I have a vision for an intentionally Anglican community, that is, a town or urban area where Anglican deliberately move to coalesce around a parish and influence the geographical area around them. Such a community would have to reflect the Anglican way. What is the Anglican way? It is difficult to say after a century or more of muddle and confusion. However, some core elements of what I see as the Anglican life would include: 1. The parish being at the center of life. This means both literally and figuratively. Ideally, an Anglican town would have the parish building somewhere in the center of the physical location. Also, life would rotate around worship and interaction at the parish building, and in homes. If the community grew sufficiently, I envision several parishes of a couple hundred people all within the same town. Perhaps a central cathedral could be build for large gatherings of the saints. 2. Daily worship. The church doors should be open all day every day for the ...
In two previous posts on this blog, I have written about an idea for an Anglican educational community, what I now call an "Anglican Studies House." I can report some progress on that front, and would like to issue a call, as well. Progress: I have now shared this idea with several leaders in the ACNA (and to a lesser extent, the Episcopal church), and it has received enthusiastic support. Along the way, I have also learned of at least one other such initiative already under way. I am working to organize people locally so that we might begin planting one in the Chicagoland area sometime in the next year or so. In these conversations, I have sensed a deeply felt need to 'do education' differently, in a way that forms young people in the Anglican ethos with a uniquely Christian worldview, to the glory of Christ and the advancement of His kingdom. Many have genuinely agreed with my general assessment that Anglicans (in north America at least) have done a poor job a...
I can't find the quote right off, but I believe it is in his book The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction where Eugene Peterson states that a local church really ought not to be greater in size than about 200 people, give or take a few. The reason is quite simple. A pastor cannot get to know by name more people than that and continue to take an active, praying and listening role in each of their lives. Pastors must fundamentally be people of prayer and listening. Pastors ought not to be distant figures up on some stage, but incarnate amongst their people a prayerful, listening form of ministry. Now, megachurch-type ministries have sought to honor this principle in their own way by breaking the big church up into smaller units, sometimes quite intentionally calling them separate "congregations." But I think the economy of scale presupposed by the church as a whole may just miss the point and perhaps undermine the concept from the start...
I'm happy for anything that upsets Planned Parenthood. Woo-hoo!
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