Anglican Power Struggles

I have never been happy with the way the Anglican Church is presently set up; this may seem a strange thing to say for someone who is one of its licensed ministers. We are locked in a system of oversight that would make any Roman General proud. When we process, we process in order of rank. We organise ourselves on the Diocesan system, another harping back to Imperial Rome. (Why we should want to name it after Diocletian, the persecutor of early Christians beats me!) Despite all the rhetoric surrounding lay ministry, we still have a Clerical elite that keep certain things to themselves. I would dearly love to see change, but all I hear is talk and platitudes from those in power. However, I still believe that God has called me to be an Anglican and so I accept the status quo whilst at the same time seeking to change it.

This is the beauty of Anglicanism; we can have different points of view and still get on. I regularly work with Evangelicals, Anglo Catholics and all shades in between. Indeed, I am willing to work with anybody of any persuasion provided their goal is bringing about the Kingdom of God.

For this reason it makes me sad that some of our clergy have seen fit to set up a rival organisation: The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans or FOCA. Perhaps the title shows the naivety of those who met at Jerusalem – it was not long before they were being called a "load of FOCAs! "(Sorry if some take offence)

They say they want to 'recue' Anglicanism from the liberals and to do this they will cross boundaries to come in to those churches that 'need' them. In so doing they have broken down the accepted structures of the church.

Now I began by saying I believe those structures to be out of date and need changing, but to break them up using their methods will only lead to chaos and animosity. Of course, they don't really want to break them up; they want to take them over. They want to use those structures so that they can rule and dole out their own brand of Christianity. They will become the new popes, whose word is law (or whose interpretation of the Bible is law.) The battle the Anglican Church faces is not one of Theology but of power.

How different all this is from the real Kingdom of God.

1 About this time the disciples came to Jesus and asked him who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

2 Jesus called a child over and had the child stand near him.

3 Then he said: I promise you this. If you don't change and become like a child, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

4 But if you are as humble as this child, you are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18)

Have the leaders of FOCA taken this to heart? Maybe, but not in the way Jesus intended. When Jesus said we had to become as a child he did not mean we had take tantrums and throw our rattle out of the pram. It strikes me this is what they are doing.