At the Garden Gate
The so-called Anglican “renaissance” movement , recently announced on The North American Anglican , sets off alarm bells in my mind. First, it relies on one man’s interpretation of Anglican Church history, doctrine and practice. Second, it takes a dismissive attitude toward laypersons, one that has characterized the Anglican Church in North America from the very outset, an attitude historically associated with the Catholic Revival, clericalism, sacerdotalism, and sacramentalism. Third, its embrace of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is reminiscent of how the ACNA has embraced that prayer book, principally as window dressing, a facade staged to create a favorable impression. As the 19th century Oxford movement’s embrace of the 1662 Prayer Book also revealed, the 1662 Prayer Book is open to more than one interpretation, and that movement’s adherents were able to ascribe to the book doctrinal views agreeable to their own. This prompted efforts in the Church of England and the Church of Ir...
