Lectionary texts: RCL Proper 30, Year B: Job 42:1-6, 10-17;  Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22); Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52

Last Tuesday, a bombshell was lobbed into the life of the Anglican Church, when the Vatican announced measures to provide a canonical structure for “disaffected Anglicans.” The news media have managed to confuse the matter, failing for the most part to grasp the complexities and nuances of the issue, presenting it, as one headline put it, as “Rome goes fishing in the Anglican pond.” To which all I can say is…maybe!

There is a wealth of helpful comment and background information on the Diocesan website. Two important documents are statements from three Archbishops, copies of which are available today for your reference.

First, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the (RC) Archbishop of Westminster issued a joint statement. They emphasized that the dialogues between our two communions will continue, as we continue to work towards the full visible unity of all churches. That has been a goal of the Anglican Communion since at least the Lambeth Conference of 1888.

Second, our primate, Fred Hiltz, released a statement which places the issue in the Canadian context. Archbishop Hiltz’s comments include the following:

From a Canadian perspective I do not foresee a groundswell of response to these provisions. I say this knowing that even among those who have separated themselves from the Anglican Church of Canada, there is an abiding desire to remain in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and to maintain a place within the family of churches we know as the Anglican Communion.

What we must understand about the Vatican’s move is that it is not primarily aimed at the Anglican Communion of which we are a part. Many Anglicans (and certainly much of the media!) are unaware that there are over one hundred churches around the world which use the words “Anglican” or “Episcopal” in their names, but which are not in communion with Canterbury. They are a mixed bag theologically, but they all claim to be upholding key elements of Anglican tradition, contra the mainstream. Some of these churches have approached the Roman Catholic Church, requesting recognition as a part of that body, while retaining distinctive features of Anglicanism, most notably traditional Anglican worship and married clergy. The new measures are a response to those churches, not a direct attack on the mainstream of Anglicanism. Among the conditions they must meet is of course, the acceptance of Papal authority.

One of the churches involved is the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC), which split from the Anglican Church of Canada in the 70’s, in reaction to the ordination of women to the priesthood. Only time will tell what response groups such as the ACCC will make to the measures, which have yet to be spelled out in detail. And only time will tell what effect this will have on the broader stream of Anglicanism.

It struck me as a peculiar coincidence that all this happened just before our friends in the Lutheran and other Protestant churches were to celebrate “Reformation Sunday,” commemorating the day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg Church. The English Reformation began about 20 years later, first as a political event, only later coming under the influence of the European Reformation. I know Anglicans who regard the Reformation as one of the greatest triumphs of church history, and other Anglicans who see it as one of the greatest tragedies.

It seems to me that these events bring to the global stage an issue that many Anglican congregations (including St. Matthew’s Cathedral) are grappling with on the local level. What does it mean to be Anglican? We are heirs of the Reformation, but are we Catholic or Protestant, or something else? We might point to the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, but they have been variously interpreted by different schools of Anglicanism over the centuries. The Articles define a starting point (of sorts), but not really where we are today.

The groups such as the ACCC to whom Rome is responding have clearly identified some features of Anglicanism that matter to them. The Bishops at Lambeth in 1888 identified four things as essential to church unity, now commonly referred to as the “Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral.” Some today point to these as the one of the touchstones of Anglicanism:

1.        The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments….

2.        The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed…

3.        The two Sacraments ordained by Christ—Baptism and the Supper of the Lord…

4.        The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted…

The Anglican Communion has been engaged in ecumenical dialogues for forty years or more, including with the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, Lutherans, and Reformed. Some of these dialogues have borne visible fruit, such as the Waterloo Declaration of full communion between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Some are still “talk shops.” The most extensive series have been those of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), which has produced a number of important “agreed statements,” as well as discussion papers. ARCIC I was a hot topic around the time I entered seminary. It identified the very substantial areas of the faith on which our two communions agree, and pointed to the more difficult questions that remain to divide us, notably those of authority in the church, and the doctrines about Mary. Discussions around these questions continue, even as the Anglican Communion internally wrestles with identity questions, and local congregations ask themselves what is indispensable for our continued existence as Anglicans.

I believe we need to deal with this question on a number of levels. Yes, many of us have deep personal attachments to certain elements of our tradition. But even within this parish, we are hardly of one mind. The more important question is how we use what we have inherited to continue calling people to follow on the way with Jesus. That may mean giving up some things that are dear to us personally, for the greater good, even the church as we know it today. The priest who prepared me for confirmation told our class that he believed that the Anglican Church’s role was role was to die in the process of bringing all churches back together.

There is a greater good than my own needs. There is a greater good than that of our own congregation. There is a greater good than that of our Communion. The greater good is this: to seek out those who sit by the roadside calling for God’s mercy, to hear the call of Jesus our great high priest, and finally to stand in humility before our maker, acknowledging who God is, and who we are.

Time and God will tell what the future of our church will be. Let us then stand before God, seeking his wisdom, and his alone. And let us pray for the grace to do his will, to the glory of God’s name.