Confessional Anglicanism

Father Jones of the Anglican Centrist has a very good post reminding us what Anglicanism is all about. most notably, we are not a confessional church. We agree on the essentials, but allow theological diversity. That diversity has been our strength, and we are in danger of losing it:

The Anglican definition has always been -- we are one in Christ in mystic sweet communion and by our participation in the organism of the Church, though we don't all agree. Of course we have essentials -- the Creeds, the Scriptures, the Sacraments, the episcopate -- but we don't micromanage and control everybody's theology.

It is strange that we even have people arguing these days for an "Anglican Communion" bereft of many of the marks of Anglicanism. As Ramsey saw it (and he a pretty definitive Anglican) our ecclesiology is the extension of the Gospel. Folks on the radical separatist right are saying we don't need Canterbury, we don't need Lambeth, we don't need the Anglican Consultative Council, we don't need anything since the 17th century, we don't need anything approaching a catholic theology of the Church -- all we need -- they say -- is to force everybody into assenting to a list of reformation bullet points.

And -- the kicker is -- there's no WAY that most of these folks really would be able to accept, assent or follow every single one of those bullet points.

Go figure.


Read it all here.

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