Although I have been spending the last few weeks (indeed last couple of months) running from one task to another, it has also been a time for growth and reflection, particularly as regards the recent events at TEC's general convention the ordination to all levels of ministry of LGBT persons as well as the resolution calling for an interim local pastoral solution on blessings as the Standing Liturgical committee collects liturgical resources for the next GC in 2012.
One of the best personal outcomes of this process, for myself as well as others, has been the chance to reflect and listen and respond to +Rowan Cantuar's own "reflection" on the issue of Anglican unity. (Here)
It has been heartening to hear the spectrum of dissenting response, not all necessarily from liberals/progressives, against his view of the structure that he is proposing for the Anglican Communion as a whole. In particular, it has invited a great deal of reflection on really what Anglicanism is, and what is our true "instrument" of unity.
Giles Fraser, in an insightful essay (here) in the Church Times writes:
"[T]he genius of the Church of England has been to allow different theological temperaments to worship alongside one other, united by common prayer and community spirit. This was how we recognised each other as members of the same Church. This was our particular charism, and we were widely valued for it." (emphasis added)
A Lutheran in-law of mine once stated a perspective of some other Lutherans about TEC that, "You can believe in a rock, as long as you use the prayerbook."
For those persons who see our faith lives as bounded by creeds and covenants and definitions, this conceptualization of the church is an offensive and heretical one. Anyone who knows the history of the post-reformation Church of England and the post-revolution Episcopal Church knows, however, that this way of "defining" who we are, who's "in" and who's "out," has not been the prevailing Anglican way. We have tried to do this in the past, but always with disastrous results.
I was reading a post by Trinity Cathedral Dean, Nicholas Knisely, last week about his own feelings about GC and the subsequent furor. In a post in his blog "Entangled States" entitled "We pray together. And that's enough." (here), he writes:
"The Elizabethan Settlement, which for me is modeled at every Eucharist when I present the host to a communicant with the paradoxical words (to a person of Tudor England) “the body of Christ, the bread of Heaven”, is fundamental to our identity as Anglicans. We are willing to be in relationship with people who will gather with us around Jesus; whether they by [sic] free or slave, man or women, Jew or Greek. We are the anti-puritans caring less about clarity of theological categories than we do about loving relationship. “If you will pray to Jesus with me, I will pray to Jesus with you.”
At least we try to when we’re at our best. Which isn’t always that often admittedly.
In my mind, as an Episcopalian of catholic leanings and ecumenical enthusiasm, if there’s one thing that argues for the continued existence of an Anglican witness in the Universal Church - it’s our charism of holding firm to praying with those with whom we disagree no matter how hard that is to do." (emphasis added)
I would agree, therefore, that one of the essences, perhaps the essence, of Anglicanism is our willingness to worship and pray together in spite of our differences. It is this sort of liturgical unity, an acting out of our spiritual unity as members of the Body of Christ, that is nearer to the heart of Anglicanism than is the misguided attempt to make us the English Branch of Roman Catholicism that some, such as the ABC +Rowan, seem to be trying to force upon us.
I have posted a quote from Edward Pucey elsewhere (in response to Nicholas blog post) from his "Eirenicon," itself an "answer" to questions of unity/relationship between the C of E and Roman Catholicism, but I believe that it bears repeating as it summarizes things so well:
"At Holy Communion we pray to God to 'inspire continually the Universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity and concord,' and for 'all Bishops,' not our own only. Certainly, since prayer is the voice of the soul to God, we express not our inmost belief only, but a loving belief, that the Church is one.
How it is one, the Church nowhere defines; but the faith is kept alive by prayer more than by definitions. Yet, whatever duties may follow up in the Unity of the Church, it is plain that no harmony of men's will can constitute a supernatural and Divine unity.
Unity, in part, is the direct gift of God; in part, it is the fruit of that gift in the mutual love of the members of the Church. In part, it is a spiritual oneness wrought by God the Holy Ghost; in part, it is a grace to be exercised by man, a consequence and fruit of that gift. In one way, it is organic unity derived from Christ and binding all to Christ, descending from the Head to the Body, and uniting the Body to the Head; in another, it consists in acts of love from the members one to another. Christ our Lord, God and Man, binds us to Him by the indwelling of His Spirit, by the gift of His Sacraments, administered by those to whom He gave the commission so to do, by the right faith in Himself. , We are bound to one another, in that we are members of Him, and by the love which He sheds abroad in our hearts through the Spirit which he giveth us, and by common acts of worship and intercommunion.
Of these, the highest and chief is that which binds us to Christ Himself. Our highest union with one another is an organic union with one another through union with Him." (emphasis added)
I would add, therefore, my argument that we neither need nor want a more defined "Anglican Covenant" nor an established international Anglican Magisterium set up in imitation of the Roman Church's model that we chose to abandon nearly 500 years ago. Those of us who oppose this model that is, for us, both reactionary and novel, need to speak up and be insistent. I agree that, although TEC has plainly articulated "where we are" as a province, it would be a sorry state if we did not support others throughout the Anglican Communion in their struggle to resist this kind of counter-productive and backward-looking "reform" that is being offered in the guise of a truly "catholic" Christianity.
"Summoned by the God who made us
Rich in our diversity,
Gathered in the name of Jesus,
Richer still in unity:
Let us bring the gifts that differ
And, in splendid, varied ways,
Sing a new church into being,
One of faith and love and praise"
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