The Land of Unlikeness

Happy New Year to all, and to all a goodnight. But first, a short post.

Alan Jacobs is cool, almost unassailably so (his leaving TEC, considered), and shows us how it done Anglican style in the current issue of B&C, here. Jacobs points out, as I agree, that this is an exciting, yet trying, time to be Anglican; a time, he quotes Bonhoeffer here, for “prayer and righteous action.”

A choice excerpt for your reading pleasure, and then, later, after the alchohol has worn off, read the rest of the article. While I might not feel as pessimistic as he, his final thoughts are worth getting to.

…I remind myself that the churches of the Anglican world are governed by bishops, and I am not a bishop. One of the chief reasons I have held firm to Anglicanism over the years is that I believe that the threefold order of ministry—bishop, priest, and deacon—is the model taught by the apostles, the governance particularly approved by God. In this model I, as a layman—even though I am also a member of the priesthood of all believers—have a highly circumscribed role. If my pastor asks me to teach, I teach; otherwise I shut up. In the unlikely (and unwelcome) event of a bishop of the Church asking for my thoughts I would share them; otherwise I keep them to myself, at least in public. The decisions that will shape the future of the Anglican Communion will be made by bishops, not by laypeople, nor even by priests; if I care about that Communion—and I do—I had best be praying for those bishops, and not repeating the error of Job in darkening counsel by words without knowledge.

I told you he was cool.