I am reading Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, which is the story of his involvement in the Spanish Civil War. It is a great little book. Last night I read a passage that reminded me of continuing Anglicanism. He wrote:
"The revolutionary atmosphere of Barcelona had attracted me deeply, but I made no attempt to understand it. As for the kaleidoscope of political parties and trade unions, with their tiresome names - PSUC, POUM, FAI, CNT, UGT, JCI, JSU, AIT, - they merely exasperated me. It looked at first site as though Spain were suffering from a plague of initials. I knew that I was serving in something called the POUM (I had only joined the POUM militia rather than any others because I happened to arrive in Barcelona with ILP papers), but I did not realize that there were serious differences between the political parties. At Monte Pocero, when they pointed to the position on our left and said: 'Those are the Socialists' (meaning the PSUC), I was puzzled and said: 'Aren't we all Socialists?' I thought it idiotic that people fighting for their lives should have seperate parties; my attitude always was, 'Why can't we drop this political nonsense and get on with the war?'"
He goes on in the same vein. This passage instantly reminded me not only of the alphabet soup of traditional Anglican groups, but also how distracting it all is from our mission to fulfill the Great Commission of Our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
