Define Continuing Anglican Church, Chapter I [from new Anglican blog]

Ecclesia Anglicana Continua ^ | 11/10/2006 | Fr. Erich Zwingert

[sionnsar]

The term "Continuing Church" was originally derived from what came to be known as the Congress of St. Louis called together by the Fellowship of Concerned Churchman in September 1977. Perry Laukhuff gave a speech at the Congress in which he said those gathered were there to "continue" the faith as delivered to them in the Episcopal Church as opposed to starting something new. And so it began...

But how do we define it today, almost 30 years out from the Congress. That is the question.

Two main considerations:
As the Congress was called directly in response to the Episcopal Church's decision to ordain women to the priesthood (although diaconal ordinations of women had been occurring for approx. 10 yrs) and the first reading passage of a new Prayer Book (to eventually be adopted in 1979), these are two issues that "lead the pack" to help us with our definition.

• Ordained Ministry: The Congress laid out that Holy Orders were male in character and should "continue" as such.
• Book of Common Prayer: The Congress also held that The Book of Common Prayer, as then in use (American 1928 Edition and also the Canadian 1962 Edition, since there was a contingent of Canadians present) , should remain as the Standard for worship in the church.

So here we have 2 essential components to help us define Continuing Church:

• Holy Orders is male in character and women cannot be admitted to the same.
• The standard BCP must be 1928 (USA) or 1962 (Canada).

Remember that this was completely a North American event with the "innovations" enacted in the Episcopal Church. The Anglican Church in Canada followed the ECUSA in this way almost immediately.

So here is our beginning. Many other things have impacted how we might be able to come to a definition. The first one to look at is what has come to be called as the Affirmation of St. Louis, which is an important seminal document approved by the Congress of St. Louis . We'll take that up in the next Chapter.

This is the first post on this new blog. I covet your contributions, praying that if we can--together--come up with a good definition, it may start us all down the path to a more perfect union, God willing. (Yes, I know, I ripped that off from another seminal document!).

One last thing. I know the Latin on the title of this blog is wrong but it struck my fancy. And for us English speakers I think it works.

Blessings to you all.

[sionnsar]

[From the same source: --sionnsar] Continuing Church List

One of the things which inspired this blog was a discussion on another blog about the supposed plethora of continuing churches. Tip of the biretta to the Continuing Anglican Churchman for firing up the conversation. There is a list of churches that many people refer to that seems to have some kind of de facto authority about the continuing churches. Anglicans Online, a wonderful resource website, has a "Not in Communion" list. It seems that most folks that refer to it brush the entire continuing church movement with it. This list, unfortunately, treats every entry the same. I do not have a problem with that. The editors of Anglicans Online have better things to do than worry who is who. That is our job. But since many folks look uncritically at this list, I thought I would try to help sort it out. The "conventional wisdom" I referenced in the sub-title of this blog needs some actual wisdom to inform it. Click here to see my commentary on the "Not in Communion" list.

Blessings.

[sionnsar]

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