TomUK
20th June 2006, 04:21 AM
I disagree with this man, but if what he is talking about is feasible then perhaps it is a solution that could be acceptable to most.
This is just my version of the speculation surrounding Anglicanism's uncertain future, but it is possible that instead of the top-to-bottom split-in-two of olden days - such as England's break from Rome in the Reformation, or the splitting off of the Methodist Church - there will be something closer to overlapping networks of Anglicans.
Hierarchies seeking discipline and order could acquire a more flattened structure as they seek to adapt to the needs of changing and diverse societies.
There are already one or two signs in the Church of England, such as the ability of a parish in one diocese to plant a church in another.
Homosexuality poses the sort of issues to a Church with a solid basis in scripture, that it would expect to need a couple of hundred years to resolve.
A looser Anglican "franchise" might keep alive the possibility of one day achieving some sort of "synthesis" in the divergent Anglican thinking on how to interpret the bible, and thereby on sexuality too.
As others have pointed out this week, the Anglican tradition of taking two extremes and trying to achieve a synthesis - successful in marrying the Church's Catholic and Protestant wings for 450 years - can sometimes result simply in angry conflict.
Anger and conflict have been apparent in the relentless flow of amendments and counter-amendments coming from the two sides in Columbus.
A visitor to the convention from the Anglican Communion recalled for delegates a long-ago ecclesiastical conference in Ireland.
The chairman, bamboozled by the deluge of conflicting demands, eventually suggested to the meeting, "would it be helpful if you were to pass the resolution... and will I not just fill in the details afterwards".
It could be one other way for Anglicans to avoid an old-fashioned schism.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5094214.stm
This is just my version of the speculation surrounding Anglicanism's uncertain future, but it is possible that instead of the top-to-bottom split-in-two of olden days - such as England's break from Rome in the Reformation, or the splitting off of the Methodist Church - there will be something closer to overlapping networks of Anglicans.
Hierarchies seeking discipline and order could acquire a more flattened structure as they seek to adapt to the needs of changing and diverse societies.
There are already one or two signs in the Church of England, such as the ability of a parish in one diocese to plant a church in another.
Homosexuality poses the sort of issues to a Church with a solid basis in scripture, that it would expect to need a couple of hundred years to resolve.
A looser Anglican "franchise" might keep alive the possibility of one day achieving some sort of "synthesis" in the divergent Anglican thinking on how to interpret the bible, and thereby on sexuality too.
As others have pointed out this week, the Anglican tradition of taking two extremes and trying to achieve a synthesis - successful in marrying the Church's Catholic and Protestant wings for 450 years - can sometimes result simply in angry conflict.
Anger and conflict have been apparent in the relentless flow of amendments and counter-amendments coming from the two sides in Columbus.
A visitor to the convention from the Anglican Communion recalled for delegates a long-ago ecclesiastical conference in Ireland.
The chairman, bamboozled by the deluge of conflicting demands, eventually suggested to the meeting, "would it be helpful if you were to pass the resolution... and will I not just fill in the details afterwards".
It could be one other way for Anglicans to avoid an old-fashioned schism.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5094214.stm