When I was a kid, I loved a TV show called To Tell the Truth. Three guests would come on the show, each claiming to be the same person. A panel of judges (minus Simon) would ask questions and then vote on the one they believed to be the true person. To add drama, the host would say “Would the real Mr. X please stand up” and just as the true person was to be revealed, there would be several halting movements by the others. When the true person finally stood up, inevitably there would be a reaction by the panel and studio audience, particularly by those who had been fooled by the imposters. Admittedly it wasn’t as exciting as lost people eating dead bugs on a reality show but it was the 50’s and we thought that it was good TV. 

I have thought of that show with the latest machinations in the Anglican World. Things are shifting so dramatically that with it the definition of what it means to be an Anglican is shifting. It’s getting more and more difficult for the average person to tell the difference between the imposters and the real thing. I thought therefore that it might be helpful to address this so that you can be clear in your own minds about who we are and where we are going.

It used to be pretty simple. To be an Anglican meant that you accepted the doctrine, discipline and worship of the province in which you resided. So if you lived in Scotland you attended the Scottish Episcopal Church, if you lived in England you worshipped in the Church of England and if you lived in the US you attended what was once called The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. Being an Anglican also meant that the bishops of your province were in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the titular head of the Anglican Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury holds a meeting of Anglican bishops every ten years at Lambeth and if you are invited, then you are in, and if not, then you are not. That was the past but this is a new and not necessarily better day.

As most of you know, things changed in 2003. In 2003 The Episcopal Church (TEC) “consecrated” its first non celibate gay bishop, against the clear teaching of Holy Scripture, two thousand years of consistent interpretation by the Church on biblical morality, the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the 2002 Hong Kong meeting of the Anglican Consultative Counsel, the Report of the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church and the emergency meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion in October 2003. So after TEC proved that it was literally hell-bent on having its own way, a crisis emerged for the Communion. The warning was that the “fabric of the Communion would be torn” and so it was because the Communion sees itself interlinked in such a way that what touches one, touches all.

Over the next several years, because of the failure of the Archbishop of Canterbury to properly discipline TEC, Anglican Primates and Bishops around the world began to distance themselves from TEC. Some declared themselves in broken communion and some impaired communion. Since these Primates and Bishops represented nearly 2/3rds of the Anglican Communion this was no small matter.

At the last gathering of the Bishops at Lambeth in 2008 many significant Primates and Bishop refused to attend because TEC was allowed to participate. To make matters worse, the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to invite missionary bishops who were under valid provinces, such as Nigeria and Rwanda, because they were in the process of creating a new province in North America. The Archbishop of Canterbury thereby equated sexual immorality with crossing diocesan lines. This meant that our CANA bishops were not recognized by Canterbury even though they were consecrated by Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria who oversees 25% of the Anglican Communion. Last summer CANA participated in the creation of a new province and Archbishop Robert Duncan was consecrated as leader of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) but he too has yet to be recognized by Canterbury. So are we Anglican or are we not? Meanwhile Bishops of TEC who have denied Jesus as He is revealed in the Scriptures are invited to Lambeth. Does that make them Anglican? You can see how complicated things are right now. Some days I feel as confused as an Amish electrician. So what is going on and where do we go from here? I suggest a number of things.

1. The main thing is be sure that the main thing is the main thing. The main thing is to know that Jesus is the Christ and that in Him we have life eternal. He alone is the Head of the Church. You don’t have to be invited to Lambeth for that to happen. To put it another way, be certain that you are a Christian first and an Anglican second. We are members of Christ’s Body and His Body will continue to exist even if Anglicanism disappeared from the face of the earth tomorrow. Jesus meant it when He said that the gates of hell will not be able to prevail against His Church. You are on sure ground.
2. Understand that the Anglican Communion is going through a reformation and that it will very likely look different than its pre reformation self. To use another analogy, Jesus speaks in John about pruning the vine so that it can bear more fruit and Anglicanism is going through some MAJOR pruning. The Bishops who refused to participate in the last Lambeth Conference gathered in Jerusalem. They called it Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). They began work on a covenant that defines Anglicanism as what we believe rather than who Canterbury recognizes. At a recent meeting of GAFCON Primates they said, “We believe that it is only by a theologically grounded, biblically shaped reformation such as the one called for by the Jerusalem Declaration that God’s Kingdom will advance. The Anglican Communion will only be able to fulfill its gospel mandate if it understands itself to be a community gathered around a confession of faith rather than an organization that has its primary focus on institutional loyalty.” These Bishops even challenged the notion of Canterbury as titular head of the Communion, seeing it as the last vestiges of British colonialism. Frankly I applaud that because I have always believed that the weakest link in Anglicanism is that the head of our church is chosen by the British monarch rather than by a college of bishops as the Romans do. What makes us Anglican should be about what we believe and how we worship rather than to what meetings we are invited. In fact since TEC and Anglican Church of Canada are invited to such meetings I am pleased that our Bishops are not.

(ref I Corinthians 5:11)

1. Since TEC shows no sign of repentance and Canterbury lacks the fortitude to truly lead, I see the gap between Lambeth and GAFCON widening. Next month TEC will “consecrate” an activist lesbian as bishop sending further shock waves throughout the Communion. The Primates just gathered in Singapore and their response was definitive. Archbishop Ian Ernest, who is chair of the Anglican Provinces of Africa, has suspended all communication, “both verbal and sacramental” with TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada (which has mirrored TEC’s heresy). The Archbishop of Burma has made it known that Burmese refugees who come to America are not to worship in TEC because TEC has abandoned the faith. As I read responses from around the Communion I hear a new level of confrontation. It puts me in mind of the passage where St. Paul speaks of turning someone over to Satan for the destruction of his body that his soul might be saved. The kid gloves are off. The Bishops are fighting for the life of the Communion and they will be heard.
2. Be at peace that these events in the Communion are nothing new and need to be seen in historic context. The story of salvation history is the story of the remnant (ref. Romans 9:27). The remnant are those within the people of God who remain faithful while others are compromised by the culture or dilute the faith or even add the worship of other gods to their practices. Lest you think that last statement is an exaggeration, you can read a story on the internet of a cathedral in North Carolina that allowed practitioners of goddess worship to use cathedral space for their spring festival. www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/25758

But God in his mercy, throughout salvation history, has always preserved a remnant who “has not bent the knee to Baal.” Sometimes the remnant was as small as a family, as in the case of Noah and at other times the remnant was quite large, like those who Joshua led into the land of Promise. So within the Anglican Communion we see those who have abandoned the faith and God’s remnant, such as the new province in America.

1. We need to embrace Christ’s pruning as a positive thing. He does it so that we can bear more fruit and frankly it’s hard to bear fruit when you are dragging around a lot of dead wood. As unfortunate as it was to have schism here in the US, consider the outcome. TEC continues to lose members at an alarming rate of nearly 1,000 per week while Mrs. Schori continues to spend millions of dollars on lawsuits across the nation. Meanwhile Archbishop Duncan just announced that our new province ACNA, founded less than one year ago (June 2009), has added 106 new churches either by joining or as church plants. At the end of this month a new diocese is being formed in Atlanta. This is some good fruit and it is fruit that will remain.

How does all of this shifting in the Anglican Communion impact St. Patrick’s? To be frank, on a day to day basis it does not have a significant impact. We will continue to worship, plan for a new chapel on the property, share the Good News and love and support one another. As far as oversight, there have been ongoing changes which are for the good. We will continue as a part of CANA because CANA connects us to the largest part of the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Akinola, who is retiring, was one of the principal leaders in forming GAFCON and so this puts us on the right side of the divide between Lambeth and GAFCON. Since CANA was a founding member of ACNA, we also look to Archbishop Duncan for leadership. He too is a GAFCON bishop. And even though he is not currently recognized by Canterbury, to put it in the vernacular, he’s running with the big dogs.
Our more immediate connection with ACNA will be as partners of the new diocese, the Anglican Diocese of the South (ADOS).  It will take a congregational vote to leave CANA and become full members of ADOS but there is not pressure to make that decision. Right now both CANA and ADOS are content to let us have “dual citizenship.” Our other immediate connection to ACNA is through Bishop Ackerman with whom Fr. Ray has a personal connection and who has offered his services as one who sits in the College of Bishops in ACNA. So in terms of being connected and having oversight….boy howdy do we have it!

So if anyone ever challenges you that we are not truly Anglican, then you can pull out about a half dozen membership cards from your wallet. You are a member of St. Patrick’s Anglican Church that follows the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Book of Common Prayer. You are a part of CANA and therefore a part of the Province of Nigeria. You are also a part of ACNA and ACNA and CANA connect you to the GAFCON Primates. Bazinga! When someone says, “Will the real Anglican please stand up?” Don’t hesitate to stand up with pride. Pray for the faithful Primates who will guide us into a new day for the Anglican world and pray that through this work the kingdom of God will be expanded and bring glory to Jesus who is “the firstborn of all creation, the head of the Church, and the author of our salvation.”

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Chapel News
Blessings are flowing for St. Patrick’s as we seek to have a permanent home on our beautiful property. After completing a Master Plan for all future phases the Building Committee, with the guidance of Doug Atkin, determined that phase one should be a chapel. We have hired Trinity Design out of Murfreesboro to design it and Dow Smith of Smyrna to build it.

While we are just in the beginning stages of design, it seems that what makes most sense for us, in terms of cost and appropriateness, is what is called carpenter gothic. Picture a white clapboard chapel with red doors sitting on farmland in Tennessee. We also are planning to have a gathering space, bathrooms and a nursery along with the nave. For now we will use St. Patrick’s House for Christian Education.

We expect the project to run between $400,000 and $500,000 and so our goal is to raise $80,000+ as a 20% down payment. A generous donor has agreed to match every dollar given to the Chapel Fund and so in just two weeks of raising money, with the matching funds, we have reached $38,816 or 48% of our goal! We hope and pray that people will continue to give sacrificially and if we go over our goal I promise that the Building Committee will get over it.