A modest suggestion for the new province

Much will be written today elsewhere about the fledgling Anglican Church in North America, which yesterday came into being, at least in a provisional sense. Surely it is time for such a move, if only to stem the flow of orthodox Episcopalians out of the Anglican fold entirely. And the anecdotal evidence (and the numbers not adding up) suggests that's exactly what is happening to most of those orthodox who have been leaving the Episcopal Church. Certainly in this part of Georgia, if one leaves one's Episcopal parish there is no other alternative. It continues to astound this writer that the ACI does not see merit in the new proposed province if only for this reason: that it offers hope for a continued, robust, and numerically significant Anglican witness in North America that they would acknowledge (by their surrender on the issue of reform) that the Episcopal Church no longer can, given its heterodoxy. If the ACI were truly Anglican, instead of merely Episcopal, one would think they would want those who will out of conscience leave the Episcopal Church to go somewhere other than the local Methodist or Presbyterian or non-denominational church, or to Roman Catholicism or big-O Orthodoxy. One senses, though, no small amount of petulant bitterness on their part toward those who do not share their institutional loyalty. It says much that they would apparently prefer those leaving the Episcopal Church abandon Anglicanism altogether.

There are many shortcomings in this new enterprise, ones that are evident in the constitutive documents--meaning they are ones that the founders acknowledge, which is a good thing. The model of subsidiarity that Bishop Duncan spoke of does give hope that some of the differences within the entities that make up the new province can be accomodated. That said, there will be a need for identity, in nomenclature so as to prevent confusion, and in structure so as to ensure efficiency. This will have to be more than merely another alphabet-soup collection of Anglican-ish entities if it is to succeed. Right now it appears to be more Articles of Confederation than Constitution, and one suspects therein may now be its strength, but later its weakness.

Perhaps the greatest weakness, though, is that it does not yet provide anything, save a spot of hope, for those not near any parish that's in the new province--and that is most of North America. That's not the fault of the new province; indeed, to have the 700 parishes and church plants they have is extraordinarily impressive. But it will be many years before there is parish coverage across the country.

So here is my modest suggestion for the new province. Enable a class of at-large membership, membership that does not supplant or discourage membership in a local church, but that gives an orthodox Anglican either stuck in a heterodox Episcopal Church, or having to affiliate for the moment with another sort of church because of there being no orthodox Anglican church, a way to keep their Anglican identity. There are models for dual membership already, particularly for college students who are away from their home church, or "snowbirds" in Florida--called "watchcare" membership in some places. Such an affiliate membership would have many benefits:

1. It would significantly expand the membership base of the new province.

2. It would provide financial support for the province beyond the current membership base, and provide those with affiliate membership a place they can send their tithes and offerings if they are unable by reason of conscience to give it to their local church.

3. It would enable the province to gauge where there is a critical mass for a church plant.

4. It would provide a mechanism for affiliate members to find one another for fellowship or to work toward a church plant.

5. It would actually make it more palatable for those where there is no Anglican church, but who have stopped attending their Episcopal Church, to move their letters from an Episcopal Church to the non-Anglican church they now attend, as they would not in the process lose their Anglican identity. And the Episcopal Churches would then, if honest, have off of their rolls numbers they now legitimately claim as members, but who in fact have nothing at all to do with the Episcopal Church.

6. If it were possible to transfer membership to the new province from a local parish, this would also provide a rather visible way for those still in the Episcopal Church to register their disapproval for what they see happening in the denomination.

7. If structured so, it could provide services and resources to those stuck in non-orthodox or non-Anglican churches--alternatives for confirmation instruction, for example, and involvement in the various ministries (men's, women's, youth, college, etc.) that one presumes will soon have to spring up as part of the new Anglican Church in North America.

We are as Anglicans quite wed to the parish model of membership, and that does not have to be jettisoned or diluted. But the times call for a bit of creativity, and one way the new Anglican Church in North America can expand its ministry is to consider new forms of membership that show the same flexibility as has been shown in putting together this enterprise so far. This is fact could be the key to a much more rapid expansion than those leading the new province have thus far considered possible.