To be an Anglican, even at the best of times, can be confusing. True, many denominations offer a varied experience of doctrine, practice, and order based on where one finds themselves on any particular morning. A Lutheran relation, for instance, notes the amount of homework and research needed before they attend a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod congregation while on vacation, as not doing so might land one away from Paul Gerhardt hymns and liturgical fidelity and into a world of Steven Furtick-besotted worship teams and pastors desperate to hide the last vestiges of the Augsburg Confession, hoping they can pass for non-denominational in polite society. (It turns out there are some theological disasters that cannot be pinned on the Germans, after all).
So it is with Anglicans, who have generally been even more broad in their acceptance of various customs and ceremonies in worship, to say nothing of doctrine. However, the level of unfaithfulness and departure from the Scriptures became too much for several groups of Anglicans in the mid-1970s, who split from the Episcopal Church over doctrinal laxity, especially as it pertained to the ordination of women.1
These breakaways were to form a more or less united body for what might be called “Continuing” Anglicanism; however, due to what survivors of that time will tell you were some serious ecclesiastic egos and bishops guarding one another across the diagonals, multiple Continuing bodies formed. All of them were small; some were more “Anglo-Catholic” or “High Church” in nature, while some were more “Evangelical” or “Low Church”. In recent years, however, there have been positive movements, with many of the Continuing Anglican bodies coming together in what is called “G-3”, with the hopes of additional subsequent union therein. These churches do not comprise a large body, but there are dedicated brethren seeking to glorify God in these places.
However, especially in the South, there are other breakaways and castoffs that are not always easily charted. Within driving distance of my town, there are multiple single-church bishoprics, usually headed by a bishop who was the product of three schisms within an already miniscule church province, or, especially in certain charismatic circles, men who found their bishoprics in claimed direct messages from God, or, in some cases, what may only be presumed to be a strident predilection for funny hats and the opportunity to synergistically hock Herbalife knock-offs as a side gig, as any other justification is found wholly lacking.
There was a time, not so very long ago, when it appeared as if our nearby Continuing parish was readying to close; due a number of issues which both decorum and brevity disallow listing here, we were down to perhaps 3-4 attendees a week. This put us in the position of yet again looking for an Anglican parish to call home. The aforementioned micro-provinces have been their own adventure, and are probably best left for a future discussion. As such, among those that might be in the general orthodox stream of things, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is the largest going concern in my area. So, there I was, a Continuing Anglican, preparing to continue elsewhere.
Now, the blessed news is, the parish rallied. We had a vicar leave, a new vicar come in, and if we aren’t exactly the megachurch down the road, a couple dozen faithful souls, with some visitors, is an encouraging sign. There is a pulse. We are, as it were, newly committed to the Highways and Hedges. At the time, however, it looked as if it would perhaps be the ACNA for us.
There were and are, admittedly, some issues up front. The diocese in this area allows for women’s ordination (which I do not hold to; neither do several of the parishes I have visited). There is also a particular charismatic stream found among southeastern U.S. Anglican churches; some of this is not of generally palatable type, but rather the regrettable, latter-day type that is nothing so much more than a recycled Montanism. This has been rare in my travels, but nonetheless extant.
It was the English preacher Charles Spurgeon (a Baptist) who said of a perfect church “if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it.” I tried keep this in mind, as I bring my own baggage with me. It’s fair to say that the ACNA and I both have our issues to work out.
At the same time, there are many in the ACNA that are seeking doctrinal faithfulness. These churches, meeting in Kigali not too long ago, have stated they cannot in good conscience freely be in communion with the rampant unfaithfulness allowed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, especially as it pertains to human sexuality. To that end, they are seeking to evangelization, repentance, commitment to biblical fidelity, and “resetting” the Anglican Communion. There’s a lot more to be done and written; some internal issues to be reckoned with, and an awful lot of housecleaning to be done (the image of the Church Militant usually doesn’t include the imagery of mops and buckets, but it should).
It’s a turbulent Anglican landscape, and that makes it seem less a safe harbor for the arriving pilgrim. I’ve never wanted to be a sectarian vagabond; by circumstance and conviction, over the years I’d belonged to several churches before my present situation (which can lead easily to the type of behaviors we are warned against in Titus 3:9-10). Church-hopping, grounded in programs, “felt needs”, and personal comforts--truth and forbearance be damned alike--are great poisons in the wellspring of American Evangelicalism. Anglicanism itself is full of what might be “Fancy Baptists”; come for the fancy robes, stay for the chance to haul your aberrant philosophies into the discussion, like the neurotic woman who insists on bringing her smelly, unpleasant emotional support dog into crowded environs wholly unsuitable for such a situation. Coming over from Continuing Anglicanism, the last thing I wanted to do is be the guest who is kindly invited in to Cousin ACNA’s house, looks around, sniffs derisively, and demands the interior decorator come over that same afternoon.2
And yet, even as I look to wonderful, faithful ACNA brothers and sisters, I admire, in the end, I just couldn’t do it. It wasn’t just Women’s Ordination, though that does hit directly upon sacramental validity, I believe. There is just a lot of charismatic nonsense out there, a lot of worldly buy-in in some quarters on questions of sexuality, and a reluctance, it seems, to address members dioceses that are extremely liberal in their social teaching. There is also a lot of swaybabe Elevation/Hillsong/Jesus Culture/Bethel contemporary worship out there at the expense of the liturgy. Brothers, we are not American Evangelicals.
It’s a hard time to be an Anglican, be it Continuing, ACNA, or other. We have a faithful remnant in other lands, watching their great cathedrals become home to rank apostasy. Parishes and churches who have committed to submitting themselves to the Word of God and preaching law and gospel—a necessary business all too often dismissed or delayed over the years, as we all have done with the important things of God. And though we deeply feel a call to real, ecclesial unity among all followers of Christ, there is frankly zero chance of unity between G-3 and the ACNA so long as priestesses tarry.
Now, the ACNA has a new Archbishop. Whether you are in the Continuum, ACNA, or Other, please keep him in prayer. I may not be heading to the ACNA, but all of this impacts brothers and sisters in Christ—not just in the United States, but ultimately, around the world. These are hard times, and we need leaders who know what hour it is. In your charity, please keep me in prayer, too, along with all of us looking for that so-close, yet-so-far, dreamt-of Communion.
As church historians ready the pillory, allow me to note there is obviously quite a bit more to say here, as the Episcopalian reluctance to call anything heresy had entered the start of its golden age in the preceding decades. Bishops such as James Pike and John Shelby Spong may be researched to give the uninitiated reader a sense of things, as well as a loss of appetite for the foreseeable future as a bonus.
Anglicanism, it might be noted, especially as it exists in the ACNA, is a mix of conservative former Episcopalians, disaffected Baptists, charismatic “Bapticostals”, “Prayerbook Presbyterians”, Tiber-crossers catching their breath for a moment, a sprinkling of galvanized Methodists, immigrants from other Anglican provinces, and many other wonderful, dear souls. It is a melting pot, which is simultaneously a sign of the volatile church landscape in America, a challenge/opportunity in terms of finding common ground in the Word, Prayer Book and Articles, and a chance for fellowship centered around our identity in Christ. In other words, none of my esteemed Baptist brethren were harmed in the making of this article.