Questions about ACNA

It's precisely things like this that will never, I hope, lead me to the ACNA. I'll sit at home and read the morning prayer if I have to, although some APAs are within driving distance. Pensacola huh? Remember they had some charismatic mega years long revival in the mid-90s at some charismatic church down there where people bawked like chickens, dogs, etc all while claiming it was a move of the Holy Ghost. Strange area of America right there.

 

It's from 2012 but it's a good read. I am looking forward to meeting Archbishop Haverland when I am received into the ACC later this year.
http://www.anglicancatholic.org/an-...anglican-churches-to-the-acna?class=greenlink

 

When you can get ++Robinson and ++Haverland to both sign on to something, you know there is a broad consensus.

ACNA still invites ++Haverland and Met. Hilarion (of the Moscow Patriarchate) to address them from time to time and they always get the same discussion: essentially, fix your holy orders and we can talk more. Even the LCMS beats them up a little on that point. One wonders how long it will be before they tire of hearing the message and stop talking to their critics.

 

Or actually pay attention to what their critics are telling them? I was a member of an LCMS congregation once. Good people.

 

I was a member of two LCMS parishes and attended a third for a time. The LCMS served as my introduction to liturgical Christianity. They could be an ally if they accepted the episcopate.

 

They'd be a tough sell to get on board IMO and I say that based on what I observed in the LCMS church I was a member of. Good people but I'd never go back.

 

I agree with you. They are not prepared to accept the episcopate, even though it exists de jure (through District Presidents, and one might even suggest Circuit visitors) in their jurisdiction. But the Lutheran confessions confine the Apostolic Succession to a passing down of right doctrine, rather than a personal succession of any sort.

 

When their President, Matt Harrison, censured that one LCMS pastor after the Newton, CT shootings in December 2012, all because he "dared" to participate in an ecumenical service for the victims and the families of said victims, I pretty much knew they had a "our way or the highway" mantra. That just left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

When I lived in TX, I encountered several guys who had been AMiA after splitting with TEC. I never encountered anyone who had stayed more than 3-4 years. AMiA seemed to serve the role of a rest-stop on the way to something else. And it was typically because they did eschew the prayer book and had that 'anything goes' culture. My Abp. has received two former AMiA guys himself. I think what remains of AMiA will soon merge into ACNA and be as much a bother as C4SO and a couple of the other dioceses.

I was with a REC parish -even a licensed reader- for a while. The rector was very Reformed and considered himself high-church, which was laughable because I never saw him don a chasuble and he hated incense - he also had a table rather than an altar. My experience of REC priests is mostly with guys who went to Cranmer House. They all think of themselves as high-church but are kind of foggy on what that actually looks like. I am not going to bash the REC, but it is not in the same 'stream' as me. I think the REC and UECNA would be natural allies - probably also +Millsaps and the EMC.

There have been many splits from TEC, before and after the congress of St. Louis. My own jurisdiction split in the 60's, when Spong first came out. For the most part, these jurisdictions have leaned Anglo-Catholic. The ACC was the largest N. American jurisdiction, but that will change when the APA/ACA alliance is fully consummated. As for the African scene: I view it with skepticism. My own jurisdiction claims over a million African members. I see photos occasionally, and I am thinking of one bishop in particular, who has popped up in the photo stream for three different jurisdictions. My Canon/mentor has noticed the same and remarked that some of those guys seem to have multiple affiliations - whatever brings the cheque in, you know. They are also prone to having a charismatic bent.

As for our guys joining ACNA - may it never be. I don't think that jurisdiction can be traditional. I'm not opposed to contemporary language liturgies or Bibles. I'm not even opposed to guitars in the worship. But so many of those guys are just Episcopalians who hate gays or American Evangelicals who like vestments. They don't get the catholicity of Anglicanism or the unity found in the prayer book. May the true conservatives in ACNA come out from among them when we, the Continuing churches, get our act together and establish some unity.

Okay. I agree with most of this paragraph. If we are to survive, we must retain a distinctiveness in our Anglican practice. We will never beat the trendy churches at their game. My family cannot stomach the Baptist type of service. We went to a Church of Christ service once (which was how I was raised) and my wife pleaded to never go back - neither of us received their communion and I agreed with her sentiment. We also go to RC mass when we visit her family in Massachusetts. The homilies are terrible but the liturgy is okay.

As for Marines, I was a sailor, but spent my first tour stationed at Parris Island. . .

 

Yeah the LCMS are awesome.