What's at stake

Taking a break from Anglican Convenant Land for a moment (more to come on that later today or tomorrow) I want to point to this Church Times article, aptly entitled "An issue! An issue! We all fall down!" by the Ven. Mark Oakley, Archdeacon of Germany and Northern Europe.
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...........A vision of a multifaceted Church? Noah’s Ark by Edward Hicks (1846)

Those who would divide the Communion lack an Anglican spirit, says Mark Oakley. The division ... is not really between conservatives and liberals at all. It is much more serious than that. It is a division between, first, those who are willing to say that other Christians, who have different views or lifestyles to themselves, are still, nevertheless, Christian, and have a Christian integrity that must be part of the Church; and, second, those who think that this simply cannot and must not be the case.

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Amen. Amen. Amen.

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Do read the whole piece, but here's his conclusion in case you're in a hurry:

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A little self-reflection might be important. I cannot be the only person who, since my confirmation at the age of 11, has found himself changing thoughts and opinions on almost everything as the years pass. In those years, though, the Church of England has been large enough to be my home — a spiritual compass, not a dictator telling me with whom I cannot meet or pray.

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In 1930, the Lambeth Conference concluded that Anglicans stand for “an open Bible, a pastoral priesthood, a common worship, a standard of conduct consistent with that worship and a fearless love of truth”. My fear is that those who would now homogenise our Church place some of these at severe risk.

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This is not about conservatives and liberals. It is about the survival of the Anglican soul. There is middle ground — and it is where we should all be at times, for the sake of one another and the message of reconciliation entrusted to us.

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