Longtime blog readers know well that one of my favorite examples of the importance of listening to the screaming silence of something missing comes from the Sherlock Holmes saga entitled “Silver Blaze.” In one of the most famous sections in all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing in this saga we find the follow exchange:
Inspector Gregory [of Scotland Yard]: “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
Sherlock Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
Inspector Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
Sherlock Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”
I mention this because recently the Anglican Communion Office launched an Anglican Communion Facebook page. You may find the page here. Being preoccupied recently with the diocese of South Carolina convention and other matters, I only recently checked out the page.
Imagine my surprise when on the front of the page I read the following:
A page to see posts shared by members of the Anglican Communion – 85 million Christians who share faith, tradition, history & ways of worshipping.
Now 85 million people is a lot the last time I checked–but I would have thought the Bible had something to do with it.
The silence is screaming and it is oh-so-significant–KSH.
An interesting statement. At least they say they’re Christians, and I suppose one could argue that “faith” and “tradition” mean the Bible, the Creeds and the early ecumenical councils, but they could have said so, couldn’t they?
As a non-Facebooker, I’ll miss out on that emptiness…I guess that’s what he means.
Kendall, I appreciate your point, and agree with you.
… but just to give the benefit of the doubt for a minute, I wonder if the failure to mention Scripture is due to the fact that a belief in Scripture is not in any way “unique” to Anglican identity – it is shared across multiple Christian denominations and traditions. Whereas worship styles and shared history DO help create a unique *ANGLICAN* Identity.
But, that explanation to help explain the lapse aside, I do 100% agree with you in that it is VERY telling that belief in Scripture is far too often NOT an Anglican distinctive – or one could phrase it in the negative:
Far too often (at least in “Global North” Anglicanism) it is, in fact, a LOW Priority on Scripture which is an “Anglican distinctive.” Far too many Anglicans hold to the fallacy of the so called “three-legged stool” (Scripture, Tradition and Reason) – but in actuality neglect Scripture and exalt reason and tradition.
It isn’t UNIQUELY anglican by any means, but it is at the heart of Anglicanism (as the 39 articles among many things make clear). Absence speaks louder than words, in this instance it is just part of tradition with a small t.
Well spotted Canon Harmon.
Most Anglicans and their churches are quite happy to declare publicly what they believe and why. But the ACO manages to launch a facebook page that reflects the mealy-mouthed “don’t mention anything about Christ or the Bible” attitude of English bishops – a tiny and not-terribly-successful minority within the WWAC!