Highways and Hedgerows

December 10, 2008 at 2:26 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments

By Robin G. Jordan

I have good reasons for urging Reformed Evangelicals to form a strong network that links together Reformed Evangelicals in the new Anglican Church in North America with Reformed Evangelicals outside that body and to establish a vigorous presence and an even more robust sphere of influence in the new province. They have a lot to gain from achieving these goals.

Reformed Evangelicals have an opportunity right now that is not likely to be repeated. The new province is affinity based and not geographically based. This means that the affinity-based judicatories that form the new province may plant and grow new churches throughout the United States and Canada. They are not restricted to a specific territory like a diocese. The only exceptions are the four breakaway Episcopal dioceses.

If Reformed Evangelicals establish themselves in a position of leadership in one or more judicatories of the new province, they can carve out a substantial niche in the new province. The only restraint upon the place that they can establish for themselves in the new province will be the number of new congregations that they can form. There are no territorial limitations as in other Anglican provinces. One church party cannot stake out a piece of real estate and bar other church parties from its turf.

I spent 27 years in the field of social work. I developed some expertise in evaluating people’s capacity, readiness, and motivation for change. It takes a crisis of some kind to motivate most people to change. They are off balance and they seek to reduce the tension that the crisis has created. Once they regain their balance, the motivation for change quickly fades. The trick for a social worker is partner with those in crisis to bring about change in their lives while they are still motivated to change. When the crisis is past and they have regained their balance, then the social worker must look for other motivators for change in the lives of his clients. I worked largely with involuntary clients—those referred by the state child protection agency and the courts.

Most Reformed Evangelicals I know, while they are not happy with a number of developments, are still committed to the idea of a new province. They have invested themselves in the present churches and their present judicatories. Their level of dissatisfaction is not such that they are entertaining any thoughts of an alternative to the new province. There is nothing happening in the Common Cause Partnership—no crisis—to motivate them to take a different direction from the one that they are presently taking. There is also nothing happening outside of the CCP to also motivate them to take a new direction—another possible motivator. There is no dynamic growing entity outside the CCP that captures their imagination and leads them to think, “I should be there and not here.”

I do not believe that we are going to see anything that will help change their present direction until they have been sharing the new province with the Anglo-Catholics and the other schools of thought represented in the new province for a period of time. The Anglo-Catholics enjoyed hegemony in the Episcopal Church in the nineteenth century and they can be expected to seek to regain it in the new province. Their efforts to shape the culture of the new province and to dominate its institutions may change Reformed Evangelical attitudes toward the new province.

I see a number of advantages in establishing a network of Reformed Evangelicals in the emerging Anglican Church in North America and outside of the new province beside the ones I have already enumerated. It would reduce the isolation of Reformed Evangelicals who are dispersed throughout the new province and to provide them with support and encouragement and various kinds of assistance.

It is not only Reformed Evangelicals in the new province, which need to network together. It is also Reformed Evangelicals outside the new province. They are just as isolated and scattered. They also need support and encouragement and all kinds of assistance.

Most, if not all, of the Reformed Evangelicals I have encountered outside of the new province are orphans. They no longer have a denomination of their own. Networking them together would provide them with a tribe, with a family. Networking together is one way we can care for each other’s spiritual welfare. It may be idealistic. But I see a need that is crying to be met, and networking is one way I see of meeting that need.

Another advantage of linking together Reformed Evangelicals in the new province and linking them to Reformed-Evangelicals outside the new province is that it establishes the kinds of collaborations and relationships that are essential to the eventual formation of a new judicatory. This is how the Anglican Mission in America was formed. It began as a network of Episcopal clergy and congregations who were concerned about the direction in which the Episcopal Church was going—their motivating crisis—and who established ties with sympathetic Anglicans outside of the Episcopal Church and the United States.

Among the other factors that influence my thinking is that to be successful in achieving its goals a movement needs critical mass. Networking can help to create critical mass.

Reformed-Evangelicals need dynamic new leaders. I have sized up the only two Continuing Anglican judicatories that claim to be Protestant and Reformed. They may be Low Church but their use of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer rules them out as truly standing in the tradition of Classical Anglican Evangelicalism. The 1928 BCP is a High Church liturgy that reflects the unreformed Catholic and liberal theology of the two church parties that dominated the Episcopal Church in the 1920s—the Anglo-Catholics and the Broad Church Liberals. From what I gather, the bishops leading these two judicatories simply cannot provide the kind of energizing leadership that Reformed-Evangelicals need in the twenty-first century. Networking can also help to produce such leadership.

Why do I encourage Reformed-Evangelicals in the new province to devote all their energies, time, and resources to networking with Reformed Evangelicals in the new Anglican Church in North America and with Reformed Evangelicals outside that body and establishing strong presence and sphere of influence in the new province and to put out of their minds any other options?

If they focus upon accomplishing one or two goals, they have a greater likelihood of meeting these goals than if they try to work on a larger set of goals that pulls them in different directions and dissipates their efforts. The first of these two goals is achievable. The second is more challenging but not beyond the realm of possibility. Putting other options out of their minds enables them to concentrate upon the tasks necessary to accomplish these goals.

I have something else in mind for Reformed Evangelicals outside the new province. They need to go out in the city and the towns, into the highways and the hedgerows, and to gather in their fellow Reformed Evangelicals who like themselves are outside the new province. Together we need to sit down and identify what their needs are and how the Heritage Anglican Network can meet their needs.

Should Reformed Evangelicals work within the new province? Should they separate from the new province and establish their own enclave? We can spend endless hours debating what is the best course of action and accomplish nothing. The reality is that we have Reformed Evangelicals in the new province and we have Reformed Evangelicals outside the new province and both would benefit from a network of Reformed Evangelicals. I believe that our focus should be upon forming that network. Networking together will strengthen both groups.