Albany Via Media News Commentary:

By The Rev. Dr. John T. Sorensen, Plattsburgh.

Trinity Sunday, June 06, 2004

Disturbing News about the Anglican Communion Network
from the West Coast American Anglican Council Meeting

As the Diocese of Albany is days away from a vote at its June 11-13 Convention to consider joining the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (also known as the Anglican Communion Network or simply the Network), disturbing news about the schismatic plan of some for the Network is emerging.

While some, including Albany Bishops Daniel Herzog and David Bena, have said they believe that the Network is simply meant to be a “safe place” for conservative American Episcopalians, a darker purpose emerged in Long Beach, CA this past week at a West Coast regional organizational meeting of the American Anglican Council.

According to a June 5 article by LA Times writer Larry Stammer (www.latimes.com), Breakaway Clerics Seek Recognition, the group called on Anglican Primates to “recognize their emerging network as a separate church within the worldwide Anglican Communion.” The Long Beach, CA meeting concluded with the AAC steering committee issuing a statement asking the primates to "recognize the Anglican Communion Network as a true Anglican province [church] in North America if the Episcopal Church does not repent."

Conservative Diocese of Albany Episcopalians are said to support Network membership as a way to keep Episcopalians opposed to gay ordination in the Episcopal Church. Albany’s Suffragan Bishop wrote recently in the Albany Episcopalian that the Anglican Communion Network is simply a “safe place for traditional Episcopalians” that would operate “in good faith within the Constitution of the Episcopal Church.” Indeed, if conservative collegiality were the Network’s only purpose and function, it would simply be another of the many special interest sub-groups that function within the church. But, despite the good intent of Albany Episcopalians, we doubt that New York’s Network leadership can keep more militant leadership elsewhere from pursuing what many have called the “realignment” of Anglicanism in North America.

Ultra-Conservative commentator David Virtue, writing June 4, 2002, joined in praising the call of “Orthodox Episcopalians” meeting at “Plano-West” that the “Anglican Communion Network be recognized as a true Anglican province in North America if ECUSA does not repent.” Virtue characterized the statement as “the boldest and most hard-hitting statement since the Anglican Communion Network was formed.”

Albany Via Media, with other Via Media USA allied groups, has for some time been warning Episcopalians that the Network could be more than just a collegial safe haven for Episcopal conservatives. The signs were there last summer, when current Network bishops were signers of the July 15, 2003 Fairfax, Virginia Open Letter to the Primates. This statement impaired their relationship with the Presiding Bishop and the Episcopal Church itself by declaring loyalty directly to foreign Primates,

we do hereby affirm the moral and spiritual authority of you, the ‘Concerned Primates’ of the Anglican Communion, and do join in commitment with you . . . We desire to act in concert with you, and are ready to take counsel from you. We pledge solidarity with you.

We regret that our bishop, with other current Anglican Communion Network Bishops, signed this statement which seeks to establish the Anglican Primates as a Roman Catholic style College of Cardinals to censure decisions of our democratic church. Albany Via Media had hoped that the July 15, 2003 statement was simply strong rhetoric and a statement of conscience. But the intent of the Fairfax Statement is clear when seen in light of the Anglican Communion Network Charter. The charter requires signers to "submit" to the authority of foreign primates, something no participating province (regional or national church) currently does.[1] Without a full rewriting of the Network Charter, Albany Via Media clergy see Network membership as a violation of our ordination vows to obey the Canons of the Church[2] and the Reformation principles of church sovereignty. We do not need an Anglican Pope or College of Cardinals. To quote Bishop Paul Marshall, Diocese of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania:

Nothing . . . places the decisions or actions of [The Episcopal Church] under foreign scrutiny. Our fundamental organizational principle is the right of national churches to arrange their own religious affairs. This is what Henry VIII strove for.

Other Bishops are worried. Conservative Henry N. Parsley Jr, Bishop of Alabama, who voted against Bishop Robinson’s consecration, recently issued to his rectors a Pastoral Direction “that they are neither to join the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes in their capacity as rector, nor as rector to sign a parish application to affiliate with the Network.”

If the Diocese of Albany joins the Network, we can only expect that we will have started down the slippery slope of realignment through schism or division. Recent American Anglican Council actions in the Diocese of Los Angeles make it clear that for many, the Network is simply a means of reconfiguring the church for schism, regardless of the intent of more moderately conservative leadership in the Diocese of Albany and elsewhere.

Clearly, some see a split as a matter of time. Also at the Long Beach meeting of the American Anglican Council was The Rev. David Anderson, President of the AAC. Anderson, trying to quiet the uproar is reported to have said he “expected the conservative network to remain within the Episcopal Church, at least for the time being.”

We at Albany Via Media believe that, for impatient American conservatives, the “time being” will be a very brief time indeed. We urge Albany Episcopalians to vote “NO” on joining the Network. It is a dangerous alliance that we cannot afford. The Anglican Communion Network’s relationship with the American Anglican Council -- they even share the same press-officer -- makes it unstable and untrustworthy. We commend Bishop Herzog for resigning from the American Anglican Council board in recognition of this uncomfortable relationship. But we do not trust the designs of the AAC on the Network. If Albany Episcopalians wish to be a conservative witness to the larger church, they can do so quite effectively under the leadership of our Diocesan Bishop, who is quite eloquent and effective without the help of a new and unproven Network organization. This option of conservative witness of conscience from within the church is the truly Anglican Way, and we commend it to the convention. Vote “NO” on this Network. If we join the Network, we will be giving up our religious life and liberty. We’ll live to regret it.

[1] Article IV of the Network Charter bypasses entirely The Episcopal Church teachings and places us squarely “in submission to the moral and teaching authority of the Lambeth Conference and Primates Meeting.”

[2] Article I is troublesome to the future of the church. To Quote Bishop Parsley, “The Network charter states that it will "operate within the Constitution of the Episcopal Church," a statement that conspicuously omits reference to the Canons. The Canons enable the Constitution and are essential for the good order of the church. Its charter also seeks to appeal directly to the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury and of other Anglican provinces, rather than the Episcopal Church. This is not in keeping with historic Anglican polity.”