(Christian Today) - The Church of England’s General Synod has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion recognising the desire of the orthodox American Church in North America to remain within the Anglican Communion.
The Church’s governing body passed the amended motion today after an impassioned debate lasting nearly three hours.
The motion affirmed the desire of Synod to “recognise and affirm the desire of those who have formed the Anglican Church in North America to remain within the Anglican family” and recognises “the distress caused by recent divisions within the Anglican churches of the United States of America and Canada”.
It calls for further exploration of the issues and invites the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to report back to Synod in 2011.
The passing of the motion will be seen as a clear signal of support for ACNA and its leader Archbishop Bob Duncan, who broke away from the liberal TEC last summer as a result of serious disagreements on homosexuality, scriptural authority and the uniqueness of Christ. Also know as being Christian.
Simon Butler of the Diocese of Southwark failed in his attempt to have the debate shelved until a later date. He caused some agitation among Synod members when he suggested they risked breaking the ninth commandment – “You shall not bear false witness” – by going ahead with the debate.
The original motion, put forward by Lorna Ashworth, had asked Synod to express the desire to “be in communion” with ACNA, but was deemed by some Synod members to be too strong.
The Bishop of Bristol, the Rt Rev Mike Hill, said it would “commit the Church of England to too much too soon”.
He said: “It is obviously clear that there has been much anger and bitterness in the schism within TEC. Facts and more significantly the interpretation of those facts have been hard to ascertain. This should invite caution from us over formally taking sides however much our sympathies may be with one side or the other.”
Although he supported recognising ACNA as Anglican, he questioned whether Synod could commit itself to expressing a desire to be in communion “when we have little idea that it will settle down as something that is recognisably a church in the Anglican tradition rather than simply a loose coalition of autonomous bodies”.
The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Michael Scott-Joynt, said he did not think recognising ACNA was “meddling in the TEC or hostile to it”, nor an attack on traditionalists who had chosen to remain within TEC.
Mrs Ashworth said there was “no hidden agenda” behind her motion and that it was not about sexuality or “separating from TEC (The Episcopal Church in the US) or ACOC”. She insisted she was not asking for the start of formal proceedings to enter into institutional communion with ACNA, but rather asking Synod to affirm ACNA as Anglican.
She said: “Why wouldn’t we take this opportunity to stand by and affirm our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are seeking to practise, faithfully, historical, biblical Anglicanism as has been practised for hundreds of years, who have not diverted from the doctrines, decrees and formularies of the worldwide Anglican Communion?”
She voted in favour of the amended motion, as did the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Anglican Communion votes on ACNA
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The ACNA should not get overly exited. The vote was only a recognition of the 'DESIRE' for the ACNA to remain a part of the Anglican Communion, not that they are accepted as such.
ReplyDeleteI fail to understand the ACNA's reasoning in this. If they are recognized as the only Anglican representative of the church in the U.S. and Canada only if TEC and ACC withdrawn or are excluded, it still does not mean all is well
with the Anglican world! After Archbishop Rowan Wormtongue retires the new more liberal ABC will finish what has already begun and the 'conservatives' will be shoved out and TEC will be the darling of what's left of the AC.
This is dread man, truly dread.
Thank you for having posted what I consider a fair summary and appraisal by 'Christianity Today' of a recent Church of England vote during annual Synod meetings to recognize the Anglican Church of North America [ACNA] as expressing desire for eventual institutional membership in the Worldwide Anglican Community.
ReplyDeleteWhat the article does not say must be learned elsewhere, and my goal is to provide cogent information to fill in the gaps to the best of my ability. ACNA's desire for membership is not only a request for recognition as "Anglican" by the "mother Church" of the Communion [this is, in effect, where they stand after the C. of E. Synod vote], but also to be a member of the Communion on a par with any other member Churches such as The Episcopal Church USA, from which ACNA has severed administrative and and many fiduciary connections to pursue its own autonomy.
However, all fiduciary connections may not be severed for a decade or more to come. ACNA diocesan bishops, such as Bishop Jack Iker of Ft. Worth, Texas, have lengthy civil litigation cases pending to review evidence for their claim that "former" Episcopal Church property is now ACNA property.
At the outset, I want to raise a rhetorical question. What would an Orthodox diocesan bishop do with parish property if the majority of a parish's members and their resident priest were to demand episcopal oversight from a locum tenens hierarch? In effect, ACNA has done just that.
May I clarify a few points, in order to emphasize Anglican ecclesiology, which do not appear in bold type in a color other than black?
First, Anglicans practice varying check-and-balance procedures when meeting in Synod or Convention. These operating procedures resemble a representative democracy by distributing authority among lay and ordained members of the Churches. Even discipline of clergy members requires at least a watered-down version of what occurs in full Convention or Synodal meetings. Bishops cannot exercise or claim rights to secret closed-door meetings where strict and limited attendance is enforced and sweeping decisions are made, from which no transcriptions of discussions are disseminated, and opportunity for redress by anyone opposed to Synodal decisions is absent.
Second, bishops among Anglicans do not serve for life. They retire, often, around the age of 65 to 70 and move out of the diocese in which they formerly served. Many remain active in service to the Church long after retirement from stipendiary duties, but they exercise waning influence before they drift out of sight. The Church of England, which is unique among all member Churches of the Communion, provides a parliamentary role through peerage in the House of Lords for some bishops, which is a post that provides bishops a voice in public and religious affairs years after they retire.
The Church of England Synod, which met earlier this month, welcomed the desire of ACNA to remain within the worldwide Anglican Communion, for which the Archbishop of Canterbury serves as titular presiding bishop.
ReplyDeleteThe ACNA formed over a course of several decades, during which contrary views had been debated at various theological colloquia, printed materials were in wide distribution, and open debates appeared in countless open debates at multiple General Conventions of The Episcopal Church USA.
Even though ACNA parishes have broken administrative ties with the Episcopal Church, I believe that ACNA members may still receive all sacraments of The Episcopal Church and vice versa. This concept requires more attention from Orthodox Christians, because its ecclesiology is completely foreign to our tradition.
There are seven statements that form the "Theological Statement" of the ACNA.
These statements may be viewed at the following URL: http://anglicanchurch.net/?/main/page/about#theo-stmt