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 ...
Anglicans have always had a great commitment to learning. We have a rich tradition of clergy-scholars, and more importantly, of educational institutions committed to forming hearts and minds for Christ. The history of Christianity in the British Isles inspires admiration for bishops, priests and laity who have sought to form young lives for Christian service through educational institutions. I fear, though, that Anglicanism's educational identity has not weathered well the storms of the modern world and I suspect that the failure of education in the Anglican way has helped lead us to the crisis we are in. We see revisionism ripe in our seminaries. We see primary, secondary and higher educational institutions moving away from a Christian identity all together. And at the parish level, it is far too common to find uneducated laity, who cannot effectively disciple others in the basics of Scripture and doctrine. So we need to renew and deepen our commitment to the authority of ...
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'm happy for anything that upsets Planned Parenthood. Woo-hoo!
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