A Split in the APA
Bishop Giffin and his diocese are pushed out of the Anglican Province of America.
As if the Anglican Province of America (APA) felt left out of the recent mess of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), the APA got messier over the weekend. First, the Presiding Bishop Chandler Holder Jones issued the following letter announcing the impending deposition of Bishop Robert Todd Giffin of the Diocese of the Central and Western States.
Bishop Giffin quickly retorted on Facebook, “Rest assured, I remain the Bishop of this Diocese and stand with its clergy and laity. What an appropriate Feast!” The Feast day being that of St. Peter in Chains.
Overnight, he announced on his Facebook page:
The Diocese of the Central and Western States today has voted to disaffiliate from the APA. It separates itself from the “continuum” as a new movement without this label.
It is now a non-geographic, traditional Anglican Diocese that allows for both modern and traditional BCP worship, as well as the American and Anglican Missals, with celebrations both ad orientem (East) and ad populum (West).
A Diocese steadfastly opposed to WO, no wokeness, and pro-life. A traditional Anglican Diocese living in the 21st century but immovable on essentials.
Traditional. Broad. Welcoming.
The Anglican alternative.
Later, he added:
This Diocese will aggressively seek to plant new missions, and receive parishes and missions in the US, and abroad, who are not satisfied with the status quo. Regardless of geography.
It will aggressively support those who have been marginalized by the continuum and ACNA.
When we reach 20 parishes, and/or an ASA of 1000, new bylaws will trigger and it will be the Anglican Missionary Church.
We should be Missionary, unwavering. Constant. Positive, and moving forward.
I do not know whether the APA and their canons will allow this departure. I hope both Jones and Giffin act like gentlemen and allow the parishes under Giffin to decide whether to stay with him outside the APA or to stay with the APA.
I admittedly am not close to this situation. But my understanding is that Presiding Bishop Jones wants the APA to merge with the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC but not the basketball conference). But Bishop Giffin opposes that merger and instead wants a jurisdiction that will have a variety of churchmanships but will be firm on the basics, such as the authority of Scripture, and will disallow women’s ordination and “wokeness.” Since he is now providing oversight to Fr. Calvin Robinson and his parish, it is fair to say he also wants a church in which Robinson is welcome.
If one is frustrated by the lack of transparency from some bishops, Robert Giffin might be the bishop for you! If something is on his mind, it will likely soon be on his Facebook page as well. And when he thought out loud on FB about the possibility of forming an Anglican Missionary Church in line with his vision, that prompted Presiding Bishop Jones to move against him.
Whatever you think about all this, Bishop Giffin has a point. Heretofore, North American Anglicans have largely failed to create a sizable non-WO jurisdiction that is firm on the basics, flexible on churchmanship and prayer books, and forbidding various forms of Marxism in vestments, whether that be Liberation Theology, woke church, or modern “social justice.” Having supported, heck, cheerleaded the formation of ACNA, I bear my share of the responsibility for that failure.
But as someone aged for 21 years in the barrel of Anglicanism, who observes and ministers to Gen Z and also runs with a bunch of traditionalists, I can tell you the sort of Anglican church Giffin envisions is exactly the church we need.
Now I do think it will take much more than his diocese to bring it about. I have thoughts on how it could happen but would rather keep my counsel for now. I will say there are dioceses in ACNA that fit the bill, such as Ft. Worth, All Saints, Living Word and the REC dioceses, and I think they have an important role to play. But it’s time to admit the current form of ACNA is not working out.
Anyway, if you want to follow the saga of Bishop Giffin and his diocese, his Facebook page is worth following. He will certainly let you know what he is thinking about this and much else.
I would like to see a reunion of all American Anglican dioceses who do not ordain or license female priests. This is what we had as an Episcopal Church before the mid-1970s. There were high church and low church factions, but one church. The refusal of the ACNA to consider even a moratorium on WO, which is contrary to Scripture and the practice of the undivided church, means, in practice, they're going to continue to ordain female priests until they overwhelm the opposition. We can see this with the controversy at Incarnation Anglican in Williamsburg, VA.
My impression of the ACC, which I do not follow closely, is that there is too strong a whiff of "one true church" there, and that lower-church Anglicans would not be acceptable. This would be a mistake, I believe. Just as an "evangelical only" denomination would exclude the more catholic-minded, an "Anglo-Catholic" only denomination would exclude Anglicans who agree with them on essentials but not on the placement of the altar/table, what to wear when celebrating, and candles, etc. Either option would disallow numerous early Anglican writers.
I like the vision. I dislike the schism.
Speaking as a Presbyterian (who admittedly communes more with Anglicans these days), there really seems to be no end to the fracturing once you start it. Next thing you know, Christ's Body lies in a hundred pieces, with the biggest always the least faithful and the smallest crippled by lack of ability or sanity.
I should think we would all hope for the retaking of the CoE, which for us Americans can only occur by means of TEC. For conservatives to leave ACNA to the liberals is moving backwards, not forwards. And sometimes a tactical retreat is necessary, but we must not kid ourselves as to whether or not it is a retreat.