The Morphing of The Anglican Network

Albany Via Media and others in the Diocese of Albany, including the author of this blog, have long objected to the fact that our diocese considers itself to be a member of The Anglican Network.  This is an organization of so called orthodox dioceses and parishes that reject the order and discipline of the Episcopal Church in favor of various other ad hoc relationships with the global Anglican Communion, if such relationships are possible. Now Mark Harris, writing in the blog Preludium, comments that The Network is showing signs of fracture and possible dissolution.  This would appear at first to be a positive sign for the American Church, except for the possibility that The Network may be morphing into another group known as Common Cause Partnership.  This interpretation of events is supported by an announcement on the Anglican Communion webpage of an upcoming summit in Chicago:

"Bishops of those Episcopal Church dioceses that have formally affiliated with the Anglican Communion Network will meet in Chicago on April 24.  The purpose of the meeting is to allow Network bishops to speak frankly with each other about the future.

As the crisis in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion has deepened, Network bishops and dioceses have been moving in several directions.

'I have called this meeting because we need to talk frankly and openly about the future and how we as Network bishops can help the Network best fulfill its mission', said Bishop Robert Duncan, moderator of the Network.  'We will be talking about how we can work together to accomplish this goal even as we bless the several paths we have chosen as bishops and dioceses,' he added."

Mark Harris interprets the upcoming meeting as a sign that "Common Cause Partnership, a grouping of Anglican communities, some in communion with Canterbury and some not, is branching off from the Network.  The Moderator of CCP [Common Cause Partnership] seems to think that this new effort is an extension of the Network's mission.  Canon Daryl Fenton, Chief Operating Officer of the Network, essentially indicated that the Network is now the staff of the Common Cause Partnership.  So perhaps the Chicago meeting is a chance to be frank about it all, shake hands and unwind the Network into...a new world wide configuration of churches."

A new configuration of churches?  The very idea abandons hope that those parishes who have strayed from the Episcopal Church would ever return, and suggests that those dioceses that try to reconcile membership in The Network with TEC affiliation would be ultimately drawn into other orbits.  What a new configuration would look like is unclear, but the only model so far offered would seem to be a rival Anglican Communion led by churches of the Global South, walking apart even from Canterbury.

As members of a diocese that has so far attempted to patch over the contradiction of membership in The Network with nominal TEC affiliation, we must be concerned about these developments.  The pressing question is, will Bishop Love be in attendance at Chicago on April 24?  If so, what position will he take?  The Common Cause Partnership seems to be headed in a direction that even The Network has not traveled, and may well try to take our diocese with it.

Pray for the Diocese of Albany.

Comments

[Robert Dodd]

Albany Episcopalians who ignore the Common Cause Partnership do so at their peril. Both the CCP website (united-anglicans.org) and that of the Network (acn-us.org) present the same map of "our parishes." It shows 90+ Network/CCP parishes in this diocese and omits only the few that have formally rejected the Network.

Were you aware that Albany's affiliation with the Network has bought you and your parish automatic enrollment in the CCP? If yours is a Network/CCP parish -- The map will tell you if it is -- you need to ask what organizations make up the CCP and what they stand for and against.

If your parish did not choose to affiliate with the Network but just went along with the diocesan decision, consider stepping away from it. Its stated goal and that of the CCP is to bump the Episcopal Church out of the Worldwide Anglican Communion.

"Are you Episcopal or Network?" Nigeria's fiery Abp. Akinola asked a Network gathering a year or two ago. He rejected "both" as an unacceptable answer, and he was right. To give lip service to the Episcopal Church and enjoy its benefits while supporting those who undermine it constitutes both "serving two masters" and "bearing false witness." It's wrong, from both New and Old Testament perspectives.

Just say "No, thanks!" to the Network and the CCP. And copy the Bishop.