Proper Head of the Church of England (user search)
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  Proper Head of the Church of England (search mode)
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Poll
Question: Who, in your opinion, should be head of the Church of England, i.e. the Anglican Communion?
#1
Archbishop of Canterbury
 
#2
Supreme Governor (i.e. the English monarch)
 
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Partisan results

Total Voters: 13

Author Topic: Proper Head of the Church of England  (Read 1355 times)
useful idiot
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« on: December 26, 2011, 01:23:46 PM »

Neither, at least in the current way things are done.

The way the Archbishop of Canterbury is chosen is pretty ridiculous. It would make more sense to do it Catholic-style and have bishops from around the Communion elect the Archbishop. Because that's not done you have the kind of fissures that are present now. Half of the African bishops won't even listen to the Archbishop, and you have the ACNA and ECUSA as rival jurisdictions in the United States. Willams condemns the ECUSA and then makes no effort to back up his threats to either the ECUSA or to the Africans who support the ACNA. This is the fruit of intertwining politics and religion, politicians in vestments get chosen to lead a floundering denomination.

It'll be far more interesting to see what takes place in a generation or so, when the King's (by that point) headship of the CofE becomes untenable for political reasons, liberal elements within the Communion have become dwarfed by the evangelical elements, and the Anglo-Catholics have packed their bags and all headed to Rome.

It's nice being a Baptist and not having to deal with heirarchy and church/state issues...
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useful idiot
YaBB God
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Posts: 3,720


« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2011, 04:16:10 PM »

Williams hasn't condemned the ECUSA exactly, mainly since it's an open secret that he's in almost entire agreement with them substantively if not procedurally; not all of the Catholics are going to Rome (and there are also Roman Catholics who come into the Communion out of disgust at how Rome does things); and as long as the Church of England is culturally closer to the North American Churches than to the African Churches the likeliest result is an eventual fracture between the liberal/Anglo-Catholic factions and the Evangelical factions, not the Evangelical factions taking over. Honestly, I don't see why we need the Evangelical factions, spiritually speaking; they can just bugger off and become Pentecostals if they keep being ungrateful to the Instruments of Unity for covering for their sorry asses. A Communion run by the Evangelical factions is a prospect that simultaneously baffles, sickly amuses, and terrifies me.

The proper head is of course the Archbishop, and the Queen has no authority whatsoever, even technical, over parts of the Communion other than the C of E.

His constant warnings to them have gone completely unheeded. Whether he agrees with them theologically is immaterial, he realizes that the actions taken by the ECUSA (and to a lesser extent the Canadians) are the real cause of disunity in the communion. If there were any avenue through which the ECUSA could have been punished it would have been, I don't see how anyone can argue otherwise.

An evangelical takeover isn't a remote possibility, it's almost a near certainty. The ECUSA is dying rapidly and the only vibrant churches in the CofE proper are evangelical (either conservative or "open"). The idea that somehow the ECUSA and the CofE's liberals could somehow form a sustainable communion apart from the evangelicals in Britain and the global south is fairly specious, and would be far more schismatic than the conservatives have been. ACNA is a special case, they're in a kind of limbo right now, no one really knows what's going to happen with them.

The problem going forward for liberals isn't that there are conservative brown people far away in Africa causing trouble, the problem is that there is enough of a contingent in England (and in the US) that sees these people as closer to them than the liberals in their own country. Conservatives like N.T. Wright standing up and saying "nothing justifies schism" is the reason the thing hasn't fallen apart, they've been open to working with everyone in spite of having the ECUSA spit in their faces.

Also, I don't particularly understand your connection of Anglo-Catholics going to Rome and Roman Catholics leaving the RCC to become Episcopalian/Anglican. These two groups' motivations for moving are completely opposite.
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