Continuing Anglicans

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Bithynian said:
(4) a trend towards conservative, Reformed evangelicanism that is supplanting Anglo-Catholicism in several provinces.
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Yes.

A few months ago some of us shared our (mostly happy) memories of the Anglican church in the 70’s and 80’s, and observed that the charismatic movement which was prominent then has mostly been eclipsed by Evangelicals. I guess you would include Anglo-Catholics as the other dominant stream to have fallen by the wayside.

In that discussion I even found a book about the history of the Anglican church in Australia which confirmed our recollections of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
 
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Edmundus1581 said:
In that discussion I even found a book about the history of the Anglican church in Australia which confirmed our recollections of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
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I was formerly an Anglo-Catholic (many fond memories), and I still stay up to date with Sydney Anglican news: it’s a fascinating insight into Australian evangelical culture.

I think it was a year or two ago when a(n evangelical) synod member presented a report, lamenting the essential dilution of Anglicanism in Sydney (and some other dioceses) into “undifferentiated Protestantism”. They noted one complaint regarding a parish pastor who removed the communion table and brought in a folding card table for the Lord’s Supper.

There was also a book published two Australian Presbyterians (of the non-Uniting stripe) discussing the same phenomenon: the abandonment of liturgy, the adoption of genericised worship, etc. You essentially can’t tell the difference between the worship (and sometimes even the theology) of most denominational evangelical churches in Australia.
 
Bithynian said:
There was also a book published two Australian Presbyterians (of the non-Uniting stripe) discussing the same phenomenon: the abandonment of liturgy, the adoption of genericised worship, etc. You essentially can’t tell the difference between the worship (and sometimes even the theology) of most denominational evangelical churches in Australia.
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Interesting!

I’ve been in Adelaide for thirty years now, and my limited observation of the Anglican parishes here is that an Anglican will shop around for either a liturgically oriented parish or the generic, Evangelical, low-liturgy parish. The liturgically oriented ones are the majority and fairly traditional. Adelaide tends to be, in most things, slightly more conservative and “high brow” than the rest of Australia.

The beautiful Lutheran churches (from the late 19th century) are a feature of our landscape, along with the Anglican ones. The Catholic presence has always been less visible, albeit with some lovely exceptions.
 
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As a Catholic, I have observed that some Anglican Communion ecclesial communites are more Anglo Catholic, some more Protestant.

Liturgically, it seems like the Episcopal Church is more Anglo Catholic, while here in New Zealand it seems the Anglican Church is more Protestant, as in Ireland, England (although the CofE is notably more Broad church) and some other countries.

I find it bewildering that the Church of England and the Episcopal Church, both of which have denied (or do not practise) important theological truths, are still in communion with the African Anglican churches which are very conservative.
 
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catholic03 said:
still in communion with the African Anglican churches
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It’s more-or-less a de facto schism rather than de jure. Most (but not all) African dioceses and bishops tend to associate more with continuing Anglican organisations, such as GAFCON, or have their own missions in the US and Canada, such as the Anglican Mission in the Americas which is - I think - under African episcopal oversight.

In addition, orthodox bishops regularly censure those who are heterodox, preventing them from preaching and ministering within their dioceses. This was the case when Australian Archbishops Peter Hollingworth (of Brisbane) and Peter Jensen (of Sydney) censured the visiting American Bishop John Spong (of Newark) as he was essentially a non-theist.
 
Is the Continuum made up mostly of persons leaning towards Anglo Catholic/High Church perspective, or towards Evangelical Anglican?

I know you explained the slight distinction (High Church vs Anglo Catholic) to me a couple years ago, but I can’t even remember what I had for supper yesterday.

As I have a little bit of time left on my dime, I wouldn’t mind if anyone compared the Continuum mix to ACNA.

My uninformed guess is that the Continuum is a more homogeneous group leaning to High Church or Anglo Catholic end, while ACNA is more of a mixture of sometimes disparate groups, “high” and “low”,though with unity as well. I bet they have more range between conservative to moderate types as well.
 
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commenter said:
  1. Is the Continuum made up mostly of persons leaning towards Anglo Catholic/High Church perspective, or towards Evangelical Anglican?
  2. I know you explained the slight distinction (High Church vs Anglo Catholic) to me a couple years ago, but I can’t even remember what I had for supper yesterday.
  3. As I have a little bit of time left on my dime, I wouldn’t mind if anyone compared the Continuum mix to ACNA.
My uninformed guess is that the Continuum is a more homogeneous group leaning to High Church or Anglo Catholic end, while ACNA is more of a mixture of sometimes disparate groups, “high” and “low”,though with unity as well. I bet they have more range between conservative to moderate types as well.
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  1. The Continuum is more inclined to the Anglo-Catholic/High Church end. These were the folks who (mostly) led the exodus from Egypt back around 40+ years ago, since the original issues (liturgy, clergy) attracted them more strongly. But there was a mix of the Anglican spectrum from the beginning. My own parish was formed mainly by escapees from the most Anglo-Catholic parish in the area, with other such from other local parishes, plus odds and ends. Over the years, the continued but dwindling remnants of the faithful leaving for the Continuum became much more mixed, as the Episcopal Church continued to collapse across the spectrum of theological points. So the divide has gotten watered down.
  2. The distinction is pedantic and historical, but I occasionally point it out. Anglo-Catholic would address those folks whose roots were in the Oxford/Tractarian movement in the CoE, back in the early 1830s. More oriented toward doctrine than liturgy. The High Church was begun a little later, around 20 years or so, when the Ritualist movement, based on the Oxford movement, mainly, began to regain the liturgical richness (vestments, candles, incense, and such) to become what one might call the Anglo-Catholic/High Church version of Anglicanism (second generation Anglo-Catholicsm). It’s a nit-picky distinction that no one need worry about. It now refers to the same thing.
  3. Pretty much. But the ACNA is a house split against itself. Primarily (I guess, I don’t know personally) it is majority low/evangelical with a softness for the idea of female clergy (after Bishop Duncan’s views) and a minority who follow Bishop Iker, and don’t feel quite that way (and are more Anglo-Catholic). This is the sort of thing that makes me feel kindly toward the ACNA, for their efforts, and keep a discreet distance from them. Until they get that sorted out, as eventually they will have to do.
 
I think it would not be wholly inaccurate to suggest that the ordination of women is a major issue for the Continuum in North America, but is much less so among the conservative Communion churches in Africa, where issues around the question of homosexuality have been particularly prominent.
 
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I know of no Continuum Churches who play with that idea. The ACNA does, but they are not, by definition, Continuum.

Added:

Having reread, or maybe more like really read your post, You’re correct.
So was I, but not to any pertinent point.

Maybe.
 
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