Bp. Julian Dobbs: The Anglican Moment

January 17, 2012
(In the comments section it was noted that this was shared at Sacred Assembly in Raleigh)

Excerpt:
Our risk, even at this very early stage of our development, is that as we establish this new expression of biblical missionary Anglicism it becomes so much an expression of the former structures that it is very difficult to observe the difference between the past and the present. Hierarchical structures, infighting, power struggles, committees, attorneys, insecurities, leaders who say one thing and do another while some take care to secure their own positions at the expense of others. Let us never forget that Moses discovered that not everyone who departed Egypt with him was united with him in his unwavering commitment to obey the commandments and guidance of Almighty God; should we be surprised to discover that we are not immune from these same trials and challenges?

Crucial to the rebuilding process is refurbishing and refining, as the prophet Malachi writes: ‘And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:3)

Part of any true work of God is the refiners’ fire. No one looks forward to the searing heat and the burning away of the dross; personal and communal…but the Word of God promises us that the result is heavenly gold.

In our refurbishing process, we must also recognize that used bricks are very attractive and sought-after for walkways and fireplaces in new suburbs across America and Canada, but, we must remember that not everything in building materials ages well...

...We are witnessing such a new wave. A prime example is the Anglican Communion - an international community of more than 75 million in 164 countries, ordered into 38 separate provinces.

In the good old days mandates, money and missionaries flowed from the traditional power base of London and, more recently, New York to their grateful recipients in the developing world.

In a nutshell, the flattening of hierarchical structures is a way to be as big as a dinosaur and as nimble as a cat at the same time. Consider a swarm of bees: it can effectively be an animal twenty feet wide, a hundred feet long, with a thousand eyes and sophisticated complex behavior--bigger and smarter than most dinosaurs--but it can turn on a dime (in several directions at once, no less!) and is unburdened by the metabolic overhead of a single huge body.

I want to prayerfully and carefully caution our new Anglican movement, let us not be complacent and reinvent the less effective structures of the past. We must be constantly vigilant against an all-too-human temptation to feel that ‘the past was good enough;’ to live in the continual ‘afterglow’ of the great acts of God in past decades. the rest