Alice Linsley on the ACNA Task Force on Holy Orders

"The Task Force has started with the three stream error. It is faced with the impossible task of coming to a theological compromise that allows the 3 groups to stay in fellowship. Of the 3 streams, Evangelicals and Charismatics tend to be more comfortable with the notion that God is doing a "new thing" which runs against the very nature of catholicity which stresses the unity and consistency of doctrine and practice throughout Church history. The enemy often derails us by creating confusion. That is what we have in the ACNA today. My prediction is that the ACNA will hold together because of the great affection that its members hold for one another, and the desire to prolong its life. However, over time the ACNA will have fewer and fewer catholic minded members. It will end up being mainly a 2-stream body."

Word.  Indeed, as I noted here, "If (ACNA) agrees with ACNA theologian William Witt that Anglicans are mere "Reformation Christians" and accordingly that it is under no obligation to "prayerfully consider" the admonitions of Rome, Orthodoxy and Anglicans who still believe that their church is a branch of the Catholic Church, then let ACNA say so and go its merry Protestant way."

Stay tuned here for a quotation from the hard-hitting conclusion of Geoffrey Kirk's Without Precedent: Scripture, Tradition, and the Ordination of Women, which among other things faults Evangelicals in the Church of England for the role they played in forcing this uncatholic innovation upon the church.

Comments

[AnAwkwardAardvark]

My humble prediction is the more catholic-minded ACNA jurisdictions will seek an alliance with parts of the Continnuum. But which parts of the Continnuum and will the Continnuum demand a full merger and re-ordination are questions that only time will tell. Meanwhile, the few old traditional evangelicals will remain a dying breed unless UECNA can develop momentum and present itself as a viable option for traditional Protestants who don't have itching ears - as many contemporary "evangelicals" and charismatics have in the ACNA.

Sad times for a prayer book catholic who simply wants that old time religion of simply the BCP without missal additions or the appalling 79 BCP.

[William Witt]

Deacon Little,

I actually do visit your blog from time to time. It does seem that I am your favorite example of everything that is wrong with the ACNA, and that's fine with me. I do find myself frustrated with your tendency to pin me on a board like the proverbial butterfly to which you've nicely attached a "label."

I did write that I was a "Reformation Christian," but I would never have added the adjective "mere"or say that we are under no obligation to "prayerfully consider" the admonitions of Rome, Orthodoxy, and Anglicans who consider Anglicanism a branch of the Catholic Church -- although with Michael Ramsey I consider the "three branch theory" to be a kind of trumphalist apology for schism. (Ramsey also came to affirm women's ordination.)

My understanding of what it means for Anglicanism to be a "Reformation" Church can be found here:

http://willgwitt.org/anglicanism/evangelical-or-catholic/

"Reformation Anglicanism thus saw itself as in continuity with the Catholic Church, and a reforming movement in the Catholic Church, but certainly not as rejection of genuine Catholicism."

"If I were asked to identify my churchmanship, I would call myself a “catholic evangelical” or a “Reforming Catholic,” in the tradition of movements like the Mercersburg Theology, Jenson and Braaten’s Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, or figures like Thomas F. Torrance. If I am an Evangelical, I am an ecumenical Evangelical, who understands the Reformation as a reforming movement in the Western Catholic Church. If am an Anglo-Catholic, I am a post-Vatican II Anglican catholic, who understands catholicism as ressourcement, not as retrenchment. If asked to choose between an evangelical and a catholic understanding of the Reformation, I would refuse that choice as a false dilemma."

And here:

http://willgwitt.org/what_is_anglican_theology/

"I would suggest that Anglican theology can be understood as “Reformed Catholicism” or “Catholic Evangelicalism.”

Even on the issue of women's ordination, where I know you find my views not simply mistaken, but heretical, I affirm my position because I I am convinced a case can be made on theological grounds that are not only Evangelical, but also Catholic.

Grace and Peace,
William G. Witt

[Embryo Parson]

All:

I have reproduced Dr. Witt's comment in a separate blog article above and provided a reply there. If you wish to comment, please do so there. Comments here are now closed.