In a long interview about the status of the church, Harmon said the tension between gospel truth and Catholic order is ever increasing, and some, such as the conservative Anglican Church in North America, are sacrificing ecclesiastic tradition for the sake of evangelical truth.
“They’ve chosen truth over order in the short term because there was no other option.” On the other side, those advocating order and church unity have not done enough to distance themselves from recent “errors,” [Kendall] Harmon said.
“And South Carolina is in no-man’s land, somewhere in the middle,” a theologically conservative diocese that nevertheless doesn’t want to break away entirely, he said. For now, the diocese sees its role as a standard-bearer of orthodoxy.
Harmon compared the diocese’s relationship with the national church to a married couple made unhappy by adultery but not yet determined to divorce.
“If you stay in the house, you have no choice but to distance yourself from your spouse,” he said. You sleep in a different bedroom and argue vociferously over dinner.
The leadership at Holy Communion is acutely aware of the strain.
“. . . the Oxford Movement, which was an effort in the first part of the 19th century to uphold the Roman Catholic nature of early Anglicanism.” I don’t think the Tractarians would have described it that way!
“Harmon said the tension between gospel truth and Catholic order is ever increasing, and some, such as the conservative Anglican Church in North America, are sacrificing ecclesiastic tradition for the sake of evangelical truth.” Not sure if this was quoted accurately, but I assume it was. If so, I have to disagree respectfully. If you think of the Communion as a whole, which I do, I would describe TEC, not ACNA as destroying Catholic order. If we understand the Catholic order of the Church universal to be integrally tied to the concillior principle, then TEC and ACA have clearly and repeatedly violated the order of the Church.
It saddens me that so many persons equate Anglo-Catholicism (and a High Theology) with Roman Catholicism, whether Medieval or present day. Many of us are committed to the principle of the English Reformation, “To uphold the Faith and Order of the primitive Catholic Church as grounded in Holy Scripture”. I am a Patristic Catholic upholding the Catholic Faith of God’s Holy Word. On another point, I too believe the ACNA is following Catholic Order. If one follows the Vincentian Canon (the whole writing and not just the one verse so often quoted) it is clear that the ACNA is upholding Catholic Order (though I question the ordination of women as priests and bishops). When a Province can no longer affirm the Lordship of Jesus Christ, let us not fool ourselves any longer. What has happened in the Episcopal Church is an attack on the King of Glory disguised as everything else. It is a Christological problem from an attack on His divinity, to His atoning death, to His identity as Lord of all.
I’m confused about both posts #1 & #2. In #1, ecclesiastic tradition is not the same as Catholic order?? TEC would call it their polity. Their secular legal rules one might call it. In #2, the ACNA is not permitting women bishops and it is up to each diocese whether women will be ordained. Only Pittsburgh has women priests, and the other three former TEC dioceses reserve the priesthood only for men.
Cole, #3, Anglicans, like the Orthodox churches have usually understood concillior decisions binding on all those who share communion (the Roman church does too, but has obviously evolved a unique understanding of the papal role in ecclesiastic order). If you believe in the historic ecclesiastic tradition of the church catholic as being integrally bound to concillior decision making, then NO individual polity within a communion of churches is free to make its own decisions unilaterally — that’s fundamental to what being in communion means. For example, the Russian Orthodox Church is not free to decide on its own to redefine marriage and remain part of the global Orthodox Communion.
Similarly, the mind of the Anglican Communion is clear regarding issues such as same-sex blessings and the consecration of active homosexuals to the episcopacy. Those decisions have been stated definitively in Lambeth 1.10 and reiterated repeatedly by the instruments of global communion since 1998. Last week TEC, once again, announced its decision to prioritize and privilege the decisions of its own polity over those of the Communion as a whole. In other words, it has, once again, reiterated its decision to walk apart from the global Anglican Communion. In view of that fact, bishops within TEC will increasingly face decisions about their own priorities — continued communion with the national polity, or continued communion with the global Communion. My point was simply that from the perspective of the global Communion, and the ancient ecclesiastic tradition of concillior decision-making, it’s not ACNA bishops that have chosen truth over Catholic order — they have chosen both truth AND order. It is TEC bishops who are choosing BOTH falsehood (heresy) AND to violate the ancient Catholic concillior order of the church.
CT, #4: My comment was more about questioning your interpretation of the syntax of Kendal’s comment. Regardless, South Carolina is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They need our prayers.
Cole, Sorry, I didn’t catch your point. Agreed, and not just SC, lots of others too!