My friend Gene Veith commented below on the formation of a new Anglican church body.
So what should the Lutheran response be to this? I have never really understood the “conservative” movements that really are motivated by social, 2nd Table of the Law type issues. The ELCA has its share of these as well.
But why is it that when it comes to the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins, nobody cares?
-LL
A new American Anglican church
Various conservative Episcopalians have come together to form a new Anglican church body, one that will vie with the Episcopal Church in America as the true representative of this country in the world Anglican communion:
How conservative than the new Anglican church be if it communes the unbaptized and is open to the ordination of women? Surely opposition to homosexuality can’t be the basis of a church’s existence. Nor can agreement on a common liturgy. There needs to be agreement in theology. Doesn’t there?
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(Via Cranach: The Blog of Veith.)
Agreement in doctrine and practice is not something many Anglicans worry about.
What matters is being a creedal Church rather than a confessional Church. That’s what a liberal Episcopalian priest told me last year while drinking a glass of Port with me. The priest in question was angry with Peter Akinola, etc., because they were trying to make the Anglican Communion confessional rather than creedal.
There is also a debate among Anglicans whether or not to commune unbaptized people. Certain Anglicans call communing everyone regardless of belief or baptism “wide open communion” as opposed to “open communion” of only the baptized. The ELCA is struggling with this question too.
For the record: Bishops Schofield, Iker, and the Diocese of Quincy do not have women priests. They do have women deacons. I don’t recall if Bishop Duncan has women priests.