On the Alternative Anglican Province for North America

You may want to read this first:
Episcopal Split as Conservatives Form New Group

On the Proposed Formation of an Alternative Anglican Province in North America

The Very Rev. Matt Gunter, Dean in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago

As members of the Episcopal Church and of the World Wide Anglican Communion, we are saddened by the creation of a supposed alternative Anglican Province in North America. We regret that some members of the Episcopal Church have decided they are unable to worship God with us or to bear witness with us to the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are diminished by their absence from our midst. We suspect they are diminished as well. We need the encouragement and challenge of one another in our diversity in order to more fully live into our call to be the body of Christ in these times.

Contrary to what some claim, the Prayer Book and the doctrine of the Episcopal Church remain solidly in line with traditional creeds of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. It remains the official Anglican presence in the United States. The Episcopal Church does much good in reaching out in service to a hurting world in the name of Christ’s kingdom. It is a church where the scriptures are read and the sacraments celebrated. While there is considerable disagreement on a range of contentious contemporary issues, we remain a comprehensive church which includes members of Evangelical, Catholic and more Liberal convictions. There are bishops, priests and laity who, while sharing some of the concerns of those who are leaving, are unconvinced that splitting the church solves more problems than it creates.

We are saddened by the cycle of provocation and reaction in the church which all too often mirrors the polarized rhetoric of our society. As sharers in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation, we all need to find better ways to engage one another over serious disagreements that reflect forbearance and charity toward one another if our witness to a broken and divided world is to have any credibility.

In the Episcopal Church:

All are welcome (and welcome back)

All will be encouraged.

All will be challenged.

All will be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Or, then there is this Response:

Top Ten Reasons to Start Your Own Non-Geographical 'Anglican' Province

10. Frequent travel to warmer, more exotic climes: The Southern Cone, Africa, etc.

9. Evangelicals get to triumph the 39 Articles and Anglo-Catholics get to ignore most of the 39 Articles and everyone else doesn’t really care as long as there are no LGBT people around or women leading worship (neither of which is mentioned in the 39 Articles).

8. You get to pray with your own prayer book – or not – and in your own way: standing up with your arms raised; or head bowed and on your knees; or with prayer beads in hand; or, while listening to traditional hymns played on an organ or contemporary songs accompanied by a praise band.

7. Never any confusion or need to consider the ‘real meaning’ of scripture – a male, orthodox priest, bishop or primate will tell you what it means.

6. You know the ‘Way, Truth and life of Jesus’ and no one else does, and you don’t have to share it with anyone unless they agree to sign the Jerusalem Statement.

5. You have sole ownership of the ‘faith first delivered to the saints’.

4. No yucky female bishops or primates thinking they can tell you what to do – female priests in the former Diocese of Pittsburgh, however, are in impaired communion with the former Bishop of Fort Worth (but the male priests, apparently, are not).

3. No LGBT people in the pews or in vestments, unless they are healed and celibate and tithing – and even then . . . . .

2. You can really believe that Jesus loves you best, even if the Archbishop of Canterbury doesn’t.

And, the number one reason to start your own non-geographical Anglican province:
1. The folks over at TEC will always leave the porch light on so you can find your way back home.

by Elizabeth Kaeton