Anglican Identity and the "Dear Gay Anglican" Letter

 There has been a great deal of controversy around the Bishop's statement on human sexuality and identity released in January.  If you've been paying careful attention I think much of it has to do with a lack of knowledge surrounding Episcopal polity and Anglican identity.  Others have written on this and done a much better job than I could ever hope to do, but I do want to add my two cents for those of you who care.  

The problem is that modern American Anglicanism has no cohesive identity.  It is a host of waring factions in one denomination and this is the main problem.  Everything else is just a symptom.  This morning many of my brother clergymen recieved an email from Wheaton College advertising their new "ACNA Cohort Program."  Its some sort of Anglican studies program offered by the school, but none of the people involved are classically Anglican (1662 BCP, 39 Articles, Book of Homilies and the ordinal of 1662 are what defines classical Anglicanism) and there is even a Baptist involved.  

I've got some really deep concerns about programs like this, because they tend to produce thinkers (clergy and theologians) who have the form of Anglicanism, but not the matter, which only serves to make the identity crisis that we have in the province much worse.  I can not in good conscience recommend a program like this to anyone and that grieves me greatly.  I'd like the ACNA to be a force for good in this world, but because of it's theological confusion, I don't have high hopes. There are even entire dioceses and parishes that I counsel people to avoid, and while for some that is controversial, its just where I'm at in the present moment.   

One example of this is in the "Dear Gay Anglican" letter published last month and signed by several key clergy in the province.  It was a direct contradiction of the bishop's teaching and more importantly the 39 Articles themselves.  The debate centers around the issue of concupiscence, which is a big theological term for lust.  Article 9, towards the end, says, 

        "The Apostle (that's St. Paul) doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of             sin." 

This is wholly consistent with the teachings of our Lord in the sermon on the mount, when he says that if you've even looked at a woman with lust you've committed adultery in your heart.  Our thoughts condemn us before a Holy and Righteous God, but that is denied in this letter to "Gay Anglicans."  

I can't help but think that this is the result of a poorly catechized clergy and laity and that brothers and sisters is quite concerning to me as a pastor/priest.  The articles aren't a historical document to be swept to one side when they are inconvenient or perceived to be outdated.  They are an outline of the Catholic and Biblical faith once handed down by the apostles and departure from them is at best heterodox and at worst outright heresy.  

Then you have a well known and prominent theologian who, in a tweet posted last week, referred to herself as an Anabaptist. Once again the articles have a lot to say about Anabaptist theology and make it clear that that theology is outside the bounds of Anglican Orthodoxy.  But it is espoused by several within the ACNA.  This should concern you as much as it concerns me.  

But as one APA priest once wisely noted, "not all Anglican churches are created equal" and that needs to be our understanding going in.  The Anglican Church is in the midst of an identity crisis right now and we need to be aware of that going in.  But I also don't want to be a Debby Downer about it all.  There are bright spots in the ACNA.  My own REC being one of them, along with Bishop Julian Dobbs and his diocese of the Living Word and others.  

The bottom line here is that despite what the rest of the ACNA is doing, we need to be rooted in our traditions.  Our patrimony is rich and has so much to offer the wider church and the world.  Those things that identify classical Anglicanism against the counterfeits in so many of our parishes and dioceses need to be embraced, confessed and taught from our pulpits and that's what will define Good Shepherd Anglican Church as long as I am the vicar there.  

I, like many of the people espousing these errors, am knew to Anglicanism, but when I came here from my Reformed Baptist background, it was Anglicanism that I sought.  Not evangelicalism dressed up in vestments.  It was the 39 Articles, the 1662 BCP, and the ordinal that attracted me.  A rich heritage of reformed Catholicism rooted the English reformation is what I was looking for and when I fail to see it in others I am disheartened and discouraged.  

But take heart brothers and sisters!  The Lord has His remnant.  We might not get book deals or have our articles posted in the New York Times, but we are here and we take out responsibilities of rightly preaching the word and administering the sacraments seriously.  Dark days are ahead of us, but we really are in this fight together.  So stand fast!  Keep the faith with me!