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Overview Introduction Creation and New Creation Generously Orthodox and Recognizably Anglican Core of the Plan

GENEROUSLY ORTHODOX AND RECOGNIZABLY ANGLICAN

WE ASPIRE TO BE a Church that is recognisably Anglican and generously orthodox. 

The decline of Christianity in the West has already been noted, with many understanding the roots of our secular society to lie in the new intellectual, scientific, and cultural developments in the 1600s and especially 1700s that are collectively called “the Enlightenment,” which made religion primarily a private matter of individual conscience as opposed to something more public, collective, and cultural. This is particularly the case in those churches which arose out of the Reformations of the fifteenth century, which in many respects includes us Anglicans. In other ways, particularly in the liturgy, the Church of England and its offspring churches that comprise the Anglican Communion retain significant connections with the undivided Western Church. It is for this reason that Anglicans since the nineteenth century have often understood themselves as being a “middle way,” a via media, between Roman Catholicism and Reformed Protestantism. But the wider tendencies of liberal, post-Enlightenment religion certainly did shape the church of much of the twentieth century West: a preference for a private, rational faith with little or no room for anything mysterious or unexplained, anything beyond the natural.

In the past decade or two, there has been a decisive shift away from this overly rational and de-mythologised Modernist Church of our predecessors, with its tendency to avoid or explain away the supernatural and miraculous moments of scripture—replacing them in many instances with a highly individualistic turn to the psychological. Now we see an increasing desire for transcendence, for resonance with the Holy, for moments which take us out of the daily grind and provide oases of peace and glimpses of Truth. Theologians and cultural historians might speak of this as a process of re-enchantment and a reclamation of sacredness—and these wider societal shifts are not restricted to the Church either. Broadly speaking, these tendencies can be understood as a ressourcement, a return to sources (to borrow a term often used in reference to early twentieth-century theology).

The Diocese of Huron affirms and embraces a generous orthodoxy that can confidently and without embarrassment or reserve proclaim the Good News of salvation for all humanity in Jesus Christ as we have received it from our predecessors in faith. We aim to re-source everyone in the Diocese of Huron with the beautiful core pieces of the Gospel, to restore its sweetness. The “orthodoxy” of generous orthodoxy is not synonymous with the unexamined and often anti-intellectual certainties of fundamentalism nor does it entail any particular political or cultural stance. It is “generous” in the sense that, being rightly focussed on Jesus and the core of the faith that He taught and lived, we welcome the whole diverse array of humanity which God has created. Generous orthodoxy is characterised less by rigidity in the sense of doctrine and more by right-worship and right-living, focussed primarily on praising and thanking Almighty God in a life of gratitude. For it to thrive, however, both elements need to be present. A generous and open engagement with others, Christians and non-Christians alike, as well as a genuine love for them and curiosity about their beliefs is essential.

As beloved children of God, made in God’s image and likeness, we are bound together as Anglican Christians in the Diocese of Huron. The core elements of our common Anglican identity are encapsulated by the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (see box) and we remain committed to them in their entirety. The centrality of scripture, the affirmations of the historic creeds, the sacraments of font and altar as we have received them, and the gathering of the church around the bishop as the figure of unity will not change and they are not up for negotiation. This is what is meant by “recognisably Anglican.”

The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral

The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as "containing all things necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.

  1. The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.
  2. The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself--Baptism and the Supper of the Lord--ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him.
  3. The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.

Resolution 11 - Lambeth Conference 1888; based on a resolution passed by the Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States in Chicago in 1886.

However, nowhere in the Lambeth Quadrilateral is England or the British Empire ever mentioned. Like the Episcopate in point four, Anglicanism has always been locally adapted and it will continue to be adapted to local circumstances and contexts. Consider, for example, our Companion Diocese of Amazonia, where Anglicanism was something chosen; it is neither indigenous nor a product of British Colonialism. The Quadrilateral helps us to get at what is genuinely valuable about Anglicanism.

A generous Anglican orthodoxy is the animating core of Turning to Grace.

I believe that our inherited, in-culturated, incredible Christian practices—seasoned and shaped by the Anglican experience and its wisdom—are all we need right now as a central “strategy”. Practices like: Prayer. Fasting. Study. Worship. Confession. Forgiveness. Sabbath. Scripture. Sacraments. All of it leading us to love and serve the poor, the weak, the lost, in Christ’s name. God is found in these practices. Or better, God finds us in and through them. … The KEY [is] to be willing to go more deeply into the practices of the church, fully open to God’s desire for us and for the world, focusing on Jesus and yielding to the life and movement of the Holy Spirit. (“Yielding to the Life of the Spirit,” Bishop’s Charge To Synod, 2021.)

This set of practices can be imagined as dynamic triangle of three types of activity: catechesis, worship, and stewardship. With the three poles opening up space in the middle for faith, for truth, healing and reconciliation with God and with one another, in Christ. (“Together on the Road with Christ,” Bishop’s Charge To Synod, 2022.)