Anglicans and Unity

We as Anglicans sometimes make the mistake of emphasizing unity at the expense of other things, and furthermore, maintaining a very narrow-minded notion of “unity.”

We are not unlike a family with a prominent member who attacks and maims passersby before its home, but then lies to the authorities about these events, and fails to curb the predations of this member, justifying itself to others by saying it cannot do otherwise because it values charity.

“Unity” pertains not only to life amongst our own little group of Anglicans representing a small percentage of those committed to Christ, but also to how the whole body of Christ behaves together.

We are inducing fundamentalism in many areas of the communion and the whole body of Christ with our Primate who denies the resurrection and the divinity of Christ. We are the agents of spiritual death for the many who come into contact with Anglican priests, bishops, and church leaders, who deny the very things that Christ taught us about Himself.

Maintenance of unity within the Anglican Communion is sowing massive division within the body of Christ. As long as this is the case, the question of “what serves unity best for Anglicans” must be moot compared to the question of “how can we best serve Christian unity, and prevent our own diseases and evil from afflicting those around us.”

We are no longer a body that needs worry about schism; we ourselves have become a schism within the church catholic.

James Coder is a layman in the diocese of Europe