A New Season for Anglicanism?
I wonder if what we are seeing--quite apart from all the issues ACI and others know are at the forefront, sexuality, etc--is the collision of deeply US instincts, borne of revolutionary governmental deism and its Federalisms (Washington and Jay in conflict with Madison and Jefferson) being played out, coming to final fruition in the food fight of General Convention 2006. I am almost dizzy from the last ten days. The last moments of General Convention were like something out of The Twilight Zone.
One could almost say there are 'two churches' and mean by that nothing whatsoever about sexuality or even theological difference. There has emerged a democratic spirit so ruthless that it has exposed itself as totally at odds with Anglicanism and Anglican polity. ECUSA has become a deeply American phenomenon of denominationally enfranchised democracy, with Bishops deferring to it, until their own identity is virtually at death's door.
Ephraim/ACI put it well in our recent remarks. We witnessed something (and like a golf tournament, one can see better on 'TV' than up close) in General Convention 2006 that was unprecedented in its naked frenzying.
What I hear the ‘Windsor bishops’ asking for, in other words, is in part nothing more or less than the right to be bishops in an old fashioned sense, and recover or even discover a new polity for a US church whose heritage is allowing this kind of polity meltdown to occur.
We need to consider very carefully whether being a 'constituent member' of the Anglican Communion means having a polity more closely akin to Anglicans elsewhere, and now explicitly say so. These General Conventions have become parade examples of a polity gone wrong: almost more ruthless in their democratic, neurotic frenzying than any Southern Baptist gathering one might have considered, on its worst day. At least they are honest about their democracy and then learn to regulate it accordingly.
Radner has made the point that our Bishops had full authority to respond to the Windsor Report. Instead, the fig-leaf of General Convention was called in to cover things. By the end of Wednesday 20 June, it had blown away entirely.
We must now pray that a hand is reached across by as many ‘ Windsor ’ Bishops as possible, anxious to grasp the one extended by the Communion. The next months are crucial for prayer and fasting. As the Anglican Communion matures and finds new strength, may we witness the same growth and maturity in this US region of God’s work in Christ.
C Seitz, ACI
