The ACNA is Really at a Crossroads

This excellent piece by the Ven. Canon Justin Murff lays it out:

This June, the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America will meet at St. Vincents College in Latrobe, PA from June 20 – June 23 to hold a Conclave to elect the next Archbishop of the ACNA. Many in the ACNA feel that the election of the next Archbishop will determine the future of the entire church.

Make no mistake, there are several elephants in the room that whoever the bishops elect, the next archbishop will require a unique set of skills and enduring fortitude to meet the challenges head on if the ACNA is to survive and meaningfully join the emerging re-formed global Anglican community.

I said towards the beginning of the adventure that is the ACNA had two major issues that it needed to resolve: the Anglo-Catholic divide and WO. Murff doesn’t mention the former, probably because the really serious amongst them have an alternative in the Continuing Churches, which themselves are making progress towards unity. About WO, however, Murff is right that it is still a key issue:

The current policy is seen by many as simply kicking the can down the road. But the next Archbishop will need to lead the church towards a globally acceptable position that honors the gifting and ministry calling of Women (especially in the diaconate) yet respects and reserves the historic and biblically faithful position of the episcopacy and presbytery.

There are two keys to resolving this issue. The opponents of WO need to give up the RCC-based concept of authority. The supporters need to give up grievance and rights driven feminism (which has been seriously complicated of late by the transgender movement.) I can’t see either of these wanted to part with their respective security blankets; tbh I’m not optimistic that this is going to be resolved any time soon without schism.

But now to some other issues:

Ultimately, the ACNA needs a dedicated house of training for our Deacons and Priests. Part of the current dilemma is that the current slate of schools that provide Anglican tracks for our clergy still wrestle with their own identity (Episcopal, Lutheran, Baptist, High church, Low Church, Deconstructed Evangelical, etc). It is amazing that a denomination with more than 1,200 parishes has no institution of higher learning of its own. The time has come to chart a way forward to remedy that.

Starting any kind of educational institution (and keeping it on course) is problematic these days, both financially and doctrinally. I discussed this from a prep school standpoint in my post Maybe an Anglican Boarding School Isn’t Such a Good Idea After All. Obviously a seminary and a prep school are different “kettles of fish” (as my old Mainer prep school physics teacher would say) but we only need to look around at the number of colleges and universities closing to see what a daunting task this really would be. Perhaps the ACNA should consider either a) picking up a closing school to start the effort or b) going outside of the U.S., where it could avoid the accreditation system’s tendency to grind down conservative institutions.

Having a more homogeneous clergy would go a long way to address the decidedly heterogeneous laity that is coming into the ACNA. Although laity with incoming “baggage” is nothing new to the Anglican-Episcopal world (as I noted in My Mother the Exvangelical) a clergy that’s for the most part on the same page would help dealing with issues like I Wonder…How Many of these ACNA Exvangelicals Still Believe in Eternal Security?

If a weak Archbishop is elected, the ACNA runs the very real risk of being overran by Nigeria because the lifeboat that saved many clergy, has now become a U-Boat intent on firing with full effect.

I don’t think the effort by the Nigerians is as big of a deal re the ACNA in general as some do. It’s true that many clergy “owe” the Nigerians but as time rolls on many of them (like Beach himself) will “age out” of the system. They may be able to pick up a few congregations but I don’t see a massive shift towards a church with direct African oversight.

When looking at the field of candidates there are very few Bishops, (made fewer by retirements) who have board international experience, are actively serving on the board(s) of Seminaries educating Anglican clergy, have current experience regularly testifying and meeting with our elected officials in Washington, D.C. advocating for religious freedom and liberty, who have more than a decade of Episcopal experience leading large and diverse groups of clergy, and who have significant experience standing up for their Diocese and the ACNA on a global stage.

This is a sad admission, that a denomination whose Anglican spirituality has attracted generations of American leaders is left with that shallow of a bench.

We must pray against ego’s and agendas and pray that the Lord’s will be done and let us all pray that the next Archbishop of the ACNA will not be her last.

I’ve railed against Egos Inflatable to Any Size: The ACNA-AMiA Fiasco and other similar kerfuffles. It’s a thing in the Anglican world, and it’s sad to see. May God bless and guide the ACNA in this critical moment, our prayers are needed.

Note on Justin Murff: I had the honour to meet him at a Regent University event, where he is an adjunct faculty member. But he’s not in the Divinity school; he’s in the Robertson School of Government. Justin is also related to Don Murff, whose contributions to geotechnical engineering in the offshore oil industry–my specialty–are considerable, and whose comment on my MS thesis was very nice.

Also on the faculty of the Robertson School of Government is another Anglican divine, the Rev. Dr. Andrew J. Nolte. He has the distinction of being the only member of the Regent faculty who is fulfilling the original commission of the school as a Christian University.