In this article, Albert Mcllhenny from christianbookreviews.net gives us an excellent overview of the current situation within global Anglicanism. Some may ask why it is even necessary to track such things, but we must take into account the fact that Anglicanism is the mother of the American church as well as the sister of the Eastern and Roman churches. The Anglican church has been around for centuries and has given our country will and meaning. The tradition will always live, whether it’s given to a greater movement or regained as a leading example of Christendom.

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The current difficulties that the Anglican Communion is facing over the revisionist agenda promoted by the Episcopal Church - its member church in the United States - and others in the West are pushing worldwide Anglicanism into a time of crisis. It is no exaggeration to say that a decade from now the ecclesial structure of Anglicanism will be remarkably different from its current state. The question that cannot be answered at this point is whether the Anglican Way can be survive the consequences of the upheaval.

The current state of the Episcopal Church has made it utterly impossible for orthodox Anglicans to remain for the long-term. For three decades it has been utterly impotent to correct heretical teachings among its own bishops even though it has caused many of the faithful in its ranks to depart. As orthodox members left, the revisionists within its ranks began to exert pressure far exceeding its actual strength in the pews. Thus we are now faced with the reality that, except for a few dioceses, the Episcopal Church is run by apostates.

The “Robinson Affiar” (the Diocese of New Hampshire elected V. Gene Robinson, a non-celibate homosexual male, as bishop and he the election was then accepted by the bishops of the Episcopal Church) has proven to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Many faithful who perhaps had their heads in the sand until now suddenly arose and protested this abandonment of Biblical standards. Whole parishes and now even dioceses abandoned the Episcopal Church and sought oversight from primates in foreign provinces of the Anglican Communion while congregants in remaining parishes left in droves.

Among the “Global South” primates within the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church has become a pariah. These churches that have stood tall in the face of persecution for the sake of the Gospel are in no mood to compromise the faith so that Westerners can fit in better at cocktail parties. In particular, Archbishop Peter Akinola has become the voice of orthodox Anglicanism. Extra weight is added by the fact that these provinces are growing exponentially while their more “enlightened” brethren in the West have seen their churches decimated. Adding further to the deterioration of relations in the Anglican Communion is the development of various primates from the Global South sending “missionary bishops” into the United States to organize parishes - thus declaring the Episcopal Church irrelevant.As all this is happening, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and the supposed head of the Anglican Communion, has been doing a softshoe routine on the fence as he desperately tries to play both ends against the middle. It is obvious his sympathies lie with the revisionists at least on the sexuality issue but that the departure of the Global South provinces would strip his office of any importance. Without the growing Global South provinces, the Anglican Communion would quickly be reduced to a quasi-pagan caretaker of historically interesting architecture.

Yet as irrelevant as Canterbury may be to the current difficulties, the casting aside of this instrument of unity may have its own unforseen consequences on these shores. Many have maintained their allegiance to the Communion thus far simply because of the historical importance of Canterbury. If that allegiance is now seen as a hindrance to orthodox belief, the remaning orthodox may also take a harder look at doctrinal issues and point the fingers at each other. Once there is no longer a necessary tolerance in order to remain united with the historic center of Anglicanism, it is possible that Anglo-Catholics and Evangelical Anglicans may choose to go their separate ways.

Historically, the center was maintained by the use of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). Despite the ambiguities of Anglicanism, everyone knew the prayers they used each service and the liturgy of the BCP effectively set boundaries that were formed by the experience of worship. In a classic example of lex orandi, lex credendi, this liturgy maintained boundaries that allowed enough leeway for all parties but forged out an identity that was distinct from both Rome and the more sectarian strains of Protestantism. Of all the attempts at staking out a “reformed catholicism” among churches of the Reformation, the Church of England was through the BCP best able to establish a link both to the Refomation and the early undivided Church.

This standard has unfortunately been weakened considerably. The Church of England now has “alternate rites” that can be used and the 1979 BCP in the US allows so many variants it is difficult to see what makes any of the prayers “common”. Even well-meaning Anglo-Catholics started using an “Anglican Missal” that was based upon the Roman Tridentine Rite. While not as objectionable as some of the other “alternate services”, it effectively moved the liturgy further toward the theological beliefs of Rome and decisively away from Anglicanism’s reformational heritage. At this point, many Anglo-Catholics are closer to Rome than Canterbury as the recent overtures of the Traditional Anglican Communion (a communion of Anglo-Catholic continuing churches) to the Vatican makes evident.

Given the disollution of the Anglican center, it is difficult to guess whether the genie can be put back in the bottle. I expect a certain number will end up with an “Anglican presence” in Rome. Others may wish to establish a purely Protestant Anglican body that expunges any hint of Romanism. The problem with both options is that they are Anglcan in style but not substance. The power of Anglicanism had as its source tension in its twin allegiances to the Reformation and the early Church. Without one or the other, it loses its reason to exist.