Heinz 57 Variety

There is an interview on Virtuosity with David Virtue by the Reformed writer Michael Horton. I think that every continuing Anglican should listen to it. Horton and Virtue blame the demise of the Anglican communion on a slow disregard for doctrine and the authority of Scripture that began in the seminaries and slowly trickled down throughout the Church. For Anglicanism to have a future, they say, it must recover the authority of Scripture and take doctrine and dogma a lot more seriously. The use of the Book of Common Prayer and the affirmation of the 39 Articles as a doctrinal standard or "confession" is also needed as part of the recovery process. I would agree with all of that, except as far as the Articles of Religion as they understand them are concerned (though I think they definitely do have an important place within Anglicanism). After saying all of this Horton and Virtue, at the end of the interview, talk about how the great Global South, and now the "new" province is going to set things right within the world of Anglicanism and turn all of that around. But the question is are they? My answer is no - they will not.

The problem is that they are simply "The Episcopal Church Five Minutes Before Gene Robinson Was Consecrated". The Most Rev'd. Frank Griswold used to be referred to as "Pluriform Frank" because he believed that many different, contradictory truths could all be held together without any problems. That same pluriformity is, sadly, enshrined in this new American province in the form of "two integrities" concerning women's ordination. In the new province it is both right and wrong to ordain women. So much for recovering doctrinal integrity. Virtue and his ilk still do not see how WO is part of the whole pansexuality problem. Further, the new province is seeking to be admitted as a new province in the Anglican communion, so assuming that happens they will be in communion with those bodies that affirm pansexuality, universalism, etc. The new province also has the same mess of liturgical confusion as the Episcopal Church had, with many parishes (especially in AMiA, it seems) having a smorgasborg "liturgy" composed of a little of this, and little of that... whatever works, whatever the pastor feels like doing. Liturgical confusion leads inevitably to more and more doctrinal confusion. Although many of the groups that make up the new province give lip service to the 1662 BCP I have yet to hear of a single parish that actually uses it, or any other historic Prayer Book for that matter. That, incidentally, is probably why a watered down Calvinism permeates many of these groups. Because they do not use the Prayer Book (a real Prayer Book) they are under the delusion that Calvinist soteriology is somehow compatible with Anglicanism. If they read the Prayer Book they would see that it is not. One AMiA minister told me once that he didn't even know what Anglicanism was all about! So the new province is in my judgment simply perpetuating the same problems that have torn up the Anglican communion in the first place. More Methodist than Anglican, it will most likely run into great difficulties down the road unless these foundational problems are resolved.

Meanwhile, the hated, scorned, and despised so-called "Heinz 57" variety of continuing Anglicans - those who saw the writing on the wall long ago - have maintained a faithful, orthodox, classical Anglican witness. We (along with some others, to be sure) have preserved the classical Prayer Book, the great hymns of the 1940 Hymnal, the beautiful poetry of the Authorized Version, the traditions of the faith, the great missals, manuals, and other liturgical books - nothing less than the full integrity of the Anglican and Catholic faith for the world. In contrast to ACNA, the continuing Anglican churches (which are essentially divided into two big blocks) use the same liturgy, have the same beliefs about the priesthood, faith, and sacraments, and have the same traditions. In the face of great trials and tribulations from both within and without we have faithfully maintained and proclaimed the Gospel of Christ for almost 40 years. And yet we are largely scorned by these folk. We are so scorned by others because they know that we were right. They keep hoping we will go away, or fold into them, but we won't. We will always be here to proclaim the Anglican and Catholic faith until Christ comes again!