Sunday, July 26, 2009


Anglican Schism, Ho-Hum

The Anglican church's crumbling foundations | Stephen Bates | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk:

If the Americans are shown the door the consequences for worldwide Anglicanism are incalculable and not just because the wealthy US church largely pays for and sustains the communion, including in those parts of the world where the church's mission would not otherwise survive. In the Church of England there are many who find they have more in common with their American brethren than with the strident, coercive voices they hear from the conservatives.

So the Anglican Communion as an institution is over. So what? Why did we ever need it in the first place? I can still go to any Anglican church in the world and feel perfectly comfortable going for Communion. So can anyone else, if they have the nerve, whether Anglican or not--no one is checking. What difference does it make if there's an Anglican Communion with an institutional struction and bishops that fly around the world to have confabs with one another?

I thought the whole point of having a "Communion" was that anyone who was a member of a church in the Communion could take Communion in any church within the Communion. It was like having one's money in a bank that had lots of branches around the world with ATMs where one could do banking business. Suppose Bank of America fragments so that my local branch is no longer part of the same firm as all these other branches around the world but I can still use their ATMs without paying additional fees. Why should I care? The institutional structure makes no difference to me so long as I can conduct my banking business conveniently wherever I go. The Anglican Communion makes no difference to members if they can still go to Communion in any Anglican church, whether in or out of the Anglican Communion. What else is there?

I suppose there's the money--and lots of it. For churches outside of the US being in the Anglican Communion has been like Having Contacts: it provides access to the money and power of the Episcopal Church. When the schism becomes official, will the Episcopal Church keep sending money to poor Anglican Churches in the Global South? And if it does, will they accept it? Hell I care. If the Episcopal Church stops sending money or other churches stop accepting it, then the Episcopal Church will just plow it back into endowment or use it to litigate over church property in the US and to maintain empty churches. Why should I care? I contribute to Oxfam. There are plenty of secular charities sending money to the Global South and no particular reason to have that money channeled through the Episcopal Church.

So I am still puzzled. What is the point of the Anglican Communion? It isn't needed as a vehicle for income transfers from the US to the Global South. It certainly doesn't exist to maintain doctrinal uniformity--that's the last thing I or most other Anglicans want. It doesn't issue Communion tickets because anyone can go to Communion in any Anglican church no questions asked and no ticket needed. So what on earth was it ever for? And what bad consequences will there be if it splinters into two or two hundred fragments?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

十年大陸越南新娘介紹經驗,合法的婚姻介紹機構,嚴肅,專業的婚姻介紹網站,擁有台灣多家外籍新娘婚姻協會人員合作,本網站是由大陸當地台灣媒人所設立,位於廣西省,臨近越南河內,娶外籍新娘通過本站直接到異國娶親,省掉台灣外籍新娘婚姻仲介中間環節,可以節省費用,全台各地都有我們所服務過的客人,如有需要可提供電話詢問,我們的口碑經的起檢驗,也可為你推薦台灣合法信譽好的婚姻協會人員為你服務,希望通過我們讓你以最經濟實惠的方式找到理想的伴侶,能夠為有緣人牽線搭橋,異國姻緣一線牽,歡迎以婚姻為目的,具備嚴肅婚姻心態,有責任感,有心想娶外籍新娘的台灣單身男士與我們聯繫,我們將誠心為您服務!
外籍新娘
大陸新娘
越南新娘
東北新娘
廣西新娘
吉林新娘
福建新娘
中國新娘>>>參考網站