. If you do that, the fire will die altogether. It will go out
coal by coal.
Banking a fire so that it is easy to restart in the morning
also requires pushing the hot coals and still burning logs as close together as
you can.
If you want to keep a particular theological tradition
going, you need to network and organize. You also need to recruit new
adherents.
The last thing that you do is entrust the survival of that
tradition to a group that is opposed to its beliefs. This is common sense. Only a foolish farmer puts a fox in charge of
a chicken coop. A wise farmer knows that the fox’s predatory instincts will
prompt him to make a meal of all the chickens in the coop.
A group with particular doctrinal leanings does not go to
the trouble of ensuring that specific theological and dogmatic positions are
included in a denomination’s official doctrine on a whim or for no reason at
all. The inclusion of these positions in a denomination’s formularies is not a matter of little consequence. It cannot be dismissed lightly. The Catholic
Revivalist wing of the Anglican Church in North America is doing all that it
can to make sure that the theological tradition which it represents is the only
theological tradition that has a future in that denomination.
Catholic Revivalists occupy the place of power in the
denomination. They are determining not only what the denomination’s official
doctrine will be, but also what practices will be allowed, how the denomination
will be governed, how its top leaders will be chosen, and who they will be.
The formal adoption of the proposed ACNA Prayer Book now in
preparation may prove the tipping point for folks in the Anglican Church in
North America who stand in the Anglican Church’s Reformation heritage. Under
the provisions of the ACNA canons all service books presently in use in the
denomination will no longer be authorized. Only the proposed Prayer Book with
its unreformed Catholic teaching and practices will be authorized for use in
the ACNA. Clergy and congregations that use a different service book or a
locally-developed form of service will be violating the ACNA canons.
Clergy and congregations that stand in the Anglican Church’s
Reformation heritage will no longer be insulated from developments at the
provincial level in the ACNA. They will be faced with the painful reality that
Catholic Revivalists have gained the ascendancy in the ACNA as the liberals did
in the Episcopal Church (USA). They have allowed themselves to be marginalized.
By banding together clergy and congregations that stand in
the Anglican Church’s Reformation heritage can accomplish a range of purposes:
·
They can lobby for the reform of the ACNA’s form
of governance and its method of selecting bishops and the revision of its
catechism and its Prayer Book.
·
They can develop and publish alternative
liturgies to those of the ACNA Prayer Book—forms of service that are consistent
in their teaching and practices with the Bible and the Anglican formularies.
·
They can
develop and publish a catechism which is also consistent in its doctrine with
the Bible and the Anglican formularies.
·
They can develop and produce training modules
and other educational material for use in local churches to help congregations
become better acquainted with the Reformation heritage of the Anglican Church
and the Protestant, Reformed, and evangelical character of historic
Anglicanism.
·
They can establish a defense fund for clergy who
face disciplinary action for their refusal on grounds of conscience to use the ACNA
Prayer Book or teach the ACNA catechism.
·
They can
expose discriminatory practices affecting Reformation heritage Anglicans in the
Anglican Church in North America and to draw them to the attention of the
Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and the larger Anglican community.
·
They can keep before the eyes of the Global
Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans the fact that conformity to the official doctrine of
the ACNA requires significant deviation from the teaching of the Bible and the
principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Anglican formularies.
·
They can do this and much, much more.
Isn’t time that Reformation heritage Anglicans in the
Anglican Church in North America abandoned their indecision and took the
plunge?
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