Submitted by the Rev. Bob Bettson, Rector South Parkland Parish, Diocese of Brandon, from a homily preached on August 3,2008 at St. Paul’s, Dauphin, Manitoba
On October 5th 1952, at the age of almost five months, I was baptized in an afternoon ceremony at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church in Toronto. Only my parents and godparents were present along with the priest. That’s the way baptism was done then. It wasn’t a parish event.
But that day I became a member of the body of Christ, part of the Anglican Church of Canada, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
As I prepared for today, which marks the end of the three week gathering of more than 600 Bishops from throughout the Anglican communion in Canterbury, England, I reflected on what the Anglican Communion has meant to me throughout my life.
In recent years our communion has been dogged by controversies over sexuality issues. Doomsayers have predicted this will end in schism.
We see in our own community the result of what is a “foreign intervention” in the form of a group called the Anglican Network pledging its loyalty to a Bishop in South America. They have tried to recruit our members, and now have brought back a former rector of this parish to head up congregations in Brandon and Dauphin.
Today I’d like to talk, not about the controversy, but speak more personally about why I am proud to be an Anglican, part of a tradition of almost 500 years as a middle way between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
The church has always been an important part of my life. I was part of a huge class of 70 confirmed by the Bishop of Toronto in 1964. At that point I didn’t have any dreams of being a priest, but my parents had instilled a strong sense of faith and set an example by regular church attendance and involvement.
My first exposure to the worldwide Anglican communion actually came in the Global South. I traveled to the island of Nevis in the Caribbean on a youth exchange called the Anglican Overseas work tour. I was one of a team of 7 from 18 to 25 years old and we did thing like build a club room in the rectory basement, work in a daycare centre, lead Bible classes which we called Happy Hours and taught swimming lessons.
The summer was punctuated by a major tragedy. On a sunny day the ferry boat HMS Christina sank, It was overcrowded. No-one knew how to swim, and more than 300 people died. Almost everyone on the island suffered loss. We helped the priest prepare lists of the dead for mass funerals.
The “holy rollers” said it was God’s judgment for the sins of the islanders, but the Anglican priest on the island, who was from the Church of England, preached a message of compassion for the victims, and put on the blame on the authorities for overcrowding the boat. His ministry later ended when he wasn’t allowed to return to the island by the government after a trip home to England.
That summer made an impression on me. Our Anglican heritage has always been one of scripture, reason and tradition. We have avoided the easy answers and judgmental attitudes of some of our fellow Christians.
I was deeply immersed in both work and worship. We attended services at all five parishes on the small island of 10,000-often two or three on a Sunday.
I had a clear sense that I was part of a much larger church which included many races and cultures.
I did my arts degree in history and politics at Trinity College, an Anglican college at University of Toronto, which also has a faculty of divinity. In my first year I recall a chapel service attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, then Archbishop Michael Ramsey.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, unlike the Pope, is first among equals of the Bishops in the Anglican Church. He is primate of the Church of England. But like all Primates his authority stems from respect rather than issuing orders.
The only book I have ever written actually turned out to be on the visit of an Archbishop of Canterbury to Canada. It was published 21 years ago on Archbishop Robert Runcie’s 1985 visit to Canada.
Our Anglican Communion is actually made up of 38 autonomous provinces-each headed by a Primate-a senior Archbishop.
The provinces can’t tell each other what to do. And they don’t agree on everything. Indeed of the 38 provinces, only 14, including Canada, ordain women as priests and only some of those have women bishops.
So when people say the Archbishop of Canterbury should demand that an autonomous province take some action, they are misunderstanding the nature of the Anglican Communion, which rests on a few key instruments of unity— a tradition of almost 500 years of association and common liturgy, association with the Archbishop of Canterbury, regular gatherings of the Primates, the Lambeth Conference of Bishops every ten years-like the one just concluded and a body called the Anglican Consultative Council which includes lay and clergy from throughout the world.
This year’s Lambeth Conference was boycotted by about 200 Bishops, most from Africa which represent a large part of the most populous continent for our communion.
Those Bishops want The Episcopal Church in the United States disciplined for electing a gay Bishop, and the Diocese of New West Minister similarly punished for blessing same sex unions.
To some people that might seem a small step to ease tensions in the communion. But it is not part of the Anglican tradition. We don’t have a hierarchical structure like the Roman Catholic communion where what the Pope says goes, and the Pope appoints the Bishops.
Our Bishops are elected, not appointed. Lay and clergy people have a voice. Our structures, while not democratic in the sense of one person, one vote, are more representative.
One of the strengths of the Anglican Communion in recent years has come through contact not at the more political Bishop to Bishop level, but ordinary lay people and clergy meeting each other and learning more about each other.
I have been extremely fortunate as a journalist and a priest to travel to eight different countries to worship and talk with other Anglicans.
Those include my experience in Nevis in the West Indies, a visit to India, Havana, Cuba, Seoul , South Korea, St. Vincent and Grenada in the Caribbean and the United States and the United Kingdom.
The common link is our Anglican heritage and liturgy, although the cultures are very different.
Two of those trips were as part of official delegations from Toronto and Calgary dioceses to companion dioceses in South Korea and the West Indies. Through official companionships the church intentionally encourages travel and exchange.
My faith in Jesus has been nurtured by the Anglican church since birth. When I struggled with what to do with the rest of my life after my last job as a journalist ended, I felt God’s call to test my vocation for priestly ministry in the Anglican church which had meant so much to me.
It was not an easy thing to resume full-time study, take on student loans and fulfill my family obligations in my mid-40′s. But through God’s grace I am here with you at this time and in this place.
As I reflected on my experience with the church I realize I have been enriched by my life with many fellow Anglicans in a dozen parishes in three dioceses before I was ordained, and four parishes since ordination.
These have been in communities from 4,000 to three million, and all different types of musical and liturgical traditions.
But the common thread has been faith in God, in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit, in the middle way of the Anglican tradition.
My prayer is that in these days ahead we remember that what unites us-the love of Jesus– is far more powerful than what divides us. God’s intention is that we live in love, in fellowship, in grace and in peace.
I can sympathize with the writers concerns about unity. I too have been an Anglican for many, many years (starting in 1938 as an 8 year old), but on the lay side. I too have been proud to be part of the Anglican “tradition”.
The problem of unity is not new. One has but to look back to the ’50s in the U.K., read the novels of Susan Howatch, or even research writings from several hundred years ago.
Unfortunately, in trying to face up to a culture that is being secularized, the Anglican Church of Canada is itself becoming secularized. The Anglican Church of Canada needs to stop submitting to secular pressures and prejudices, and stop trying to modify Christianity in secular terms. That is what the unity issue is all about.
Because liberal theology is so firmly entrenched in the Anglican Church of Canada leadership and administration, I do not see how one can bring the Church back to orthodoxy from within, even though many are trying. The Anglican Church of Canada is no longer the “Anglican Church” which I cherished, and spent most of my life in. With great regret, I have left.
I appreciate the civil tone of Richard’s reply, but unfortunately he missed my point. In arguing that the Anglican Church of Canada has become secularized and departed from the orthodox faith he simply repeats the usual stereotypes propagated by the Network. Liberal theology is not firmly entrenched in the Anglican Church. Our church has a wide variety of theological perspectives, as does every mainstream denomination.
Ever since the early church we have struggled to define what orthodoxy is. My orthodoxy is not Richard’s orthodoxy. Within our Anglican communion we have disagreed about the ordination of women, as well as women Bishops. People of good will can disagree on important matters and share the same faith.
It seems to me the current situation is caused by the Network and other dissident groups using the blessing of same sex unions as a wedge issue–playing on prejudices which have developed over years. They also depend on a selective literalism which does not help us understand what the Bible teaches. Why are we to ignore many of the other Levitical code restrictions which call for the death penalty—while paying special attention to the one on same sex behaviour. So it is literalism, not liberalism which is really at issue.
Are we to become like the fundamentalist evangelicals, embracing a literalist interpretation of the Bible which sees the earth as only six thousand years old? And humans on earth at the same time as Dinosaurs?
I’m afraid the literalists can’t have it both ways. They can’t selectively ignore parts of the Bible which contradict each other, and have different interpretations, and also use a few proof texts on homosexuality as a wedge issue to break up an almost 500 year old communion.
I believe the Anglican Church is still very much the Anglican Church I grew up with. Of course it isn’t frozen in time. Liturgies have evolved. Our understanding of how to be the church has evolved.
Believers in each age must build on the legacy of the past to be faithful to the needs of the present and future.
I suppose there is an issue of perspective in the remark “It seems to me the current situation is caused by the Network and other dissident groups using the blessing of same sex unions as a wedge issue”. I remember my marketing courses back in College in which the teacher taught that a person’s perspective is that person’s reality. Thus, for those who remain in ACoC they receive biased information, either from revisionist clergy or the popular news media. The information is that the issue is same sex blessings.
The revisionist clergy want this to be the focus. Their reasons are many and varied. Some it appears are driven by an agenda of social reform. Others I think end up becoming confused due to a real and legitimate compassion they may have for someone close to them. An example of this is a former Priest (who is now retired and I still respect) who ended up with a lesbian daughter who would not give any consideration to the possibility that her lifestyle is against the Holy Word of God. But how does a Priest, who is also a loving father, choose between God and his daughter? But I am going off on a tangent.
The news media are interested in readership and (let us be realistic here) sex sells.
All this being said, let us be honest. If we lie to ourselves about why the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) exists and why it does what it does, than we only delude ourselves and fail to address the real issue. In order to better understand ANiC we need to listen to ANiC. According to them, the issue is not same sex blessings. The issue is about being faithful to God, and His Holy Word as He had spoken it through the prophets.
Bob essentially accuses ANiC of practicing a selective religion. This seems to me to be the typical “pot calling the kettle black”. The practice of accusing ANiC of “ignoring” those passages that call for a death penalty while at the same time being zealots about others is an often used tactic of the revisionists, and is one that frankly does not hold up to scrutiny. While at the same time the revisionists within ACoC are most certainly and deliberately picking and choosing which passages they will comply with. I think that it would be agreed by all that proceeding with a Blessing of a same sex unions, as well as our very liberal rules of divorce, is a direct violation of Matthew 19:1-12 and Mark 10:1-12.
If a person were to objectively examine the decisions made by ANiC it would be seen that a considerable and genuine effort is made to be Faithful and obedient to God in all things. There is an effort to not “follow too much the devises and desires of our own hearts” (from the Prayer of Confession, Morning Prayer Service, Book of Common Prayer). What should be understood by all is that ANiC perceives that ACoC is following too much the devises and desires of its own heart and consequently is straying away from the way of God like lost sheep. It is observed that ACoC is allowing secular forces to influence its practices and even its beliefs. But now I am droning on. To fully make the point would require a “paper” similar to what I would have handed in to a Professor at University, which is obviously not practical here. Instead, I would like to direct you to an opinion piece I wrote that appeared on page 5 of the December issue of the Huron Church News. It can be viewed online here: http://www.diohuron.org/news/huron_church_news/Christmas%20HCN%202008small.pdf