Everything You [n]Ever Wanted to Know About the Anglican Provincial Assembly

Well, I promised I would post my reflections on the Anglican Provincial Assembly, so here goes nothing. Some of you might find this incredibly boring... but I'll try to make it informative AND at least slightly opinionated in order to keep it interesting.

First, a couple basic facts about the Assembly:

• Over 800 attendees from all over North America, as well as some representatives from the global Anglican Communion. 234 of these attendees (including me!) were voting delegates, representing 28 dioceses or dioceses-in-formation.
• Purpose of the Assembly: formally launch the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), by ratifying the Constitution and Canons and installing Bishop Bob Duncan as Archbishop and Primate of the ACNA.
  
• Leaders of the various Anglican groups represented at the Assembly had worked on the proposed documents for many months, following up from last summer's GAFCON conference, and with the blessing of the GAFCON Primates. In other words, this was not an Assembly that just popped up out of nowhere - it's been a long time coming.
• Outcome of the Assembly: Constitution and Canons passed without a hitch. Archbishop installed in a beautiful service. Many attendees ecstatic that they finally have a new Province, a church of their own for orthodox Anglicans in North America.

I'm actually in this picture if you look reaaaaal closely...

Ok, enough with being "objective." If you want to read a more complete "objective" synopsis of the Assembly, check out this week's e-update from Church of the Redeemer [link to be posted soon].

I went to the Assembly with a lot of questions about the ACNA, the primary question being, "Is this movement something GOD is doing or something HUMANS are doing?" Granted, on this earth it's never completely one or the other, but I think the balance usually falls to one side more than the other. For example, when I attend AMiA Winter Conferences, I come home absolutely convinced that God is working through AMiA. I hoped that in attending the Provincial Assembly, I would get a better sense of how to evaluate the ACNA.

However, I left asking that same question - which surprised me a bit, considering the fact that during most of my time in Texas I was surrounded by people who are completely sold on the idea of the ACNA, who really believe that this Assembly marked a turning point for Anglicanism in the West, and who believe that God is bringing about a great reformation of the Western church in part through the efforts of North American Anglicans to stand for orthdoxy.

Maybe.

May it be.

But I have some concerns, which make me thankful that AMiA is staying AMiA, even as we are part of the ACNA (yeah, it's complicated... check out Bishop Murphy's statement).

• One of my biggest concerns is that the ACNA is emphasizing unity so strongly that honest discussion about differences is not occurring at this point... and that frightens me. There is a lot of history among the people ACNA is bringing together, and not all of it is Christ-like. In particular, some of the people who are now part of ACNA were highly critical toward AMiA when our leaders first turned to the global primates for "refuge" almost ten years ago. From what I gather, some of these old hurts have not been fully addressed; in fact, while I was at the assembly I sensed some general negativity toward AMiA from the other delegates. And we're not talking about it... That can be dangerous. Without some honest dialogue, confession, and forgiveness, there will be no true unity. Will ACNA foster dialogue or just say "forgive and forget" without doing the hard work the has to precede forgiveness? In my book, the jury is still out...
• Related to that, ACNA encompasses a variety of opinions about some hot-button issues, of which the most volatile is undoubtably women's ordination. Duncan's approach (written into the ACNA Constitution itself) is to say that as of right now this new Province will pass no law altering what individual groups and dioceses already allow concerning the ordination of women (particularly to the priesthood). To paraphrase ++Duncan, "we'll let God sort that issue out in His own time." I like this approach, but I can already tell that it bothers some people, particularly those who are most against women's ordination. My fear is that our enemy will get hold of these differences and tear the ACNA apart before it even gets off the ground... I fear that without much prayer, ACNA could become just another Christian group torn apart by anger, malice, and every other sin that threatens true unity. Pray, pray, pray...
• Finally, I have a sense that some, and perhaps even many, of those joining the ACNA are what I sometimes call "hard-core" Anglicans. To me, hard-core Anglicans are people who place high value on the nitty-gritty details of the Anglican tradition -- they can be snobby about things like which prayer book a group uses and whether the service music was dignified enough. Now, I'm all for the importance of tradition, BUT at the same time, I think there's an approach to liturgy and tradition that crystallizes it as "THE way" and actually deadens it, rather than letting it live and breathe and flex a bit. Anyway, all that to say that I fear the ACNA will be more focused on building church structure and continuing "right" tradition (in reaction against the Episcopal Church) that it neglects mission. In the words of an excellent article I read on this subject, I am worried that in ACNA, like in TEC, "causes replace gospel and self-authentication replaces mission."
  

It doesn't have to be this way. It could be that ACNA will prove to be more than a reactionary movement, more than just one more Christian splinter group that breaks away and then just keeps on splintering. But I am concerned, and concerned enough that I am thankful that AMiA is staying AMiA and continuing its attempts to be faithful to the calling we have received in North America and in partnership with Rwanda.

Forming a new Province is not as simple as ratifying a couple of documents. Forming a new Province, a new body of united Anglicans in North America, is a long process that requires a great deal of prayer and honest dialogue about past hurts and current differences. Unity cannot emerge simple by saying “we are united.” The hardest work of the ACNA might just be yet to come…

And in the meantime, let us pray.

Newly installed ACNA Archbishop Robert Duncan, a.k.a. "Crazy Eyebrows"