{"id":1064,"date":"2008-11-28T15:32:52","date_gmt":"2008-11-28T19:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2008-11-28T15:32:52","modified_gmt":"2008-11-28T19:32:52","slug":"he-who-sups-with-the-devil-should-have-a-long-spoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/he-who-sups-with-the-devil-should-have-a-long-spoon\/","title":{"rendered":"He who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Anglican Journal<\/a><\/p>\n

Conservative Anglicans determined to stay within church
\n<\/strong>About 50 conservative Anglican leaders, including eight young theological students, gathered in Toronto for a one-day consultation on Nov. 25 and emerged with a determination to remain within the Anglican Church of Canada. They came from 16 dioceses across the country.
\nRev. Brett Cane of St. Aidan\u2019s Anglican Church in Winnipeg is chair of Anglican Essentials Federation who was quick to point out that the organization is going through a name change. He said that the \u201cEssentials\u201d label has negative connotations in some parts of the country. He said that the federation is loosening its connection to the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). \u201cWe will still maintain links of fellowship with the network but we will not be organizationally tied together.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The “Essentials\u201d moniker does indeed have a bad reputation \u2013 amongst heretics posing as believers in the ACoC. One can only assume from this that Brett feels more at home with the heretics, so long as they are part of the Canadian Anglican establishment. But to soften the blow for those in ANiC with fragile sensibilities he says this:<\/p>\n

Mr. Cane said that the federation will continue to meet together with those involved in ANiC, \u201cbeing together in preaching, youth work and mission.\u201d \u201cWe are all still brothers and sisters in Christ; we need to recognize their pain because it isn\u2019t easy to leave the denomination you love.\u201d
\nHe said that the one day consultation dealt with \u201creformulating our vision\u201d rather than issues around structure. He said he saw this conservative federation as more of a movement within the Anglican Church of Canada than an organization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looking forward to seeing the “reformulated vision”, Brett; although I do wonder how one can reformulate something that was never there in the first place. And I can\u2019t help feeling that calling the Federation a “movement” is akin to calling a tortoise a Ferrari.<\/p>\n

The concerns of conservative Anglicans reach beyond the blessing of same-sex unions, he said. There is a need for theological reflection on the uniqueness of Jesus, biblical interpretation, marriage, and the rights of children. Mr. Cane says the federation \u2013 whatever its new name \u2013 will be encouraging theological students to become engaged in these conversations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We\u2019re on the right track, then: more reflection and conversations; oh joy.<\/p>\n

He said there are five key areas on which the federation will focus: giving voice to the issues at various meetings of dioceses and synods, continuing to network with other conservative organizations and denominations in Canada, international representation (Mr. Cane says he will attend the Common Cause Partnership meeting in December as an observer), encouraging conservative theologians to meet and work on the issues, and working with theological students and others under age 40 to \u201chelp the rest of the church affirm authentic Anglicanism.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, but what are you actually going to do<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, sent a lengthy pastoral letter to the consultation in which he acknowledged differences in biblical interpretation and expressed appreciation for the fellowship\u2019s determination to work within the Anglican Church of Canada.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Only on Anglicans would the irony of having to have determination to stay within one’s own denomination be lost.<\/p>\n

In his letter, the primate said that \u201cthe St. Michael Report itself acknowledges that \u2018the interpretation of scripture is a central and complex matter\u2019 and that, at times in the church\u2019s history, \u2018faithful readings have led to mutually contradictory understandings, requiring on-going dialogue and prayer toward discernment of the one voice of the gospel.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another example of foggy Fred\u2019s fuzzy logic. A “faithful reading” must surely be an accurate one; so how can two faithful readings of scripture be contradictory? They can\u2019t except in Fred\u2019s miasma clouded little dream-world.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hiltz said he was \u201cdeeply mindful of your conscientious struggle over this matter.\u00a0 I acknowledge with deep gratitude your faithfulness to Christ.\u00a0 I recognize your commitment to remain within the fellowship of the Anglican Church of Canada, to support its witness to the gospel and to take your place in its councils.\u00a0 I assure you that there continues to be a place for your voice at the table.\u00a0 That assurance is in keeping with an abiding conviction that as Anglicans we value the comprehensiveness so long a characteristic of our history and tradition as a church.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To translate: we have no interest in your opinion but we\u2019re glad you\u2019re staying because we need your money. You\u2019re welcome to sit in at our synods, but we will ignore you because you\u2019re a bunch of antediluvian fundamentalist throwbacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Anglican Journal Conservative Anglicans determined to stay within church About 50 conservative Anglican leaders, including eight young theological students, gathered in Toronto for a one-day consultation on Nov. 25 and emerged with a determination to remain within the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[407],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican-church-of-canada","tag-anglicanism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}