tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3977100651062963844.post1213191413727826622..comments2024-03-28T23:50:49.886-05:00Comments on Throne, Altar, Liberty: Why the Church Should Not Perform Same-Sex BlessingsGerry T. Nealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12137796641408373451noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3977100651062963844.post-63520317091433085262015-01-13T15:13:50.780-06:002015-01-13T15:13:50.780-06:00Even though I disagree with the canonicity of wome...Even though I disagree with the canonicity of women priests, I was impressed to see several women in clerics belonging to the ANiC at the March for Life in Ottawa. Canadian now Catholicnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3977100651062963844.post-48968200273063925122012-11-24T14:45:00.853-06:002012-11-24T14:45:00.853-06:00Thank you!
Something like what you have predicted...Thank you!<br /><br />Something like what you have predicted has already occurred here in North America. More than once actually. When the canons were changed to allow for the ordination of women back in the 1970's, several conservative Anglicans left to form a seperate orthodox Anglican denomination.<br /><br />Then, when the movement to liberalize the Church's teachings on homosexuality became popular the Anglican Essentials movement was founded to counter it, to call the Church back to orthodoxy. At one point, when dioceses began actually authorizing same-sex blessings, several of the Essentials Churches decided they could no longer remain within the Anglican Church of Canada or the Episcopal Church in the United States and seceded from their dioceses. The Canadian ones formed the Anglican Network in Canada, the American ones have a similar but slightly different name. The Essentials Churches that are continuing to try and be a voice for orthodoxy within the Anglican Church of Canada renamed their organization the Anglican Communion Alliance, I think in order to recognize that both ANiC and ACA Churches were "Essentials" Churches and that therefore the Essentials name should not be restricted to just the Churches that did not secede.<br /><br />A difference between the Churches that left over the ordination of women and the Churches that left more recently over same-sex blessings is that the latter are seeking recognition as an orthodox Province in the worldwide Anglican Communion, whereas the former simply regard themselves as the continuation of orthodox Anglicanism.<br /><br />For orthodox Anglicans, faced with the decision as to whether to stay as a "voice crying in the wilderness" in the main denomination or whether to secede, it seems like it comes down to a question of how you balance the different aspects of your duties to God. <br /><br />There is the fact that the Christian must place loyalty to God and His Word over loyalty to an institution. Then there is the fact that part of the duty we owe God is to guard, for those who have come after us, that which has been bequeathed to us from those who have gone before us. This is a duty enjoined upon all men, which applies to all of the various blessings God has bestowed upon us, and which must therefore be especially true for those of us who acknowledge faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. We do not want to be guilty of betraying this trust by abandoning the institutional Church to apostates, heretics, blasphemers, and unbelievers if we can at all prevent it.<br />Gerry T. Nealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12137796641408373451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3977100651062963844.post-16450644497311529202012-11-23T08:01:39.285-06:002012-11-23T08:01:39.285-06:00Thanks very much for an *excellent* piece which re...Thanks very much for an *excellent* piece which reveals an appreciation of the Anglican tradition which I certainly share. <br /><br />"For much of the last century... the Establishment Wing has led the Church into making one stupid decision after another to conform with an increasingly anti-Christian, corrupt and progressive culture. It is time for the Dissidents to lead the Church again, before the Establishment Wing eliminates every last vestige of recognizable Christianity from her."<br /><br />I agree in the short term - but up to the mid-twentieth century there was a theologically valid middle ground based on the Book of Common Prayer - and (among writers I know) epitomized by Maurice, HH Kelly, C.S Lewis and Charles Williams. <br /><br />This was displaced, I believe, by the liberalization of the then-dominant Anglo-Catholic intellectuals - who were socialists; perhaps especially Charles Gore and the collection of essays (which I have not myself read) called Lux Mundi - this looks, in retrospect, like the beginning of the end - either that or the debacle of the 1928 Prayer Book revision which was an example of Anglo-Catholic over-reach. <br /><br />So the C of E is now hollowed out - with only the (very small number of remaining) *serious* Anglo Catholics, and the Conservative Evangelicals (e.g. those associated with All Souls Langham Place, and in in the Reform group - but not the liberal evangelicals like Justin Welby)... <br /><br />Aside from a handful of Prayer Book traditionalists (like Peter Mullin), only these are real Christians; while all others (including the mass of Anglo Catholics and evangelicals) are Leftists first and Christians only where this does not conflict with Leftism.<br /><br />Which is to say, in effect, (going by the vote on priestess-bishops this week) something like 95 percent of Anglican bishops and 75 percent of the clergy are apostate anti-Christians<br /><br />(or else - in some instances - merely extremely stupid and unprincipled - which is possible but hardly more encouraging!) <br /><br />and therefore probably the most dangerous of all the enemies of real Christianity. <br /><br />So, any future for the CoE (as a Christian Church) is in the hands of the conservative evangelicals. <br /><br />Yet these are the group that least need the CoE; since they can raise all the money they need and attract all the clergy, workers and congregation they need, outwith the CoE administrative and career structure.<br /><br />Therefore it seems likely that the conservative evangelical Anglicans will probably, at some point, leave to set-up their own new Anglican denomination - or else become nonconformist and non-episcopal while retaining the BCP and 39 articles - as the reference point for doctrine, sacraments and liturgy. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.com