by the Rev Ed Hird+
in North American Anglican Vol 1. No.1 November 2008. http://www.39articles.com/
On the minds of many Anglicans is ‘What’s next?’ To borrow from the Anglican poet T.S. Eliot, Lambeth 2008 has come and gone not with a bang but with a whimper. Have we as Anglicans become Eliot’s ‘hollow men...stuffed men’? For many of us in North America, our beloved Anglican/Episcopal Church seems sadly reminiscent of Eliot’s classic poem ‘The Waste Land’. I was asked by a well-meaning pastor why our congregation bothers to stay Anglican. With all the nonsense out there, wouldn’t it be easier to just be a community church? Perhaps. But I, for one, have discovered that I am incurably Anglican, and that God is making a way where there is no way.
Orthodox North American Anglicans have become ‘wheat kernel’ Anglicans. Jesus in John 12:24 said: “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” God is giving us as Anglicans in the 21st Century both a fresh start and a death to much of which went before us. Becoming free from the apostasy and false teaching in much of the North American Anglican/Episcopal Church is a form of ‘death’. Many of us have had to leave behind our church buildings, rectories, and bank accounts. Much like the Israelites did when they left Egypt, we have had to die to the familiar and comfortable. We as Anglicans have had to learn again what it means to be pioneers, ground-breakers, and planters of new works. This can be an overwhelming task for institutionally-bound Anglicans. Thank God that in the book of Titus, we have a clear example on how to produce many seeds in times of death.
Titus was sent by Paul to the land of Crete where false teachers were swallowing the church community (Titus 1:10-16). The Cretans, who had been pirates for eight hundred years before Christ, were vulnerable to being drawn back into deception and confusion. Paul sent Titus in order to raise up healthy indigenous churches and leaders in every single one of the over one hundred Cretan cities (Titus 1:5). That is our challenge today, to send forth Tituses all across North America who can raise up countless healthy Anglican churches, churches that are immunized against deception and false teaching. Because of the moral and spiritual confusion being sown in Crete by false teachers, Paul’s key emphasis to Titus again and again was health/soundness (hygiaino or hygiene): healthy faith, healthy teaching, healthy love, and healthy endurance.
My wife and I recently went to Crete. We found out that the gospel works. Countless lives on Crete have been radically transformed by the Gospel of Life over death. You will remember how Paul in Titus 1:12 quoted the 6th century Cretan prophet Epimenides “All Cretans are liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons”. When Paul commented that ‘this testimony is true’, the Cretans would not have been shocked or offended. They were pirates and proud of it. The miracle is that through the ‘renewing of the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3:5) that deceitful, violent, addicted buccaneers became trustworthy, peaceful, and sober.
Titus was commissioned by Paul to raise up godly indigenous clergy from the ranks of ex-pirates. As Paul put it in Titus 1:5, “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.” That is our North American challenge in the 21st century. There is much to be straightened out, much left unfinished. Many of us are starting again from scratch. Many of us have counted all loss for the sake of following Christ (Philippians 3:8).
One of my favorite hymns over my thirty-four years of following Jesus has been “I have decided to follow Jesus”. The words often deeply challenge me: “Though none come with me, still I will follow...The Cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back.”
It can be a very lonely reality to follow Jesus and to count the cost of discipleship. I remember when I first met Bishop Chuck Murphy and the Rev. Dr. Jon Schuler four years ago at St. John’s Shaughnessy. Jon Schuler read out the passage in Philippians Chapter 3 about ‘having lost all things and considering them rubbish for the sake of Jesus Christ.” I remember quietly thinking: “I sure hope that it doesn’t come to that in Canada.” I was hoping against hope that the problems in TEC would stay below the Forty-Ninth Parallel, and that Canadian Anglicans would not jump off the moral cliff. Sadly I was mistaken. I was even more shocked when the 2004 Canadian ACC General Synod voted to affirm the ‘sanctity and integrity’ of same-sex relationships. What had happened to the Canadian reticence over shooting ourselves in the foot?
The North American Anglican tragedy was foreshadowed in Titus 1:10-11 “For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers... teaching things they ought not to teach...” Have we not all sadly met North American Anglicans whose “minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him...?” What hope is there in such a time of theological and moral meltdown?
The answer is found in Titus 1:9 where Paul teaches of Titus’ Cretan leaders that “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” The problem is always leadership. The solution is also leadership, godly leadership, leadership submitted to the authority of Holy Scripture, leadership that takes seriously the Creed and the 39 articles, leadership that does not treat the Ten Commandments as multiple-choice.
In contrast to the uncertain voice of Lambeth 2008, GAFCON gave a clear trumpet call to those Anglicans who have ears to hear. As a licensed priest of the Anglican Province of Rwanda, it thrills me to see the growing John 17 unity God is giving us as Common Cause Partners, not unity for its own sake but for the sake of the lost. I believe in the Anglican way as an important gift to the wider body of Christ. As we hear afresh the words of Paul to Titus, may God raise up an army of godly leaders who can retake North America for Christ.
The Reverend Ed Hird+, Rector,
St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver, Anglican Coalition in Canada
-author of ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’ (1 & 2 Timothy) and the upcoming book ‘Restoring Health in the 21st Century’ (Titus)
On the minds of many Anglicans is ‘What’s next?’ To borrow from the Anglican poet T.S. Eliot, Lambeth 2008 has come and gone not with a bang but with a whimper. Have we as Anglicans become Eliot’s ‘hollow men...stuffed men’? For many of us in North America, our beloved Anglican/Episcopal Church seems sadly reminiscent of Eliot’s classic poem ‘The Waste Land’. I was asked by a well-meaning pastor why our congregation bothers to stay Anglican. With all the nonsense out there, wouldn’t it be easier to just be a community church? Perhaps. But I, for one, have discovered that I am incurably Anglican, and that God is making a way where there is no way.
Orthodox North American Anglicans have become ‘wheat kernel’ Anglicans. Jesus in John 12:24 said: “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” God is giving us as Anglicans in the 21st Century both a fresh start and a death to much of which went before us. Becoming free from the apostasy and false teaching in much of the North American Anglican/Episcopal Church is a form of ‘death’. Many of us have had to leave behind our church buildings, rectories, and bank accounts. Much like the Israelites did when they left Egypt, we have had to die to the familiar and comfortable. We as Anglicans have had to learn again what it means to be pioneers, ground-breakers, and planters of new works. This can be an overwhelming task for institutionally-bound Anglicans. Thank God that in the book of Titus, we have a clear example on how to produce many seeds in times of death.
Titus was sent by Paul to the land of Crete where false teachers were swallowing the church community (Titus 1:10-16). The Cretans, who had been pirates for eight hundred years before Christ, were vulnerable to being drawn back into deception and confusion. Paul sent Titus in order to raise up healthy indigenous churches and leaders in every single one of the over one hundred Cretan cities (Titus 1:5). That is our challenge today, to send forth Tituses all across North America who can raise up countless healthy Anglican churches, churches that are immunized against deception and false teaching. Because of the moral and spiritual confusion being sown in Crete by false teachers, Paul’s key emphasis to Titus again and again was health/soundness (hygiaino or hygiene): healthy faith, healthy teaching, healthy love, and healthy endurance.
My wife and I recently went to Crete. We found out that the gospel works. Countless lives on Crete have been radically transformed by the Gospel of Life over death. You will remember how Paul in Titus 1:12 quoted the 6th century Cretan prophet Epimenides “All Cretans are liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons”. When Paul commented that ‘this testimony is true’, the Cretans would not have been shocked or offended. They were pirates and proud of it. The miracle is that through the ‘renewing of the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3:5) that deceitful, violent, addicted buccaneers became trustworthy, peaceful, and sober.
Titus was commissioned by Paul to raise up godly indigenous clergy from the ranks of ex-pirates. As Paul put it in Titus 1:5, “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.” That is our North American challenge in the 21st century. There is much to be straightened out, much left unfinished. Many of us are starting again from scratch. Many of us have counted all loss for the sake of following Christ (Philippians 3:8).
One of my favorite hymns over my thirty-four years of following Jesus has been “I have decided to follow Jesus”. The words often deeply challenge me: “Though none come with me, still I will follow...The Cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back.”
It can be a very lonely reality to follow Jesus and to count the cost of discipleship. I remember when I first met Bishop Chuck Murphy and the Rev. Dr. Jon Schuler four years ago at St. John’s Shaughnessy. Jon Schuler read out the passage in Philippians Chapter 3 about ‘having lost all things and considering them rubbish for the sake of Jesus Christ.” I remember quietly thinking: “I sure hope that it doesn’t come to that in Canada.” I was hoping against hope that the problems in TEC would stay below the Forty-Ninth Parallel, and that Canadian Anglicans would not jump off the moral cliff. Sadly I was mistaken. I was even more shocked when the 2004 Canadian ACC General Synod voted to affirm the ‘sanctity and integrity’ of same-sex relationships. What had happened to the Canadian reticence over shooting ourselves in the foot?
The North American Anglican tragedy was foreshadowed in Titus 1:10-11 “For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers... teaching things they ought not to teach...” Have we not all sadly met North American Anglicans whose “minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him...?” What hope is there in such a time of theological and moral meltdown?
The answer is found in Titus 1:9 where Paul teaches of Titus’ Cretan leaders that “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” The problem is always leadership. The solution is also leadership, godly leadership, leadership submitted to the authority of Holy Scripture, leadership that takes seriously the Creed and the 39 articles, leadership that does not treat the Ten Commandments as multiple-choice.
In contrast to the uncertain voice of Lambeth 2008, GAFCON gave a clear trumpet call to those Anglicans who have ears to hear. As a licensed priest of the Anglican Province of Rwanda, it thrills me to see the growing John 17 unity God is giving us as Common Cause Partners, not unity for its own sake but for the sake of the lost. I believe in the Anglican way as an important gift to the wider body of Christ. As we hear afresh the words of Paul to Titus, may God raise up an army of godly leaders who can retake North America for Christ.
The Reverend Ed Hird+, Rector,
St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver, Anglican Coalition in Canada
-author of ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’ (1 & 2 Timothy) and the upcoming book ‘Restoring Health in the 21st Century’ (Titus)
