More on the “Common Cause� letter

O. K. I’m finally back and able to blog.

And I’m still excited about the “Common Cause� letter that I briefly mentioned last Thursday. There’s so much I could say about it. Please read it.

I think it could turn out to be a touchstone of what could turn out to be a pivotal week in the Anglican Communion. The Lambeth Commission came to town (North Carolina to be exact) and, although ++Griswold’s every other word was either “reconciliation,� or “dialogue,� his liberal allies gave one finger blessings to the commission. By the actions of the Anglican Church of Canada at their Synod, by same sex blessings by Bishop Chane in the Diocese of Washington and more, the revisionists sent a loud message – they will push their liberal agenda and if the rest of the Anglican Communion doesn’t like it, then too bad.

The liberals’ conduct toward the Lambeth Commission and even toward the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has pleaded for restraint, has been divisive and disrespectful. The timing of liberal actions in that regard has been incredible. Bishop Chane’s same sex blessing occurred the very weekend that the Lambeth Commission came to this country.

By contrast, the timing and tone of the Common Cause letter couldn’t have been better. While the liberals were divisive, the orthodox leaders publicly repented of their divisions and pledged to work all the more for biblical unity. While the liberals disrespected the Archbishop of Canterbury and were making his job of keeping the Communion unified more difficult, the conservatives were publicly showing both humility and respect and were letting him know they were seeking to make his job easier. This even though three of the signers are not in direct communion with Canterbury.

And this isn’t just a letter. As partly documented here, orthodox North American Anglicans have done more for Christian unity in one year than the Anglican Church of Canada and the ECUSA have done in 20 years.

Now, after this letter and events of the past few weeks, if you were the Lambeth Commission or the Archbishop of Canterbury, who would you rather work with: the revisionists or the orthodox? The ACC and ECUSA or the Network and allied continuing Anglican bodies?

If there was a winner last week, I suspect the orthodox, with their grace and their striving for unity around truth, won . . . big time.


A personal note: the Small Continuing Anglican Church I’ve been checking out is under one of the leaders that signed the letter. So this makes my hope of joining a worldwide Anglican communion that much more possible.