“But without the Canterbury connection, these churches would no longer be Anglican. What of it? As a body, the Anglican Communion is a little more than a century old. The “apostolic” nature of the Church of England itself rests on a shaky rhetorical sleight-of-hand and the Episcopal Organization’s “historicity” is even dicier than that.”

The last two sentences of this paragraph give the lie quite effectively to its first sentence. If the “Canterbury connection” is a defining feature of Anglicanism, this has been the case only since — when? 1867, the date of the first Lambeth Conference? Or later? It would certainly have come as a great surprise to the Nonjurors (who lasted in England from 1689 to 1806 or perhaps a bit later) to be told they were “not Anglican,” and by the same reasoning one would have to acknowledge that Samuel Seabury, in procuring his consecration by the Scottish Episcopalian bishops in 1784 after the English bishops refused to consecrate him, obtained it from a “non-Anglican” source, as the Scottish Episcopalians, being Nonjurors themselves from 1690 to 1789, both rejected the communion of Canterbury and were themselves spurned by Canterbury, which mainatined “English chapels” in Scotland right down to the 1840s.

But I do agree with you that “The “apostolic” nature of the Church of England itself rests on a shaky rhetorical sleight-of-hand.”

AMEN,Your advice is right on target The members of our congregation came to this conclusion two plus years before our Rector and Vestry finally realized that our Bishop was not going to do what he needed to do to preserve the Faith Once Delivered. The diocese of Central Florida was once considered to be a bastion of “orthodoxy” in the Episcopal Church, and our bishop was once considered to be counted among those who would contend for it.

The wait and see minds prevailed…. resulting in our parish, which was 99.9% in favor of leaving, property or not (seriously), losing 60% of its pledging units.
We have managed to extricate ourselves from TEC, but we are a bruised, bandaged and broken community, in survival mode. Our former Bishop, (in the name of being magnanimous)has allowed us to rent the buildings that we have prayed for, payed for, and built over the past 42 years.
We were one of seven parishes and two missions that have departed diocf in the past year.
I say all of this to warn anyone who has adopted the wait and see attitude….leave as God provides the opportunity for safe passage! Walk by faith, don’t wait for the Ecclesiastical Authorities to figure it out. Help them, by seeking to hear from the Lord, and share with them what He is saying. Be willing to Communicate with like minded Anglicans inside and outside of TEC. Become a font of information, if your leaders aren’t doing so. Don’t do what we did… don’t wait and wait and wait, it may be too late.

Great post here, Chris. You expressed my sentiments precisely and with more effective language. The time for “the way of the middle” has past. Bishops like McPherson, Love, and Lawrence better wake up. The Loon Left are in charge of TEC, and they are targeting the orthodox faithful one at a time.

The neo-con enablers in TEC (mostly the ACI types) show signs of waking from their massive codependency. With the illegal and uncanonical deposition of Duncan, the scales fall from their institutionalist eyes. Until they cast their lot with the new North American province, however, the are still blinded by a principled though suicidal addiction and cannot be trusted to fight vigorously.

Chris, your idea of a new province de facto is brilliant. Aren’t AMiA, CANA, and AMiC the very groups you are describing?

-Jim+

I would hope so, Jim. I just wish these people would get going.

Abishai, My in laws are in the Diocese of Central Florida. Which parish are you with?

This comment struck me for some reason, at T-19, Already left wrote:

“If the House of Bishops and all the rest of the “players” can violate their own canons, who says that churches and dioceses must follow theirs?”

Too bad orthodox are honorable, God-fearing and play by the rules… a little guerrilla warfare might be fun.

David Virtue has one of his finest posts ever on J.I. Packer’s encouraging and inspiring words to the Anglican Diocese of Virginia with a splendid list of amazing quotes.

Thank God for giving us such men as J.I.Packer and J. L. Iker.

My parish’s curate gave a sermon Sunday shaming the homosexuals in the parish (not by name, of course) for recently rejecting a visiting mother and young son. These same homosexuals are known for insisting that his wife leave their young daughter (20 months old, and quite charming) in the nursery instead of letting her talk to her daddy while he’s celebrating and/or preaching.

They said the same kind of things to my wife (“You will be availing yourselves of the nursery, won’t you?”) before our first daughter was born.

Although I have previously decided to stay and fight (at least by my presence) I had not been to Mass for almost two months. This sermon has almost convinced me to stay and fight a while longer. And be vocal about it.

Conservative Anglicans should immediately begin to set their own policies, call their own ”Lambeth Conferences” and issue their own statements. In other words, they should start acting as though the Archbishop of Canterbury no longer existed.

What is GAFCON if not this?

On the other hand, it seems CAPA has lost the plot:

African call for unity – C.E.N. 26th Sept 08
Yesterday, 04:54 PM
THE CHAIRMAN of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) has called upon the African church to put aside its differences and engage with its theological opponents within the Anglican Communion.

CAPA should eschew a political solution to the divisions over doctrine and disciple Archbishop Ian Ernest said, and focus instead on the church’s transformation through Christian witness.

and it gets much worse. Engagement is precisely not what is required: what we need is immediate excommunication of heretics and the immediate construction of a new communion.

“This is why I hope for the sake of the Anglican tradition, that a conservative North American province is formed as soon as possible,”

Is there not already a plethora of conservative Anglican provinces in North America? Pretty much one for every possible taste?

Western Louisiana’s Stephen Henthorne thinks the Episcopal inside strategy has failed:

He’s not the only one. Too bad Matt Kennedy et al at SFIF still support an inside strategy.

CJ: “To put it bluntly, if you have not left the Episcopal Organization by now, you will never leave it.”

This loving directness applies to Sarah Hey, Jackie Bruschi, Kendall Harmon, +Mark Lawrence, Rob Eaton+, +Howe, +MacPherson, and all the other Institutionalist-Enablers.

Thanks for being forthright, CJ. (And for coming around to something that I’ve never ever wavered or budged on.)

If you think that the Mass is like an opera with no sex, you will of course object to children being there and interrupting.

“We both deeply regret that we can’t continue to follow Bishop MacPherson down the middle of the road.”

Hey! Where’s Teddy Mak? Teddy has long trumpeted the fierce courage of “fearless” +MacPherson while I have always been skeptical of Teddy’s claims about +MacPherson.

P.S. The little boy who laughed at the emperor with no clothes probably got a swift kick to the seat of his little pants, and had to go to bed with no supper as an injust reward for all his truth-telling troubles.

Sunofabeach.

Truther,

Matt Kennedy+ would be fascinated to learn he is supporting an inside strategy. His church is locked in the usual court battle over property, the parish having departed TEO.

Treg

The remaining Anglican Christians in North America have so many disputes with each other as to prevent any united front against those who run TEO.

This multi-decade sequence of small groups of Chrisitans splitting from PECUSA/ECUSA/TEC/TEO while accepting every incremental change except for the very last one implies a subtle and malign intelligence at work in TEO.

TU&D, as far as I know Matt Kennedy is out of TEC and being sued to boot.

From the sounds of it The Anglican Province of North America is so close we can taste it. Fred, Kate and Rowan can protest all they want.

In a word what can they do to stop it? Repent!

In a word what will they do? nothing!

TUaD,

Maybe Teddy Mak is a way having a “discretion recharge.” Remember how keen he once was on the White Knight, Rowan Williams, who was going to save the day at Lambeth 2008, if only the “orthodox” would tarry in TEC yet a while longer, and not go off and join the “extremists?”

I hope that the “recharge” takes some effect — but if he returns and starts going on about how those who are pro-WO and anti-WO will have to “agree to disagree” and stick together, then we’ll know it’s the same old guy.

gppp,

Nursery? Not until I started visiting Anglican parishes had I ever encountered such a thing. The “cry room” is a new-fangled invention to us Catholics. It’s just not mass without babies.

And another thing that annoys me – having separate services for the kids. Children belong in mass; how else are they going to learn? And none of this bringing toys or coloring books; I had to sit still and content myself with making shadow puppets on the floor. Cheerios to snack on? Forget that nonsense. But I go on.

James G

Steve L.,

Given the percentage of Episcopalians who have persisted in treating the Episcopal Church the way Spanish Catholics treated Rome in 1530, a new North American province is only close the way Achilles is to the turtle in Zeno’s Paradox.

I don’t understand how anyone without an exclusivist ecclesiology can even contemplate putting up with the TEO nonsense. Middle-of-the-road, wait-and-see; why bother? Anglicanism has never claimed to be THE Church so if you don’t even believe that Anglicanism is THE Church why stick around?

If I didn’t believe that the Catholic Church was THE Church I wouldn’t stick around either. If I thought God would be just as happy with me if I went to a stadium on Sunday with reclining chairs and a coffee bar to watch projector screens where everyone was cool with divorce and loose morality and all I had to do was “be a nice guy” why would I bother with confession and trying to improve in sanctity and trying to do His will?

Lord, to whom shall we go? Jesus established one Church and by gosh if I’m serious about following Him I’m going to make sure I’m where He wants me to be. If you don’t even believe that your church is THE Church then what could possibly entice you to stay and put up with all the nonsense? Apathy over your own spiritual condition; disregard for the Lord’s will; sheer laziness? – that’s about all I can think of. “Fighting the good fight” is just another way of saying “I’m stuck in a rut and change is just so hard.” Is TEO worth dying for? Then it ain’t worth fighting for either.

James G

I know Matt Kennedy and his parish has left TEC and is being sued.

What I meant when I said that Matt supports the inside strategy is that I recently read in either a comment or blogpost by Matt at SFIF whereby he explicitly states that he supports the inside strategy.

My tentative opinion is that he was merely trying to give polite cover to his Institutionalist-Enabler co-bloggers, Sarah Hey and Jackie Bruschi.

Steve G. and others,

The ONLY way children can learn Mass etiquete is by attending Mass, under proper parental control!
We revisited our former TEO congregation last Sunday and ‘enjoyed’ the antics of the deacon’s two year old grandaughter processed with her, sat at the prei deau with her and played in her prayer book as Linda conducted the service (deacon’s distribution).
(The only reason we attended was to receive the Mass, the local MS congregation only has communion on the 1st and 3rd Sundays, and I really need the Mass at least weekly).

Chip+, cj

My husband has often said that High Mass at our Anglo-Catholic parish is like grand opera in a stable, and that was not a criticism, but rather a comment on the energy present during the Mass.

Several young families with children left after the GC2003 debacle and consequences, but we are starting to get more now, so I look forward to the liveliness of our worship returning to what it was in 2002.

And I HEARTILY agree with Anglican Father Chip: The ONLY way children can learn Mass etiquette is by attending Mass, under proper parental control!

Package of Life Savers,
3 Crayons
2 Sheets of Scrap Paper
Small Stuffed Animal
1 Toy Car
1 Small Doll
Book of Bible Stories
Kleenex, Kleenex and Kleenex

What are the contents of a Catholic mom’s purse during Mass?

The elbow grab
The light underarm pinch
The sideways hush
The missal swat
The death threat smile
The wide eyed glare of doom.

What are the favorite silent discipline methods of the Catholic mom during Mass?

If I thought God would be just as happy with me if I went to a stadium on Sunday with reclining chairs and a coffee bar to watch projector screens where everyone was cool with divorce and loose morality and all I had to do was “be a nice guy”…

If I thought that I’d conclude that He’d rather I were properly amused on Sundays, and I’d ride my bike, play Frisbee or run trains.

a coffee bar … where everyone was cool with divorce and loose morality and all I had to do was “be a nice guy”…Sounds like TEC.