Letter from the Rectory
PARISH
OF LLANDUDNO, NORTH WALES
October 2007
Whatever your opinion of the British Empire, it has
unquestionably left us some good things in its wake. Among them
is the Commonwealth. This wonderful organization brings together
a variety of nations from all over the world, most of which were once
parts of the Empire, but now recognize that, as a group of free
nations, they still have much in common. I believe that the
Commonwealth is a real force for good in a divided and troubled world
and deserves much more attention than it tends to get today.
In an almost parallel way, the Anglican Communion was a product, not
perhaps of the Empire as such, but certainly of the presence of British
people in many parts of the world in the nineteenth century.
Explorers, emigrants, traders, the military, and missionaries took
British culture and religion to places all over the globe.
Anglicans from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland took their own
particular brand of Christianity with them and, eventually, many
independent Anglican churches were founded, modelled on the Church of
England (which then covered England, Wales and Ireland) or the Scottish
Episcopal Church. These new churches, which sprung up in every
continent, soon included many local people as well as ‘ex-pats’ from
Britain.
These sister churches all around the globe soon realized that they
needed each other and shared so much in common, and so the Anglican
Communion was born – a federation of independent Episcopal churches
(i.e. churches with bishops), in communion with each other and looking
to the Archbishop of Canterbury as the focus of their unity.
Today, various institutions help keep the Churches of the Communion
together – the Lambeth Conference of Bishops, which meets every 10
years, the Anglican Consultative Council (made up of Bishops, Clergy
and Laity from the various churches), the Primates’ Meeting (Primate =
Archbishop or the Presiding Bishop of a Province), and various
‘Inter-Anglican’ Networks for specific purposes.
Despite all these institutions, the Anglican Communion remains a
federation of self-governing Churches and is not held together by any
strong central institution such as the Papacy. When you come to
think of it, it is remarkable that, despite all the differences a
world-wide communion is bound to manifest, it has remained intact for
so long. I believe that the Anglican Communion is something we all need
to cherish as a gift of God and it is therefore appalling to note that
it is now in real danger of splitting apart.
The issue that is threatening to divide us is the consecration, several
years ago, of an openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church of the
United States. This is regarded by many as quite acceptable –
indeed desirable in the day and age in which we live, but others regard
it as disobedience to the word of God in scripture and unfaithfulness
to the tradition of the Church. Underlying this homosexual
question is, however, the whole business as to how we should use
scripture and tradition to determine our attitude to various questions
and problems raised by the modern world. When considering them,
are we to take the bible literally in all that it says, or do we have
to read it in the situation we are in today?
Because of the consecration of a gay Bishop, some churches, especially
some in Africa, are threatening to leave the Communion if the American
Church is not disciplined in some way for what it has done. Some
African Bishops have joined forces with conservative members of the
American Church to set up ‘rival’ jurisdictions there. The
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates and the Anglican Consultative
Council have struggled to keep everyone together in a very difficult
situation. The situation is very muddled and fraught at the
moment.
For me, one of the glories of Anglicanism is that we are part of a
church which includes within it people of very diverse views, both on
the matters I have just mentioned and on many other things. For
example, those of ‘high’, ‘low’ and ‘middle of the road’ traditions
have long learned to live together in the Anglican Church in most
places. Here in the parish of Llandudno, we are a diverse bunch,
coming as we do from many different places bringing our own
understandings of the faith with us. Sometimes we are shocked to
learn that not all our fellow parishioners see eye to eye with us on
matters of faith. Hopefully, this leads to a dialogue in which we
seek to understand each other’s views and even to appreciate them
rather than simply to criticize. We may not change our minds, but
at least we can be sensitive to the faith of others.
Returning to the wider picture in the Anglican Communion, please pray
that we can find a way to stay together despite the differences, each
side accepting the integrity of the other and their desire to be
obedient to God. Pray that we may not lose that precious gift of
unity in diversity which is the glory of our church.
Fr John.