Will the Real Schismatics Stand Up

http://www.anglicancommuniondioceses.org/signatures.asp

There has been a lot of talk of schism lately. As the new network of Anglican Communion Dioceses in North America forms, the corportists (those who see themselves Episcopalians first, Christians second) claim that conservative Anglicans in the US and Canada are the makers of schism. As such the signatories to the new Network Charter, linked to above, must be schismatics. Well I am a signatory to the charter, and have thus joined the new network, whose goal is to become Anglicanism in North America.

So are we schismatics? Yes we are. We are schismatics from the Episcopal Church (.02% of the Christian world?). We are in schism with a church that in its official positions has denied the gospel, the catholic faith, and early Christian doctrine and ethics, separating itself from the wider Christian world for a rather modern agenda. We are schismatics from modernist American religion, from a denomination that has declined at a rapid pace in the last 30 years. We are schismatics from agendists who have ignored tradition, thus excluding our ancestors, causing the ECUSA and other mainline churches to plunge into the toilet of public influence and relevance. Instead, despite the claims otherwise from those in charge, the Episcopal Church has no influence in our culture, whether morally, spiritually, or politically. Thus we are in schism with irrelevance.

However, remember that the Episcopal church is itself in schism with the Anglican Communion, as well as cut off from dialogue with other branches of the catholic Church (Orthodox and Roman Catholics have suspended or downgraded talks). We in the new network are breaking from ECUSA to be united to the Anglican Communion and in dialogue with the rest of the world. This is not separation over a mere doctrinal or moral ssue. This is about breaking from a regional church that has acted against the advising and wisdom of tradition and the catholic world. I cannot support the hubris of the Episcopal Church toward the Christian world, its unilateralism, no matter what I personally think about practicing gay bishops, or what agenda I might hold. As such, we in the network are in schism with schism, which makes us not schismatics, but catholics.

Sauls Pours That Cold Kentucky Rain Down Hard

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/7705218.htm

In the Diocese of Lexington, a conservative parish is close to seeking alternative oversight, and Bishop Sauls downgrades them to mission status. This allows the diocese to be guaranteed to keep over one million in assets and cash. Of course it means the diocese loses its integrity and any so-called "tolerance" it might have had. The Episcopal Church has declined quite a bit over the last 30 years, and now we know why. The opposition is kicked out, downgraded or made to feel inferior, while the assets remain. This means that a congregation that is dwindling and declining sharply can last for a long time.

I love Lexington. It's a beautiful city, and I love driving through it on my way to Atlanta. It is sad to know that if I ever lived there I would have to change denominations...wait...Anglicanism is coming soon to Lexington. I have been told that many have left the church in question and are starting St. Andrew's Anglican Church that will seek to join the new Anglican network. Over 100 people attended the first service. I guess the gospel still works.

A New Year, A New Anglicanism?

We are at the beginning of 2004, New Year's Day, also the Naming of our Lord day in the Christian calendar. I am convinced 2003 will be known as the year the Anglican Communion broke down. This is indeed a tragedy, but perhaps it is not all that bad. First, Anglicanism is not really breaking down. Liberal Western Anglicanism, which has been in rapid decline for over 30 years is what has really breaking down. The fragile synthesis between liberal and conservative during the modernist period cracked and fell apart in 2003 as the hyper-modernist revisionists pushed their agenda too far, against the pleas of our Anglican family. Of course by 2003 nobody even cares. With less than 800,000 regular Sunday worshippers in the Episcopal Church, and similar numbers in other Western Anglican locales, the issue is only big for a few of us. If this recent schism, initiated by ECUSA, is not enough to prove the decline, perhaps the rapid decline in members over the last 30 years will prove it.

Second, and worthy of a new paragraph, is the symbol of the ancient mythical Phoenix and its relation to this whole issue. In order for the Phoenix to be reborn, first it had to die, and only then could the new bird rise from the remains of the first. Western Anglicanism's death, or rather, the modernist liberal Anglicanism of the last 40 or so years' death, is not a bad thing, so long as it leads to something solid, timeless, and ultimately, something biblical and catholic.

2004 can be known as the year when the Anglican Communion is reborn after dying in modernism. 2004 can be a year of renewal within the Anglican Communion, and a returning of the Anglican Church in the West to a biblical, evangelical, and catholic body. In the process, the Church will rise from the ashes of its death. The church will be ready and open for postmodern persons. Strangely, many evangelicals are discovering what the Anglican Church has known all long, but forgotten. They are looking to Rome and Constaninople because Anglicanism in the West is wedded to modernism. We could be getting an influx of postmodern men and women seeking exactly what we Anglicans have...when we are conservative. We have timeless truths, ethics, and practices. When we are modernist liberal we are simply perceived as a bunch of upper class former hippy political lobbiests, stuck in another era and in antiquated ideologies.

I hope and pray that 2004 will be the year of the Phoenix, when the Anglican Communion in the west will rise again under strong yet gentle leaders, imitating the doctrines and ethics of Jesus Christ. I hope and pray our bishops will lead us into renewal and out of the Episcopal Church, out of a prime symbol of dying modernism. However, it is possible 2004 will not be the year of the Phoenix, but the year of the waffle. Yes, it may be the year when our leaders continue to compromise with the Episcopal Church, with modernism, and ultimately with a dying system that hinders the work of spreading the gospel and catholic faith. And then, a few years down the line, we can be still cling to that so-called rich ECUSA tradition of our youth, even if nobody but us happen to be members. We will have to see!