By Robin G. Jordan
While the Anglican Church in North America has a Confessing
wing that stands in the tradition of historic Anglicanism, identifies itself as
Protestant, and subscribes to the Anglican formularies and the Biblical faith
and doctrine taught in them, its beliefs and conviction have no official
standing in the denomination. The ACNA is based upon a doctrinal foundation
that is different from the one that the Global Fellowship of Confessing
Anglicans recognizes as defining core Anglican identity. The ACNA’s fundamental
declarations equivocates in its acceptance of the authority of the Anglican
formularies and its catechism and proposed Prayer Book countenance teaching and
practices that conflict with the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the
principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Anglican formularies.
The ACNA’s Confessing wing is not to be confused with the
ACNA’s branch of GFCA. The latter is essentially a creature of the Anglican
Church in North America, created to give the appearance of solidarity with the
GFCA. It is closely aligned with the ACNA.
What is happening in the Anglican Church in North America is
a repetition of what happened in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA in
the nineteenth century and the Continuing Anglican Churches in twentieth century.
A church party that is very close to Roman Catholicism in its teaching and
practices has occupied the place of power, is entrenching its views, and is
excluding other groups that do not agree with its teaching and practices.
As the Church Society Council drew to the attention of the
GAFCON Primates in an open letter in
2009, “authentic, historic Anglicanism does not agree with Roman Catholicism on
fundamental truths and in particular on the nature of authority and the means
of salvation.” It is a grave mistake to claim that the Anglicans and Roman
Catholics share “the same commitment to the historic apostolic faith.”
The nineteenth century counterpart of this church party
drove the conservative Evangelicals out of the Episcopal Church; its twentieth
century counterpart squeezed the “Anglican Loyalists” out of the Continuing
Anglican Churches. This church party has shown a decided unwillingness to share
any supposed Anglican jurisdiction with any other group except on its terms.
Among the notable characteristics of this church party is
its vision of the Church. In the nineteenth century that vision was of the
Anglican Church once more within the orbit of the Roman Catholic Church—one
with the Roman Catholic Church in its teaching and practices, the orders of its
clergy enjoying the recognition of the Roman pontiff.
More recently its vision of the Church has shifted to reconstructing
the Anglican Church on the model of the supposedly undivided Church of the
early High Middles Ages before the East-West Schism in the eleventh century. Proponents
of this vision of the Church view this period of Church history as being a
golden age of Christianity.
In the nineteenth century its critics labeled it as
“Romanist” and “Ritualist” based on its strong leaning toward Roman Catholic
theology and Roman Catholic ceremonial and liturgical forms. When its members
were not trying to abolish the Thirty-Nine Articles as the Anglican Church’s
confession of faith, they were reinterpreting the Articles in a Rome-ward
direction.
Douglas Beth in his history of the Continuing Anglican
Movement refers to its twentieth century expression as “Catholic Revivalist.”
This term may be a more accurate description of this church party in the
twenty-first century.
While the origins of some elements of this group are
traceable to the nineteenth century Oxford Tractarian movement, the origin of
other elements in this group may be traced to the twentieth century convergence
movement. Since its beginning in the early 1970s the convergence movement has
moved increasingly in the direction of unreformed Catholicism of the Roman
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
In The Way, the Truth,
and the Life: Theological Resources for a Pilgrimage to a Global Anglican
Future, Catholic Revivalism is identified along with liberalism as a major
challenge to the authority of the Bible and the Anglican formularies in the
twenty-first century Anglican Church.
Whether this church party may be viewed as “Anglican” is
open to debate. Among the significant reforms of the English Reformation was to
subject all doctrine and traditions of the Church to the authority of the Holy
Scriptures. It is an Anglican distinctive. Catholic Revivalists, on the other
hand, give far greater weight to the doctrine and traditions of the Church than
they do to the Holy Scriptures, to the extent of interpreting the Scriptures to
conform to that doctrine and traditions. This is just one of a number of
fundamental differences between Catholic Revivalism and historic Anglicanism.
Forward in Faith North America which represents traditionalist Anglo-Catholics in the Catholic
Revivalist wing of the Anglican Church in North America adopted a new
Declaration of Common Faith and Purpose in 2013, in which it affirms
the doctrine of Transubstantiation — the true, real, and
substantial presence of Christ under the species of the bread and wine; the
teaching of the first seven Councils of the undivided Church; and seven (not
two) sacraments.
Former FIFNA President Bishop Keith Ackerman has called for
FIFNA to spearhead a “new Oxford Movement.” Bishop Ackerman is presently serving
as a consultant to the ACNA Prayer Book and Liturgy Task Force, which is
compiling the proposed ACNA Prayer Book.
FIFNA has gone on record as seeking to export its teaching
and practices to the Global South and to influence the direction of global
Anglicanism, as well as seeking to make the Anglican Church in North America
more “Catholic”.
Among the members of the FIFNA Council are ACNA Diocese of
Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker and REC Diocese of Mid-America Bishop Coadjutor Ray
Sutton. Bishop Sutton is also Dean of the Anglican Church in North America, in
which capacity he serves as deputy and representative of its Archbishop Foley Beach.
If the Catholic Revivalists in the Anglican Church in North
America displayed more tolerance toward the views of Anglicans who are faithful
to the Bible and loyal to the Anglican formularies and historic Anglicanism, I
would not be writing this article. Having occupied the place of power in the
ACNA, they show little inclination to make room in the denomination for the
Biblical and Reformation faith and doctrine of historic Anglicanism. They have
been busily entrenching their own unreformed teaching and practices to the
exclusion of all other theological traditions in the denomination, in
particular conservative evangelicalism, which more than any other such
tradition stands in continuity with the English Reformers.
The Anglican Church in North America has no “conscience
clause” in its constitution to protect from punitive action Confessing clergy
and congregations if they teach as did the English Reformers that the
episcopate is not essentially the existence of the Church or if they refuse to
conform to Catholic Revivalist teaching and practices mandated in the ACNA’s
formularies and to use ACNA’s catechism and proposed Prayer Book. The ACNA has
no provisions to protect from discrimination members of its Confessing wing
seeking ordination. It has no provisions guaranteeing the placing of Confessing
clergy in charge of Confessing congregations or the placing of such clergy and
congregations under the oversight of Confessing bishops.
These developments do not bode well for the Anglican Church
in North America, as well as for its Confessing wing. Whether or not Catholic
Revivalist are willing to acknowledge it, Catholic Revivalism’s particular
views of Scripture and the role of the Church in interpreting it helped to paved
the way for the ascendancy of liberalism in the Episcopal Church (USA). It
created a Biblical illiterate church membership who did not have the
discernment to recognize false teaching for what it is. Episcopalians’ lack of
familiarity with the Scriptures and the sound principles of Bible
interpretation made them easy prey for false teachers.
While a number of factors have contributed to the decline of
the Continuing Anglican Churches, the contribution of Catholic Revivalism to
their decline was far from inconsequential. It sapped these jurisdictions of
their evangelistic vitality. It produced inward-looking churches that were
disconnected from the communities in which they were located.
The sacerdotalism and sacramentalism that form an integral
part of Catholic Revivalism also imposed a limit upon denominational growth. A
chronic shortage of ordained clergy greatly restricted that growth.
In making the teaching and practices of their theological
tradition the only teaching and practices that enjoy official standing in the
Anglican Church in North America, the Catholic Revivalists have restricted the
flow of evangelicals and charismatics into the ACNA, reducing it to those who
are open to their views. This will impact the effectiveness of the denomination
in the areas of church planting and evangelism.
Catholic Revivalism in its teaching and practices proclaims
and propagates a different gospel from the New Testament gospel—what may be
described as a gospel of sacramental salvation. One of the main functions of
the Thirty-Nine Articles is to safeguard the truth of the gospel. In their
failure to uphold the Articles “as containing the true doctrine of the Church
agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today” (The
Jerusalem Declaration, paragraph 4), the Catholic Revivalist leaders of the
Anglican Church in North America have withdrawn this important safeguard.
While global Anglican leaders who are committed to Biblical
Anglicanism should be concerned about liberalism in the Episcopal Church (USA)
and the Anglican Church of Canada and its influence upon the global Anglican
community, they should also be concerned about Catholic Revivalism in the
Anglican Church in North America. North American Catholic Revivalists have
shown a similar willingness to export their views, even going about it in what
may be described as an underhanded manner.
As I have already noted, FIFNA has numbered among its goals the
exportation of its teaching and practices to the Global South and the
influencing of the direction of global Anglicanism. A North American Catholic Revivalist priest, a
frequent speaker at FIFNA events, was involved in the revision of the canons of
the Anglican Church of Rwanda with the result that the revised canons of that
province affirm the dogmas of the Council of Trent and the Roman Catholic
sacramental system. The same priest was involved in the drafting of the ACNA governing
documents
Former ACNA Archbishop Robert Duncan commended the ACNA catechism
to the global Anglican community. In its introduction its general editor J. I.
Packer claims that the doctrine contained in the ACNA catechism is acceptable
to all legitimate schools of Anglican
thought. A close scrutiny of the catechism shows that this claim has no basis.
In a number of key areas the catechism is decidedly Roman Catholic and even
Eastern Orthodoxy in its leanings.
While Catholic Revivalists may be creedal in their beliefs
and may maintain a traditional view of marriage and human sexuality, they have
their own agenda. They do not share the Global Fellowship of Confessing
Anglicans’ commitment to remain faithful to the standard expressed in the words
of Canon A5 of the Church of
England. They are not one with the GFCA in calling upon others in global
Anglican community to reaffirm and return to this standard. Indeed they are
working at cross-purposes to the GFCA. This is particularly evident in the
Anglican Church in North America.
They are not the allies in the struggle against liberalism
that members of the GFCA naively imagine them. They will cooperate with the
GFCA as long as it serves their own self-interest and keeps the GFCA from
taking a too closer look at what they themselves are doing in the ACNA and
elsewhere. If, however, one does closely scrutinize what they are doing, it is
clear that they are in a number of areas working against the GFCA and Biblical
Anglicanism in general.
4 comments:
Robin,
Over and over again you have been offered sources of information for where to find not only dormant and blossoming expressions historic, Protestant, Reformed Anglicanism within ACNA, but also official recognitions of it, so I assume that your refusal to investigate and report it is because you have an axe to grind. It's what happens when a journalist is accountable to nobody.
Hudson,
Do the beliefs and convictions of these "dormant and blossoming expressions" of "historic, Protestant, Reformed Anglicanism within ACNA" enjoy official standing in the ACNA's formularies--its fundamental declarations, its canons, its catechism, and its proposed Prayer Book? I have examined these official doctrinal statements at length and find no evidence of their recognition.
What sources of information have I been offered that shows otherwise and by whom? As I recall, you and I have had one or two conversations about the ACNA since you became a member of a congregation in that denomination.
I would suggest that you may be the one who is refusing to look at the evidence. The fundamental declarations sanction only the Anglo-Catholic/Roman Catholic view of the episcopate. They dilute the authority of the Anglican formularies.
Under the provisions of the existing ACNA canons authorization to use any other service book beside the proposed ACNA Prayer Book now in preparation ceases with the formal approval of the final text of that Prayer Book. To date every section of that Prayer Book (with perhaps the exception of its Daily Offices) that the College of Bishops has endorsed--its Ordinal, its Catechism, its forms of Holy Communion, its Order of Holy Baptism, its Order of Confirmation, and its Blessing of Holy Oils has countenanced unreformed Catholic teaching and practices, teaching and practices typically found in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The College of Bishops has a committee of its own that revises each section to its liking before it endorses that section. The College of Bishops is dominated by Catholic Revivalists.
Rather than attacking the messenger because he does not bring good news, you and other members of the ACNA who "are evangelical and low-church in tradition and committed to a Reformed and Calvinist theology" need to take steps to organize yourselves and to "defend and advance the Protestant and Reformed principles of the Anglican Church" within the ACNA. Otherwise you may find yourself once more looking for another church home.
Your putting of conditions upon where the good stuff in ACNA is to be found (namely in its denominational formularies) is irrational. I'm naturally inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt, but after your repeated refusals to consider and report evidence which is contrary to your preferred theme, and to declare the end of the battle while it is still being fought, I must consider the possibility that you are just grumpy.
Hudson,
How is drawing attention to teaching and practices sanctioned and even mandated in the ACNA's formularies irrational? They represent the official doctrine of the denomination whatever a particular local church and its pastor may believe. There is no escaping it. Under the provisions of the ACNA canons ACNA clergy are bound to conform to the denomination's official doctrine. Otherwise they may be denied permission to minister and have their license revoked.
By whom and on what occasions have I been presented with "evidence" that I have repeatedly refused to consider and report. I believe that the onus falls on you to produce the "evidence" to which you refer in order that it may be evaluated as to whether it supports the inferences that you desire to make from it. The onus also falls on you to produce documentation of who presented this "evidence" to me, when it was presented, and under what circumstances.
In the past five years the ACNA College of Bishops has made no movement in the direction of comprehending the beliefs of Anglicans who subscribe to the doctrine and principles embodied in the Anglican formularies and who identify with the Anglican Church's Reformation heritage. It has, however, moved consistently in the direction of making the denomination more unreformed Catholic in its teaching and practices.
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