GENEralities

Just this: Why I return with hope from the Church of England General Synod.

Thank you, VirtueOnline.

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If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the text of the resolution:

That this Synod, aware of the distress caused by recent divisions within the Anglican churches of the United States of America and Canada

a) recognise and affirm the desire of those who have formed the Anglican Church in North America to remain within the Anglican family

b) acknowledge that this aspiration, in respect both of relations with the Church of England and membership of the Anglican Communion, raises issues which the relevant authorities of each need to explore further; and

c) invite the Archbishops to report further to the Synod in 2011

Votes for 309, against 69, abstentions 17

Motions to pass to next business and to adjourn the debate were lost.

Notice that Canada is included. There’s a ton of comment all over the blogosphere, but I like David Virtue’s take:

First of all, the resolution said orthodox Episcopalians are indeed being persecuted by revisionists; however much TEC leaders whine that the brokenness is caused by those leaving, the resolution says otherwise.

Secondly, the resolution said that these faithful orthodox Anglicans want to remain in the Anglican family and not become outsiders. In fact, it did more than that. It was a wedge that will, in time, lead to a full chair at the Anglican Communion table.

…the rest of David’s piece here.

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My Sabbath is on a Wednesday this week. Some interesting bits from my blog reading this morning:

More Anglican good news

…this time from The Rev’d Dr. John W. Yates II who lists the good things about Anglicanism. At its best, Anglicanism:

1. is Biblical
2. is Sacramental
3. is Evangelical
4. is Liturgical
5. is Worldwide
6. is Charismatic
7. is about Accountability (we have bishops)
8. is Musical
9. Engages society and the world us
10. is Prayerful
11. is a Community of Grace
12. loves Children
13. loves Beauty

All here (H/T VirtueOnline).

What Marriage and Leadership Have in Common

In our Sabbath devotional this morning, Jude and I read this:

Contrary to hundreds of Hollywood romance movies, marriage is not primarily designed to make us happy. God is not primarily interested in our happiness, but in something deeper and more lasting: our holiness. Or we might say that God is so interested in our long-term happiness — our eternal joy, which only holiness leads to — that he reserves the right to sacrifice our short-term happiness to ensure we receive it.

Ditto for leadership. Kevin Miller, here.

The Anglican Covenant

The excellent ANGLICAN DOWN UNDER has a good point about the living with an Anglican Covenant and whether or not it can work:

Is homosexual practice compatible with Scripture? Some say No, some say Yes. But together we have not yet agreed to one of two things which would accord with a common approach to truth: either that it does not matter if an open contradiction on this matter is a feature of Anglican life, or that it matters that there is an open contradiction but nevertheless we can live with the contradiction.

That’s the question. Wise Kiwi. All DOWN UNDER here.

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A few days ago Archbishop Mouneer Anis, Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East, resigned from the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Anis is a wise and faithful leader in the Anglican Communion. There are many quotes from his letter of resignation throughout the blogosphere, but I’ve not found anyone who quoted this bit; the conclusion of his letter of resignation:

O, yes!

His whole letter, which is worth the read, is here.

Don’t you love the way, whenever Anglicans make a solemn declaration of something, they number all the paragraphs? So decently and in order. 

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A good discussion and summary with links over at the excellent and thoughtful Anglican Down Under here.

The thing that lit up for me in it all was this from the “Covenant Working Party Commentary on Revisions to Section 4:”

If, however, the canons and constitutions of a Province permit, there is no reason why a diocesan synod should not commit itself to the covenant, thus strengthening its commitment to the interdependent life of the Communion.”

Let’s get at it!

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the Anglican Communion is largely symbolic and has resisted all attempts to turn it into something practical. (Gavin White, How the Church Got That Way)

Ah! So that’s why.

On a page from The Anglican Digest of Easter 1992 I found tucked in one of my books I haven’t looked in for a while.

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In “Cause for Sadness and Celebration” for The Washington Post, Lord Carey, erstwhile and most recent Archbishop of Canterbury, gives his take on Pope Benedict’s offer of a Roman Catholic ‘Apostolic Constitution’ for “Anglicans wishing to flee their own troubled shores.”

I enjoy the way Lord Carey thinks and expresses himself. This on why we have this complicated Anglican predicament:

Historically, we have been a Church formed and shaped from a ‘troika’ of three traditions – evangelical, high church and liberal. Many evangelicals are now hiving off to the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and refusing to have anything to do with the rest of the church. If Anglo-Catholics are wooed by Rome we could see the Church of England becoming a mainly liberal church, espousing little more than tolerance and liberality in all things; a kind of green party at prayer. Yes, the troika we have inherited has been, at times, a wild group of horses but, for myself, I would rather have that, than what we are likely to have if distinctive groups go their separate ways.

We do indeed live in uncertain times but I remain quite convinced that Anglicanism stands for something that is not quite caught by other traditions and, with respect, not even by Rome. That is to say, Catholic and Reformed. This has sometimes been put in the Latin tag: ‘Ecclesia reformata et semper reformanda’ (the Church reformed and constantly in need of reform). In faithful continuity to the past and yet open to all that God wishes to reveal to us through the fundamental sources of our faith, namely, the scriptures.

Our mess is a fine one, indeed.

All here.

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Anglican Down Under quoting The Ugly Vicar quoting Bishop Stephen Neill in a post on being Christian, Anglican and Evangelical; in that order:

Show us anything clearly set forth in Holy Scripture that we do not teach and we will teach it. Show us anything in our teaching or practice is clearly contrary to Holy Scripture, and we will abandon it. (Anglicanism, Pelican Books, 1965, p 417)

Good stuff. All here and here.

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The Ottawa Citizen’s David Warren has weighed in on all the commentary and opinion arising out of the Roman Catholic invitation to traditional Anglicans. He makes a point which I have not yet seen in all the debate—the possible benefits for the Catholics:

the reception of these traditional Anglicans will create very exciting possibilities for all English-speaking Catholics on the “liturgical” front: for the traditional Anglicans retain, in intensely beautiful English, a liturgy that is actually more “catholic” in spirit and form than the rather crass and now dated “contemporary translations” Rome mistakenly approved at the end of the 1960s, in the depths of the post-Vatican II meltdown. Those old Anglicans can help us recover our own more reverent liturgical traditions.

…one answer, and a good one, to the question: Can anything good come out of Anglicanism?

I’m happy to say we get to enjoy that intensely beautiful, ‘catholic’ liturgy every Sunday morning at 830.

All here.

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Best Title

The Papal Bull in the Anglican China Shop. Here. H/T VirtueOnline.

Best Summary

Q&A: what happens to the Catholic Church and Church of England after Rome decision?…from The Times, here.

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