Vatican and Anglicans
I love our church. I got lots of emails and questions this week about the impact of the Pope’s offer to Anglicans on our little church in Arlington. I love that Restoration people are thoughtful, well-informed, and curious. These are interesting days to be following Jesus and committed to a local church.
Lots of news outlets reported on it, here are 2 helpful articles:
Bottom line for us, we will not be ‘going back to Rome’. I have deep respect for the Catholic church and for the ways they have revered and contended for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). But in the quotable words of our great bishop, Martyn Minns, “I don’t want to be a Roman Catholic… There was a Reformation, you remember.”
Bishop Minns also said, ““It demonstrates his (the Pope’s) conviction that the divisions in the Anglican Communion are very serious and these are not things that are going to get papered over,”
The worldwide Anglican Communion is currently very divided by issues of Biblical authority, Trinitarian Theology, and sexual ethics. The Catholic church has generously offered a harbor for orthodox Anglicans who want to embrace the Pope’s authority and leave the morass of Anglican conflict.
Restoration will not be taking the Pope’s kind offer. In the division and conflicts, we hold unflinchingly to the inerrancy of Scripture– its complete trustworthiness and authority for every area of our life. As a community, we will continue to wrestle with how we live in faithfulness to it. I long for the day when Jesus comes back and restores all things– including the unity of his church. Until that day, we will wait expectantly and we will work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God (2 Cor 5:11)
Here is the official CANA statement
CANA: Vatican Move Recognizes Reality of Anglican Divide
Bishop Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), issued the following response to the newly approved church provision, announced by the Vatican this week, that allows Anglicans to join the Catholic Church.
“The Vatican is opening a door for Anglicans who sense a call to be part of the Church of Rome to join that body and still maintain Anglican traditions. This move by the Catholic Church recognizes the reality of the divide within the Anglican Communion and affirms the decision to create a new North American province that embraces biblical truth. While we welcome the positive response from the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury regarding the Vatican’s provision, we urge Lambeth Palace to move swiftly to fully endorse the efforts of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and the Anglican Church in North America to keep the Anglican family together,” said Bishop Minns.
“Rome is reminding Anglicans that our historic, orthodox faith is more important than culture and more important than geography. CANA itself bears witness to the fact that God’s church is made up of believers across the globe. The centrality of Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture are the unwavering bonds that have drawn CANA churches and others within the Anglican Church in North America together. Our continued prayer is for Anglicans across the world to be able to stay faithful to orthodox beliefs,” Minns concluded.
The church provision, known as an Apostolic Constitution, allowing Anglicans to join the Catholic Church was announced by Cardinal William Levada. An Apostolic Constitution is the highest level of decree that the Pope can issue and underscores the historic nature of this action.
October 27, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
I appreciate you taking the time to write this out. I know you have plenty of other stuff on your plate without having to worry about what Rome is doing. Definitely answered my questions/concerns. Thanks David.
October 27, 2009 @ 6:55 pm
David,
Loved your blog post! Especially this paragraph. What a leader!
Restoration will not be taking the Pope’s kind offer. In the division and conflicts, we hold unflinchingly to the inerrancy of Scripture– its complete trustworthiness and authority for every area of our life. As a community, we will continue to wrestle with how we live in faithfulness to it. I long for the day when Jesus comes back and restores all things– including the unity of his church. Until that day, we will wait expectantly and we will work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God (2 Cor 5:11)
We are so glad to be on this journey with you and the rest of the Restoration gang.
Louise
October 28, 2009 @ 6:49 am
Hey David,
Thanks for addressing this issue, I just want to declare to the Lord first, and to you and the rest of our church family, that i am not going anywhere!, and that I want to be a part of this journey that Restoration and the rest of our orthodox brothers an sisters are on. As long as we remember to keep our eyes centered on Jesus he will get us throught this diffcult journey that we are on
God Bless
October 28, 2009 @ 8:36 am
David,
Thank you for your thoughtful reflections on this development. I will note that this offer exists in a larger context than our Anglican conflicts in North America. I found this article from the New York Times especially interesting:
“The news media have portrayed this rightward outreach largely through the lens of culture-war politics — as an attempt to consolidate, inside the Catholic tent, anyone who joins the Vatican in rejecting female priests and gay marriage.
But in making the opening to Anglicanism, Benedict also may have a deeper conflict in mind — not the parochial Western struggle between conservative and liberal believers, but Christianity’s global encounter with a resurgent Islam.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/opinion/26douthat.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=opinion&adxnnlx=1256552334-1JxPmoSA41W3cmXRHtI6FQ
Additionally, I’m fairly certain that the Pope’s outreach was a response to our Anglo-Catholic friends in Britain who have been knocking on his door. He probably wasn’t holding his breath for Low Church evangelicals to cross the Tiber en masse.
That being said, I hope we remain open to the work of reconciliation in our lifetime that Christ may accomplish for us and our descendants alongside those others who also hold unflinchingly to the inerrancy of Scripture. The unfolding ecumenical dialogue between our Archbishop, Robert Duncan, and Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church is an encouraging sign of this.
-Jeff
October 28, 2009 @ 5:42 pm
Thanks for this post.
I echo Jeff’s thoughts — I hope we remain open to the work of reconciliation in our lifetime . . . . And also agree with the Times’ article’s comment that Pope Benedict may have a deeper conflict in mind.
As Dean pointed out last Sunday, even in Ephesians the use of the word “one” is rather noticeable in Eph. 4. As Eugene Peterson paraphrased it in The Message:
“You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.”
Or, as Jesus prayed (Jn 17):
“I’m praying not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me . . . The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind — Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, So they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.”
Although I suspect that the details of Rome’s announcement will be far more limiting than the news reports suggest, the fact of the announcement at least permits Christians on both sides to dream of the possibility of open communion, possibly even within our lifetime. And the power of open communion among Catholics and Protestants could send a powerful message of Christ’s peace and unity to a deeply divided world.
At a more individual level, though, for many — with family on both sides of the aisle now or anticipated in the future — the ability to partake together in Holy Communion on a regular basis would be a wonderful and blessed moment, even (in fact) an answer to long and persistent prayers.
–Tim
October 29, 2009 @ 9:20 am
David, thank you for openly addressing this issue. I would just like to say that the comments made by Tim and Jeff are right on the mark. Especially, with someone who grew up in the Catholic Church and now desires to share in communion with family in friends in both a Catholic Church and at home at RAC.
October 29, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
love the ‘deeper conflict’ insight, Jeff and Tim. It is one of the reasons I will be preaching a 5 week series on the Gospel and Islam during Epiphany 2010 (Jan-Feb).
And Tim and Ryan– I really appreciate the poignancy of your longing for open communion. As we look at the things which we can hold as central, perhaps there is hope for a unity around the Gospel. Please know that your family members who follow Jesus are always welcome to gather at the Lord’s table with us. We are open to all who confess Jesus as Lord.
Again, interesting times, to be following Christ and committed to His church.