Anglican Mainstream

From AAC

By the Grace of God and due to the faith and commitment of my parents, I was raised in a Christian home. My father was on a spiritual journey that led us through a variety of Episcopal Churches in the metro Washington, DC area from the late 1940s through the early 1960s,  beginning with the Church of the Epiphany downtown, which was moderately liberal and broad-church, to the Ascension and St. Agnes, an Anglo-Catholic parish. As a family, we worshiped in Episcopal Churches for 9 months each year, and in the summertime, the family sans dad would worship on the West Coast in a Mennonite Church. I was catechized and confirmed at Ascension and St. Agnes, but then some years later moved to a liturgically middle of the road Episcopal congregation in Kensington, Maryland. Acting on a call to the priesthood, I wound up at Virginia Theological Seminary.

My ministry has moved back and forth between these two worlds of Anglo-Catholicism and the evangelical low church, appreciating the strengths of each, and aware of the shortcomings of each. My own father, near the end of his life, decided to continue his journey and joined the Church of Rome.  It is out of this context that I receive and evaluate the offer from Pope Benedict that in many ways is kind and sensitive, yet in some important areas can pose a problem for a goodly number of Anglicans. I believe the offer to be an important outreach to Anglicans, and a genuine response to Anglicans pounding on the Vatican's door for well over a decade, yet I believe that the number of Anglicans worldwide who accept this option may not be large. I see two main reasons for this, although I guarantee that several writers will contact me with additional reasons I didn't mention, and others will fault me for not being appreciative enough, though appreciative I am.

The first reason is organizational: despite the recent claims of top Episcopal Church USA (TEC) leaders, the real organization base for the Episcopal Church is the parish or local congregation. It is here that people gather to pray and worship each week. They are taught by sermon and in classes, and experience the sacraments of the church distributed or applied as appropriate. They experience nurture and fellowship, and when they do ministry it is in the congregation, extending outward into their nearby communities. The organizational flow is, theory aside, from the congregation up to the diocese, where the bishop sits, in a sense as an icon of the family gathered. The bishop helps give the parish a sense of longer historical continuity, global relationship, and acts as a defender of the orthodoxy of the faith (the latter is at least true in theory in TEC). The flow of affinity and connectedness continues on to the national church, where the same is true, but on a larger scale. The Church of Rome is quite the opposite, despite terminology. The flow of power is from the top down, and if not solely from the Pope, then from the Vatican leaders and the Pope together. While this provides for a more coherent plan in most cases, people used to a more democratic and egalitarian existence in a local church would soon notice the difference, and it's possible that they might like it.

A few years ago during the time that the Roman Catholic Church was deep in its difficulties with clerical abusiveness, and TEC was rejoicing in the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson as a gay bishop, a family member left the Episcopal Church to join the Roman Catholic Church. I commented that TEC might be having some sexuality problems, but the Roman Catholics weren't exactly dodging the problems either, and the response stopped me in my tracks. He said that the Roman Church had an intact theology, but with flawed application, while the (then) Episcopal Church had a flawed theology, with flawed application. That left my mouth open but words failed to proceed. Many are looking for a church that at least seems to have it together a little better than Anglicans often do, and a trade-off of democratic participation for some greater coherency and cohesion may seem appealing.

Organization and polity aside, there are some issues from the Reformation that still are very much in play within Anglicanism, and affect how many Anglicans will or will not be attracted to the invitation. Did Jesus Christ die on the cross once, only once, and for all time, creating an inexhaustible supply of grace and merit for all sinners who turn to him? Or is there a re-sacrifice of Christ on the altar, and is the newly created supply of grace and merit assignable to someone who may have made a financial gift to the church? These are issues coming forward from the Reformation, and for many these issues are not satisfactorily reconciled. Is there a Purgatory or not, and if there is, do those who are "saved" have to stop off for a while to be purged, or can one go straight to Heaven? I've heard these issues raised again in discussions about the Vatican's offer. Then there are the issues of transubstantiation of the Communion elements – or is it a memorial meal, or is there, as most Anglicans will acknowledge, a real presence of Christ in the bread and wine, however God does it?

Papal infallibility, the declaration of the nullity of all Anglican Holy Orders, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the bodily Assumption of Mary, and some others are additional issues in play. Of all of these latter ones, the one of most concern to me is the Immaculate Conception of Mary, because that would have Mary being sinless at birth, and thus the only regular mortal born without a need for a savior, and contravening Scripture that says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." As for her bodily assumption to heaven, well, Jesus was taken up and so were Enoch and Elijah. Although I don't put any person on an equal level with Jesus, if the Lord wanted to have Mary spared death and taken up alive as were Enoch and Elijah, I suppose it could have happened.

Now that the text of the Apostolic Constitution is out and the small print about Personal Ordinariates is being studied, I think that many will rejoice that the offer was made, some will take the offer, but many of us will continue to try and perfect this difficult and trying Church called the Anglican Communion. Another analyst, Scott P. Richert, covers some good points about the Roman Catholic Anglican venture, and although he doesn't answer questions on the theology at stake, he has more detail on the actual operation and what would be offered. Be sure to read his article.

Blessings and peace in Christ Jesus,

The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council

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