WHY I JOINED THE ANGLICAN ORTHODOX CHURCH:
An Apologia of Church Affiliation by David J. Miller
12 Trinity, 2009
I am writing this as a paper because I’m usually a bit more coherent in writing when I’m trying to explain where I’m coming from than when speaking off the top of my head. I’m not writing this to “sell” the AOC, but to explain why this is the expression of Christ’s Church I have chosen as my home at this time in our history. Maybe these thoughts will be helpful to some of you who are still thinking through these issues.
First, I want to address what we may call “Structure,” or “World-and-life-view” or “Narrative Identity.” All these terms have to do with the thinking that’s below the surface, but which informs and controls what actually comes to expression on the visible level. They all address our pre-reflective consciousness, the ideas we take for granted which are more basic than the assertions and practices that are expressed in documents like the BCP, but nevertheless are foundational for those assertions. These underlying presuppositions will, in the final analysis, find their way to the surface, even though certain specific expressions of them may be rearranged, re-stated or suppressed at any given time.
But enough abstractions! Let’s look at an actual example of what I’m talking about. Cranmer’s original 1549 BCP, as well as his 1552 revision and the Elizabethan Settlement BCP of 1662 all contained the text of the Athanasian Creed, and Article VIII was entitled, Of the Three Creeds, (the Apostle’s and Nicene being the other two). The 1928 BCP changes the title to read, Of the creeds, and omits the Athansian from mention in the article, as well as its text. Why? Because there were “Latitudinarian” elements in the Episcopal Church of the 1920’s that were uncomfortable with such an unambiguous affirmation of the doctrine of the Trinity. Apparently they could, or were willing, to live with the other Trinitarian expressions of the prayer book, but did successfully extract this one. My point is that there was no other reason to remove that creed except a denial of its teaching.
Another example is found in the Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church, as found in the Communion Service, top of page 75. The phrase, “grant them continual growth in thy love and service, and to,” is not found in the original BCP of 1549, nor is it in either those of 1552 or 1662; it was added by those of Anglo-Catholic leanings to the American BCP. (I do not know when it was added), but the prayer is word-for-word what was originally written by Cranmer, except for this addition).
In these two examples, we see the influence of those elements in the church who would like to water down the doctrine of the Trinity and of those who would like the church to pray for the dead, expressing a leaning toward Roman Catholic spirituality. The two examples cited were aberrations that marred the 1928 BCP, but were not expressions of its Neither of these influences have any place in the true Reformed Anglican ethos, but they managed to get these two changes introduced into the BCP of 1928. However, the overriding sub-structure of the 1928 BCP is that of the Reformation, a “Low Church,” biblical and theologically orthodox world view, which was the prevailing presupposional stance of the Episcopal Church of that era.
This underlying doctrinal orthodoxy was not the prevailing stance of the ECUSA of 1979. By then, the liberal and Roman Catholic leaning elements had gained the upper hand, and the 1979 Prayer Book reflects their influence. Incidentally, this is an interesting blend of influences, as the Roman Catholic Church itself, is actually much more conservative in its stance than the Catholic-leaning people in ECUSA. I am more inclined to see this “Catholic” influence as more of an adolescent “wannabe-ism” than any serious move toward union with the RC Church, as there is probably no desire for any submission to the Catholic hierarchy. (Also, the admission of women to the priesthood would militate against any serious connection to the Roman Catholic Church or even its tradition).