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News and Ideas from around the Anglican World |
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May 2005
Anglican Planet: An Introduction
We have heard a lot of talk lately, around the Anglican Communion, about the “bonds of affection” which hold us together as Anglicans. There is certainly a lot of truth to this lovely phrase. For centuries Anglicanism has allowed itself to be a Communion in which a wide panoply of authentic Christian life, worship and thought has flourished. We’re a fellowship of Christians whose list of saints contains such diverse characters as William Laud, John Wesley, Christina Rossetti, J.C. Ryle and Dorothy Sayers. Yet, whatever “bonds” held the tractarians and the evangelicals together in the nineteenth century - it’s clear from reading the rhetoric of the day - it wasn’t affection! It’s only in these days that we have tried to somehow interpret our communion together with the language of human affection. And like any merely human construct, it is bound to come undone in the end. We need to look for another thread, which binds us together.
John, in his epistle, describes the fellowship which the early Christians shared like this: “That which we have seen and heard [that is, the eternal word of God], we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” John makes it clear that our fellowship is not based on such dubious foundations as mere “human affection”, but rather it is based on our common proclamation of the eternal Word of God. He further states that our participation in that fellowship is dependant upon our individual and corporate submission to that same Word which calls us from darkness into light.
So what has held the Anglican Communion together for so many years? Our common submission to the lordship of Christ Jesus and being a part of the whole body of Christ - under the authority of Holy Scripture, within the communion of the Catholic Church, unified by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. As Anglicans we have adamantly stood our ground at that point - nothing but the real Jesus and his Church can or should hold us together. Within him true diversity flourishes, and in Him diversity will continue to flourish - as long as we are kept in him.
But how are we kept in him? We dwell in Him by grace, through faith. This was the wonder that Paul unleashed upon the world, and the recovery of this idea was the “moment of clarity” that so defined us as a unique branch of the catholic Church five centuries ago.
This journal comes about through that grace, and seeks to promote that faith. It’s about that Communion which is bound together not by mere human affection, but by the bonds of faith in Christ, by our adoration of him, and our submission to him, as he is revealed in Holy Scripture, and in the fellowship of his Church. The operative principle behind this journal is not “How do we keep our Communion together?” as if that were an end in itself, but instead, “How do we keep in him?” Our fellowship with one another is a happy byproduct, which cannot be known outside of Him.
Within our communion there is remarkable diversity, for sure, which the history of the Church proves century after century and continent by continent and which this journal hopes to promote. Our contributions in this issue (from people as diverse as a professor at Oxford, a missionary in Uganda, and a parish priest in Atlantic Canada) are a good example of this rich diversity. But it is a diversity, which is sustained by a common faith, not just a common affection.
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David
A. Harris and C. Peter Molloy|
Copyright The Anglican Planet © 2005 |