Tuesday 24 June 2008

Maybe it's because I'm an Anglican

that I love Angles so?

On Sunday our Vicar stood up in front of the congregation and apologised for the Anglican Church. Now that's something you don't see every day. Shortly after the service, he left on a plane for Jerusalem where he is attending the Global Anglican Future Conference. I've been pondering this ever since.

I'm a Christian first, and an Anglican second. Church of England Anglican too, for what it's worth.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. AMEN.

But you know what? The Apostle's Creed, that's the easy bit. Beyond that, what do I believe? What does my church teach? I know, completely and utterly and absolutely, that the church where I worship is my home church, it is where I am supposed to be. Shopping for a new church isn't the solution. It isn't a perfect church, but then we aren't a perfect people, so how can it be?

I can't see into the future, but I don't think it takes a crystal ball to predict schisms within the wider Anglican fellowship. Where do I stand in this? Where do our church leaders stand in this? And what are we going to do about it?

When two equally committed and sincere Christians hold two opposing views, who is wrong? How about when two Bishops disagree? Two Archbishops? Is there a way for both views to be right?

Praying that the truth will out.
Tia

1 comment:

Dulce Domum said...

Hi Tia
I too am Anglican and upset by the current schism. To be honest I'm not sure if the clergy on either side of the debate have behaved particularly well, and their scrapping has left the ordinary people in congregations around the world wondering what to think, believe etc. It seems that liberals simply do what they want to do, without obeying the "rules" of the Anglican Communion, and the conservatives do the same (like the African Bishops ordaining priests in America, outside of their jurisdiction). Surely, they should be respecting the traditions of church discipline and obeying the ABC, no matter what their own personal beliefs are? Anglicism's strength is always that it has been a broad church, able to other accept believers differences of belief and worship style, perhaps this is the beginning of the end of Anglicism as we know it? Either way it's very sad.

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