“A Generation That Knew Not Egypt”… and Others in ACNA

One way of viewing ACNA divisions

A helpful friend has alerted me to a private conversation between two learned men. Their names would be familiar to many of you. They made the perceptive observation that part of the Anglican Church in North America’s (ACNA) divisions and problems come from the presence of “a generation that knew not Egypt” — people who did not come out of the Episcopal Church and who may not appreciate the past struggles of those who did come out.

That got my brain working, and I now think that using that analogy might be a helpful way of viewing the different groups in ACNA. So with the caveat that such attempts at simplification always risk oversimplification, here goes. Also, the following are my views and not necessarily those of the two gentlemen.

Those Who Left Egypt, I mean, The Episcopal Church

These remember well how bad the situation in The Episcopal Church had gotten. Many parishes suffered loss of property to leave. And many were and are utterly not interested in bringing such baggage from The Episcopal Church as the 1979 Faux Book of Common Prayer, women’s ordination, lib/left politics, etc. And the idea of going back to Egypt is bizarre to them.

However many who left The Episcopal Church left half-heartedly. Yeah, gay bishops was a step too far, but women’s ordination is fine, just fine, as is lib/left politics. These pushed wokeness in ACNA in 2018 and afterward. As for the Book of Common Prayer, the 2019 ACNA BCP is certainly an improvement on the 1979, but the compilers used the 1979 as a template even though they were advised (including by me) not to.

The desire to keep such “benefits” of The Episcopal Church is not unlike the yearnings of the Exodus rabble in the wilderness.

Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at. (Numbers 11:4-6 ESV)

Wags have said that ACNA wants The Episcopal Church just before Gene Robinson was consecrated as Bishop of New Hampshire. That is not fair to those of us in ACNA who want no such thing. But is that fair to too many in ACNA?

Yes.

And our founding Archbishop, Robert Duncan, among many others, did not leave because Bishops Pike and Spong were tolerated or because lesbians were made “priests” or because the Book of Common Prayer was gutted. It took Gene Robinson for him to leave. And when he did leave, he insisted on taking women’s ordination along with him, a decision which affects ACNA to this day.

And how many individuals left TEC and joined ACNA not because they wanted to, but because the rest of their parishes or dioceses did so? And they just went along with the ride but their hearts stayed behind?

They are not unlike those among the Hebrews who brought their idols with them and yearned to go back to Egypt.

Anglicans Who Avoided The Episcopal Church

Others are long standing Anglicans or became Anglican as fast as they could (as I did just over 20 years ago) and long ago saw that The Episcopal Church as out of bounds. I saw that even before my Anglican days because of Bishop Spong. So although Anglican, these never were in The Episcopal Church.

These include my Reformed Episcopal Church. Well, we left The Episcopal Church in 1873, but you get the picture.

We are sound for the most part and have done well in doing our part to keep ACNA somewhat orthodox. But many of us are now finding ourselves out of place. And some who might join us would rather not join ACNA. Yet our connection with ACNA still also attracts some. The relationship is more of a mixed blessing than it was at the beginning.

Those Who Knew Not Egypt Nor the Exodus

These are those who joined ACNA well after the departure from TEC, knowing little about TEC and often little about Anglicanism. That some of these have shown little appreciation for the sacrifices of those who left The Episcopal Church does not help matters either.

As various peoples of the Promised Land attached themselves to the Hebrews after the conquest under Joshua, these attached themselves to ACNA. But, also like the various peoples, they often brought their idols with them that are not compatible with traditional Anglicanism and instead corrupt ACNA much as the nation of Israel was corrupted.

Most problematic are those Evangelicals who brought into ACNA the common Evangelical idols of cultural relevance, the overweaning desire to be the Church of What’s Happening Now. These are by no means all Evangelicals that joined ACNA but many of them.

Worse are those liberals who found other denominations too conservative and for some reason thought ACNA was the place to go. A prominent example is John Haraldson and the congregation he leads, Grace Church Seattle. When he was a candidate for Bishop of the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO) in ACNA, he presented their move this way:

As a direct result of our congregation’s desire to recognize, bless, and empower women in the church, the walls begin to close in on us in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)—a fellowship I still dearly love. Our leadership grew weary of spending our energy defending ourselves and, so 2019, we began to prayerfully consider finding a new denominational home.

As we discerned and sought the Lord, words like “spacious” and “tailwind” began to emerge.

As part of that process, we read Thomas McKenzie’s book, The Anglican Way. His description of the Anglican compass rose was a mic-drop moment. In that rich image, we saw a clear reflection of our own church, where the varied gifts of the body were held together by Christ.

Could we have found our tribe? Had this congregation of orphaned believers found a family that would give us life?

Furthermore, as we explored different dioceses, the vision, values, and people of C4SO stood out to us as a divinely ordained fit. The more we learned and the more people we met, the more this sense was confirmed. So, in the spring of 2022, we left the PCA and became a C4SO congregation.

And now within ACNA, Grace Church Seattle supports Revoice, wokeness, etc.

And the generation that left TEC enabled such marriages with moderate to liberal Evangelicals and their idols. Robert Duncan — yes, him again — emphasized church growth to the point where he even called for 1000 new churches in five years. In the process of growing and so emphasizing growth, much of ACNA has neglected Anglican distinctives and even faithfulness.

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And ACNA has grown, and much of the growth has been healthy. But we — and I include myself in this — did not think ahead very well to what church we would be and could be. And, with the above clashing backgrounds, what we have become is hardly tenable.

Now one of the glories of Anglicanism is diversity within orthodox Christianity. Yes, I hate using that “d” word too as it is much abused. But on a good day, orthodox Anglicans who have different views on liturgy, worship styles, Mary, the saints, and so on get along well. I myself enjoy being the resident Anglo-Catholic at Stand Firm, for example. But when some of us see the same Episcopalian toxicities we fled or avoided or Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now idols brought into ACNA….

Well, many of us are not going back to Egypt. And we are of a mind to cast out idols even though others cling so tightly onto them. So the problem of how these differences and divisions will be resolved is a problem indeed.