Things that make you go hmmm
June 25th, 2009
So the new Anglican Church in North America launched this week and heard addresses from Southern Baptist megachurch guru Rick Warren and Orthodox Church in America Metropolitan Jonah.
I’m not really sure which one is more out of place.
I visited one of the churches that joined the ACNA and it was definitely Calvinist with a touch of the Charismatic.
Categories: Mollie Hemingway
I figured that something wasn’t quite right when the guest for the topic for Issues, Etc. bumbled on the question, “Why no female clergy in this church body?” His answer: “We’ll get around to figuring that out later.”
The overall segment made the whole enterprise of an ACNA sound more promising and conservative. I’m saddened to hear that this may not be the case.
He didn’t bumble the question. They’re well aware that it’s a major division within a brand-new province that will have to be dealt with at some point. It’s why they have no female bishops right now: because they realize this is a divisive issue and are willing to adopt the default position for the moment. I do hope the anti-WO bent wins out in the end, of course!
ACNA is way, way, more conservative than the TEC. BUT, they’ve got a lot to work on. Women’s ordination is just one of the various things they’ve got to come to grips with. A strong Charismatic bent from some of the various Schism II groups that made up the Common Cause Partnership is another. Some of the CCP churches are very charismatic and evangelical in worship style, and others are very Anglo-catholic. Just like Missouri, there’s an incredible diversity of worship styles.
But there is good reason to be hopeful. The group knows the bondage out of which they’ve come. It bears watching, to see how those differences are addressed.
Given how awful so much of American Protestantism is, I’m encouraged by the formation of the ACNA, and I wish them all the best. It’s a rare thing these days for any church body to be formed and birthed on a public confession of the sufficiency and authority of Scripture… even if I see that portions of that body are wrong on women’s ordination.
-Jenny, avid Anglican-watcher.
According to a report copied to LQ, the “Rev Dr. (is that one genuine?) Samuel Nafzger of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod also attended this shindig.
Did Rick Warren need someone to carry his Notebook?
Or pick up the check?
As someone who left the Episcopal Church way back in the 60s after the Bishop Pike debacle, hooking up (another perfectly good term that’s been ruined)for a while with Eastern Orthodoxy, and then stumbling gratefully, like a parched pilgrim out of the desert, into a wonderful solidly liturgical LCMS church in Phoenix, Christ Lutheran, I have fond hopes for ACNA — but I have learned not to hold my breath.