On the eve of our Great Emergence National Event in Memphis comes news of a new denomination of breakaway Episcopal dioceses. While this is no surprise, it is unfortunate, methinks. It's also a sign of the death of denominations, which I've been advocating for for a few years.
I remember sitting in an Irish pub in Rome about 15 years ago, debating a Catholic priest about Protestantism vs. Catholicism. His closing argument: "All you Protestants," he said, "are children of divorce, and, as such, you'll just keep divorcing."
I'll spend this week around Episcopalians of the more liberal stripe. It'll be interesting to hear their reactions to this news.
Episcopal Divorce
Thursday December 4, 2008
Categories: Church
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About The New Christians
Tony Jones is the author of many books, including The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life. He is a leader in the emergent church movement and a renowned expert on postmodern theology and the American church landscape.
Find out more about Tony, his books, and his speaking schedule at his website.
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Bishops playing politics and suing each other again. Time for them to read their bibles, they seem to have forgotten what the purpose of the church is.
Rule 1: You should evict congregations from their buildings and sell the assets. Even if those congregations were the ones that paid for those buildings.
Rule 2: Always file lawsuits, never negotiate or mediate a dispute. It is much cheaper to pay lawyers millions of dollars of donated funds.
Rule 3: The goal of the church is to decrease attendance. When 100000 people less people are attending than 5 years ago, keep responding 'all is well'. Say only a few churches have left, and there are only a few upset members.
Rule 4: When 54% of your churches have lost 10% of their attendance in 5 short years, don't revise your policies. Just increase your rhetoric and double down on your efforts to crush your opponents.
At the present rate the Episcopal church will not survive this generation.
BTW: a note from the Archbishop of Canterbury's office...
[Episcopal News Service] A spokesperson for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has responded to the Common Cause Partnership's December 3 release of a provisional constitution and canons that outline the formation of what they are calling a new Anglican province in North America.
"There are clear guidelines set out in the Anglican Consultative Council Reports, notably ACC 10 in 1996 (resolution 12), detailing the steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial constitutions and the creation of new provinces," the spokesperson said. "Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete. In relation to the recent announcement from the meeting of the Common Cause Partnership in Chicago, the process has not yet begun."
So...are you becoming Catholic, then? Wouldn't that be the best way to eradicate denominations?
Adam,
Isn't there another obvious alternative that your post omits? Instead of many denominations or one denomination, how about none? I'm not arguing for any of these options at this moment, but just wanted to point out how odd it was that you'd immediately associate a desire to eradicate denominations with a desire for one (ie, "becoming Catholic").
Tony, for a proponent of generative friendship I would assume that you'd have a high regard for "connectional" churches, if that connection compliments the mission of the church. As a United Methodist I have seen the excesses of denominationalism, even witnessed moments of UMs calling for divorce from one another (General Conferece 2000). But, I have also seen how relationship between United Methodist churches enables a robust mission in the world - fast growing churches in Zimbabwe, Liberia, Sierra Leon; a United Methodist Committee on Relief that arrives in natural disaster or war zones to distribute aid before many government organizations do.
So, is there a post we should be reading about the specifics of your call for denominational death? Do you call for a strict congregationalism? Are you calling for an open-ecclesiology, something more universal than Roman Catholicism?
Very interested to hear more,
Carl
www.emergedetroit.org
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