I’m not sad to see you go
Late last year, The Falls Church and Truro Church in suburban Fairfax, Virginia, voted to break away from the U.S. Episcopal Church to join a missionary diocese of the Anglican province in Nigeria. This article in the Washington Post from late last week assures me even more of how much I’m not sad to see them go.
Major schism has not yet uprooted the Anglican Communion — and even from the most technical of viewpoints, it has still yet to destroy the Communion, as parishes are realigning themselves but remaining in Communion — but my Lutheran side is used to this sort of thing. Little Mrs. Johnson sits six inches too far to the left and thus in someone else’s spot and whole families break away to start their own, new church.
From a theological perspective, both Falls and Truro are not aligned with the positions of the national church. It makes sense for them to leave and join a group which supports their belief. From a governance perspective, however what they and other former ECUSA parishes have done is intolerable and a greater threat to the Communion.
By definition, episcopal means “governed by Bishops.” It’s one of the first lessons a young (or young in faith) Anglican learns in J2A (Confirmation). Here in the U.S., that governance is also shared by the laity in a complex system of voting at General Assembly every three years. All parishes submit to the authority of their local Diocese by virtue of their constitution, and all Dioceses submit to the authority of General Assembly, vis a vis all parishes are bound together by the governance of General Assembly.
As a province of the international Anglican Communion, we agree to walk together as the American church, with other believers around the world. And where there is a province of Communion, other members do not set up missions as a matter of practice and principle. So, for example, the ECUSA isn’t setting up a mission in Toronto, Canada, as this would underskirt the authority of the Canadian province, the Anglican Church in Canada. Should such a thing happen, I suspect Canterbury would be getting involved right quick.
So why, then, is it “acceptable” for the parishes to leave the ECUSA and join the Nigerian church? And why are Bishops allowing this? I understand the desire to maintain Communion, but at what cost? Alternative Primateal Oversight (APO), as it is called, is a stark deviation from practice and tradition, and is a greater threat of schism than a handful of parishes breaking away and starting a new communion.
Since Falls and Truro have deviated from Anglican theology and are rejecting their governance, I’m not sad to see them go. But I wish they’d leave, instead of creating more problems in the process.
January 9th, 2007 at 9:29 am
The question is who is leaving who. Truro and the Falls Church have voted to stay true to the historic Anglican tradition and more importantly the Bible.
Truro, the Falls Church, and the other dozen or so churches in Virginia that have seperated are doing so because the leadership of TEC have rejected the foundational beliefs they were commisioned to share.
blessings
January 28th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Hi,
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Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day
February 10th, 2007 at 1:57 am
You don’t even have to be a liberal Christian to see the damage the so-called conservative (aka Anglican) parishes have done. They’ve allowed themselves to be manipulated by the Institute for Religion & Democracy, an inside the beltway conservative think-tank in its drive to divide and conquer the old mainline denominations.
Such acts would even make a Pharisee blush with shame. That takes some doing.
Hell’s bells, they’ve even gone so low to give secesh another bad name. Frankly now, I don’t know which takes more doing. But these Virginia secessionists are keeping up an old tradition. The last time they pulled it off for a while, they lost. Some people never get it.
And, now they’ve linked themselves to an African archdiocese. The ironies abound. But one sticks in my mind concerning how these modern day rebels will take Abp. Akinola’s rather imperious style.
If they think Bp. Lee is playing hardball, they better get read for the curve balls Akinola’s likely to throw at them.
See y’all.