We are beginning our slow shift away from Anglicanism toward theological safety and depth, the Confessionally Reformed arena. Imperfect, but with better Confessions. There will be some change in reporting and blog-watches. The persistent incurability, inability and immaturity of Anglican leaders is unacceptable. The inability to have a coherent systematic theology is everywhere.
We will maintain our affection for the old BCP, but association with Anglicans is unhealthy for thinking, reading, and Reformation Churchmen.
You will find most, if not all, Anglican blogs disappearing. We're done with the Western expressions of it. The cleanup will continue over the next week.
At one point recently, I was quite sure the Anglo-Reformed movement was showing signs of health. Indeed, the purging of its ranks and the demise of the so-called "Anglican Communion" should have been cause for celebration by those of our stripe.
ReplyDeleteI plan to remain on deck, blogging for the cause, and maybe to even become more pointed in the days ahead. The prospect of fighting without you as a fellow Anglo-Reformed blogger saddens me; appears to be part and parcel of "the Wilderness."
http://anglo-reformed.org
I am with you brother. I have felt like a Cranmerian in a sea of the Oxford Movement these last several years. My heart is with the the English reformation ala the BCP (1662), the Articles, and the theology of Cranmer, Jewell, Hooker, and others who followed their lead. But alas, in this country (USA) there is no church body that is standing that lineage. There are certainly clergy and laymen here and there holding forth. But the prospect of a "modern reformation" in the Anglican Church seems remote. My wife and I have taken refuge in the OPC... a local church that is more liturgical (following a rough outline of the BCP Holy Communion) than the ordinary OPC. In fact, we often use prayers from the BCP. Our pastor has a Cranmer leaning. Yet I retain great affection and affinity for the (can I say) lost church tradition of England.
ReplyDeleteI remain on deck if and when.... and I will continue to blog on points pertaining the Anglicanism and the Reformation.
Jack
Hudson:
ReplyDeleteNo leadership, inability to be coherent (biblically, systematically), confusion, conflict and institutional inabilities. Done with it.
I will certainly never give up the BCP. I will give up all these oddities called "bishops" who have the leadership qualities of "Commanders" (USN) and "LT COL's," NOT ADMIRALS OR GENERALS. We have none.
Gravitating to my roots, the Reformed faith, systematics, intense Bible readings, commentaries and histories.
Best regards.
Thanks Jack. You get it.
ReplyDeleteWith you, the American Anglican experiment will never rise to what she once was. As Marines would most surely say, "It's a leadership problem."
I'm not sure we are disagreeing here, Phil. I am with you on your abandonment of ALL of the structures of today's Anglicanism. Like you and Jack I have taken up with Presbyterians. I would only encourage you, from this vantage point, to observe the dust of Anglicanism's death and know that in this there is hope. Perhaps you would agree that we still have a calling to:
ReplyDelete1. advance the cause of the Gospel, serving and glorifying only God.
2. encourage the re-growth of an Anglicanism that is distinctively confessional and Reformed.
3. help to establish new Anglo-Reformed churches that are faithful in witness to the sovereign grace of Christ within the communities in which they are planted.
4. build and maintain resources for the common mission of Anglo-Reformed churches.
5. build relationships between confessional Anglicans and other Christians who adhere to the principles of the Reformation, wherever they may be found.
Hudson:
ReplyDeleteA most encouraging word from you.
And an excellent set of objectives.
Regards.