Ecclesial Chaos
As has been reported throughout the Anglican blogosphere, several parishes have bolted ECUSA in the past month or so, including parishes in Oklahoma and Kentucky. Some are going AMiA and others affiliating with dioceses in Uganda. Others have come under the authority of the Bishop of Bolivia.
As one who might be thought of as sympathetic to their concerns, let me register my hesitation and even alarm. It would seem that we are unleashing a form of ecclesial chaos that shall not be easily remedied when (and if) the dust settles in the current unpleasantness in our communion.
Besides being ecclesiologically incoherent from an Anglican perspective, it would seem that it is a sin against the virtues of prudence and forbearance. As a friend pointed out to me, what is to prevent this fracturing and jurisdictional boundary crossing from becoming the normative means of dealing with intra-communion conflicts? And if so, have we not given up any claim on the title “catholic”?
Of course, that last question reflects Rome’s and Orthodoxy’s critique all along. The inner sectarian logic of Anglicanism is merely expressing itself. In the end, if this is the path that we choose to tread, Anglicanism will refer to a variety of dressed up protestantisms affirming the historical episcopate for no apparent reason.
As one who might be thought of as sympathetic to their concerns, let me register my hesitation and even alarm. It would seem that we are unleashing a form of ecclesial chaos that shall not be easily remedied when (and if) the dust settles in the current unpleasantness in our communion.
Besides being ecclesiologically incoherent from an Anglican perspective, it would seem that it is a sin against the virtues of prudence and forbearance. As a friend pointed out to me, what is to prevent this fracturing and jurisdictional boundary crossing from becoming the normative means of dealing with intra-communion conflicts? And if so, have we not given up any claim on the title “catholic”?
Of course, that last question reflects Rome’s and Orthodoxy’s critique all along. The inner sectarian logic of Anglicanism is merely expressing itself. In the end, if this is the path that we choose to tread, Anglicanism will refer to a variety of dressed up protestantisms affirming the historical episcopate for no apparent reason.
posted by peregrinator at 12:34 PM
1 Comments:
Your concerns are, I believe, well-founded, and have been illustrated in the history of ECUSA in the past 30 years, ie., separation over the revision of the Book of Common Prayer, the ordination of women, etc. The separation has been made, in each case, in regard to matters of weighty concern--that is, as viewed from the perspective of those separating.
However, the end result, an increasing fragmentation of Anglicanism, has become analogous to, and indeed, part and parcel of, the typical Protestant history of division--what one writer has referred to as "the heritage of separation."
If, indeed, an aspect of the "visible" catholicity of the Church is found in the episcopacy, then the resulting situation is no different than each Protestant sect proclaiming itself as having the truth, as a validation of its separatism. Episcopacy is thereby drained of true function and meaning.
Keep up the good work. Your insights and ruminations are valuable to others on the same path.
A fellow traveller
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