Friday, November 26, 2010

Anglican Communion: Dissolved for lack of Strong Glue

Cranmer says some things about the Covenant and the future of the Communion very well:

'Perhaps the Covenant is un-Anglican, but the very fact that it is a development in the Church’s doctrine of ecclesiology actually renders it rather Anglican.


If we are to avoid the ‘piece-by-piece dissolution of the Communion’, do we not need a bit of glue?

It’s a certain fact we’re out of whitewash.

And what on earth could be wrong with a framework which demands consultation?

How can one resolve disagreements without dialogue?

The bizarre thing is that the Anglican Church actually practises what the Roman Catholic Church pretends to: subsidiarity; notwithstanding that the very concept is a Roman Catholic invention. It is to do with governance at the lowest level, and the Anglican Communion has historically been constructed on devolved localism. Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell [two Euro-sceptic politicians] would be proud.

But it hasn’t worked.'

Future historians will judge the Communion failed because a mistake was made about the glue required to hold us together. A common heritage of roots in the C of E is insufficient: the church is not an historical association, it is the body of Christ guided by the mind of Christ. Some kind of shared understanding of and shared commitment to common doctrine is the glue we need. It is insufficient response to this requirement to dismiss it for fear of some kind of 'unhealthy dogmatism' shaping Anglicanism. If we do not wish to dissolve we need doctrine (commensurate with our heritage in the ancient and reformed church, consistent with creeds and Scripture). If we take doctrine seriously we will commit to some form of discipline.

We are free to reject doctrine and discipline. But there will be a consequence. The Communion will dissolve.

14 comments:

Fr. Bryan Owen said...

If we do not wish to dissolve we need doctrine (commensurate with our heritage in the ancient and reformed church, consistent with creeds and Scripture). If we take doctrine seriously we will commit to some form of discipline.

Amen, Peter!

Father Ron Smith said...

Abnd that should be self-discipline and not that which might be imposed from outside - by the Global South conglomerate, for instance

Fr. Bryan Owen said...

The Episcopal Church disciplining itself for actions deemed objectionable by others in the Anglican Communion - now that is funny!

Kurt said...

You can always leave, if you don't like it, Bryan.

Kurt Hill
Brooklyn, NY

Fr. Bryan Owen said...

There you go asking me to leave again, Kurt! Whatever happened to hospitality and inclusiveness? :)

I love the Episcopal Church. It's true that the more radical elements on the Right and the Left drown the rest of us out and sometimes say and do crazy things. But I love this Church - its history, its Prayer Book, its creedal orthodoxy. So I guess folks will just have to put up with me! :)

Kurt said...

"But I love this Church - its history, its Prayer Book, its creedal orthodoxy. So I guess folks will just have to put up with me!" Bryan

I guess folks will. It's just that I'd like to see a little more of the love for TEC in some of your comments. You seem to be always so negative.

Kurt Hill
Brooklyn, NY

Anonymous said...

"It's just that I'd like to see a little more of the love for TEC in some of your comments. You seem to be always so negative."

Reminds me of the old saying: 'This animal is dangerous: when atacked it defends itself." There is no especial reason to love what Tec has become, compared to what it once was. It is an aging, inward looking shadow of itself, like an old increasingly angry dowager going her own way and casting out insubordinate underlings and children while she still controls the purse strings of the inheritance. Every statistical indicator - even when they have been heravily massaged - attendance, membership, baptisms, confirmations, even funerals! - is negative. Obesa cantavit.
Al M.

Kurt said...

Well, Al, the invitation to leave TEC is always open to you, too.

Kurt Hill
Brooklyn

Anonymous said...

I would have to join first, Kurt, and I have no wish to imperil my soul or my bank balance (in that order). My concern is for the faithful Christians still within Tec who have not changed their beliefs but have been marginalized or even dispossessed (through the device of the Denis canon and endless 815 litigation) of the properties they paid for and maintained. But in the end property hardly compares with spiritual faithfulness (something that Schori doesn't believe in). Hundreds of thousands have voted with their feet. Luther said it all in 'Ein' feste Burg' about the politico-ecclesiastical juggernauts of his time:
'But though they take our life, goods, honor, children, wife ...'
Al M.

Kurt said...

I guess then, Al, that you’re one of those con evos that is simply obsessed by what other people do, yes?

Kurt Hill
Preparing to light the Second Advent Candle
In bustling Brooklyn, NY

Anonymous said...

You're right, Kurt. I lie awake at night worrying about all the wrong things you old punk rockers are getting up to.
& when I say 'old' - for heaven's sake, it's still only Thursday - how long do you need to prepare to light a candle for Sunday? C-mon, get bustlin'!

Actually, I find moral censure and judgmentalism know no ideological boundaries, it's just that different people zero in on different "sins" (in their eyes, anyway). Secular leftists are among the preachiest, most judgmental and censorious people I know - and the least cognizant about their own failings. The Delphic Oracle's admonitions have never reached them: 'gnothi seauton' and 'meden agan'. Among the secular left, for example, any consensual sexual behavior, abortion, and excess use of alcohol or drugs can't count as 'sins', and the religious counterpart of the secular (being universalist) has to go along with this social materialism. Is it any wonder that Tec leadership is so passionately in favor of abortion? Has that never crossed your mind?

Al M.

Kurt said...

“You're right, Kurt. I lie awake at night worrying about all the wrong things you old punk rockers are getting up to.”—Al

I thought so. (I’m not a punk rocker; I just know quite a number of young people who are).

Kurt Hill
Brooklyn, NY

Anonymous said...

Thanks for engaging so deeply with my point about judgmental, moralizing secularists and Tec's passionate support of abortion.

Al M.

Kurt said...

You're welcome.

Kurt Hill
Brooklyn, NY