You’ll find me from time to time on ‘liberal’ (I use the term reluctantly) Anglican blogs because I still think it’s important to communicate, or at least try and understand how the other ‘side’ thinks.
Right now they generally appear to be flip-flopping between “All is well” and “It’s all your fault”. The main sense I get is one of immaturity, a willful inability to face things as they really are. I guess when you’ve been extolling the virtues of the ‘new thing’, looking to lead people into the promised land of inclusivist heaven, and when you can no longer ignore the fact that the picture is nothing like the one you’ve been painting, then you’ve got to blame somebody – anybody. The alternative would be admitting that you might be wrong. That this ‘new thing’ might not be all its cracked up to be. And that seems to be an intolerable option.
Now, that’s not to say that one side has a monopoly on immature behaviour. Indeed, I see plenty on some ‘conservative’ blogs. But this frantic denial of reality, this grasping at anything but the truth, this desperate blaming of anything and anybody but themselves indicates a mindset in denial.
This just increases my sense of an inevitable separation – for the sake of both sides. I use the word separation rather than divorce as I think there is always hope for an eventual reconciliation, somewhere down the road. I hope, but I am not sure it will ever come to pass.
Indeed I wonder if what we might see in TEC/ACC and other liberal Anglican bodies is a slow, continual decline into a small gnostic sect holding the ‘secret’ knowledge of radical inclusivity, secure in the pride of their ‘new thing’, looking askance at a mainstream Christianity who continue not to ‘get it’. Meanwhile, their lover, the spirit of this age, will ignore and be indifferent to them, as they continue to espouse an emasculated and insipid parody of Christianity.
Separation is inevitable. I just hope that, unlike the reformation, all sides will come to recognise both the necessity and the tragedy.
The Age To Come 
“as I think there is always hope for an eventual reconciliation, somewhere down the road”
I held out such a hope for many years after my departure from (P)ECUSA, though by the late 80s I had pretty much ceased to pay attention to what was going on back there. When I started looking again somewhere around 2003, I was shocked — and realized the likelihood of a reconciliation between myself and that church was just about zero.
Once upon a time, every member of our parish was former (P)ECUSA. Today, as we have grown, those of us who remember (P)ECUSA are the minority; any “re”unification would be approached as a unification de novo.
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Well, certainly not a human hope. I’m just remembering that with God, all things are possible….
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Well put.
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It strikes me that a large majority of people are in churches that have their collective heads stuck in the sand. These people claim that everything is OK because they choose to ignore the issues. It will be rude awakening for many if a split occurs. Trying to inform these people usually results in accusations of intolerance, fear-mongering, and even being a pharisee. So while many are in denial about the current reality, many just choose the “ignorance is bliss” route to justify their happy existence.
DB
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Sooner or later, it will come home to roost….
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