Dr. Erica Jarrett, in a paper given to the recent Forward in Faith assembly in Dallas, addressed the 1700th Anniversary of the Nicene Creed being celebrated this year. She primarily reminded us of the invitation to the Creed, as found in the historic Eastern Christian liturgies: “Let us love one another, that we may with one mind, confess Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Doctrinal formulation, notes Dr. Jarrett, begins with the community of Christian confessors loving each other. As Paul eloquently describes it in 1 Corinthians 13, without love the Creed is simply empty noise.
In the Liturgy, it is important to remember the placement of the Creed, as the “hinge” between the two main sections of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Faithful. It connects the preceding Scriptural instruction, as applied by the sermon, with the following celebration of the Eucharist, the “agape,” or feast of love. Through the written Word, we receive instruction to intelligently perceive that Word, and then receive it, the real presence of the incarnate Word in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, to carry with us to apply to daily life.
Alas, our Liturgy comes with no such invitation to love so we can be of one mind. It was proposed to the Committee creating the 2019 BCP, but only the liturgiology professor on the Committee endorsed the idea. We are therefore without the inherited wisdom of the phrase, and the profound message behind it. It is true that love without Creed is equally lacking, a vacuous emotion blowing in the wind. The point is, both components are key to Creedal profession. Without confessing the Faith , love is left without its source in the God who is love. Without love, the Creed becomes simply a pile of dogmas to hurl at opponents or exclude the heterodox. Without love, one mind must be arrived at by polemics and anathemas, not through caring and seeking. It is an exercise in division until only a sect of nitpicking “true believers” remain, unable to grasp the catholic context of the Creed.
Perhaps this helps explain the doctrinal mission drift in contemporary Anglicanism, where orthodoxy is defined by sexuality and gender issues, not by Creedal Faith, and love is conspicuous by its absence. One mind has become an increasingly distant and unattainable mirage.
Are sexual and gender issues of no importance and best ignored? Not at all. But neither is one mind achieved, as Jesus prays for in John 17, by endlessly attacking the “other side” with tired and worn slogans meant only to cheerlead “our team” and focused only on sexuality/gender. These issues are penultimate to the Faith, which is why they are not in Scripture (despite some misguided efforts to retro-find them hiding there), nor in the Creed, nor other than marginally in the Fathers, nor the confessional statements of the Reformation era.
Several examples may help elucidate the discussion. First, the conflict regarding women in the priesthood and episcopate is not ultimately about gender, but about what ordination means. For instance, the ordering of a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church, and the laying on of hands for a priest or bishop in apostolic succession following the catholic sacramental Tradition, is not the same thing. The latter involves the theology of creation, and of ordination as sacrament, as well as standing in the place of Christ in the Eucharist. This is not primarily about gender, but rather quite distinct concepts of ordination.
Second, the dominating conflict about abortion is a reproductive issue. But the term “pro-life” in Christianity can only be understood by its roots in Jesus’ statements, such as “this bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). For Jesus, every life is precious enough that he gave his own life on the Cross for it. A commitment to the unborn without a corresponding commitment to the already born is a mockery of Christ’s stated purpose and ultimate sacrifice, the kind of hypocrisy which alienates people from Christianity. To be “pro-life” is to embrace a love for mankind. It means rethinking your views on war, on supporting the starvation of children in Gaza, on lack in America of post-natal care, lack of access to adequate education and healthcare for children, all the things needed for life to thrive, including reaching out to offer life in Christ as the free gift it is, rather than a focus on punitive legislation. These examples are cited, not as definitive statements on the specific viewpoints (more could be said indeed), but to point out the serious mission drift from our creedal Faith into penultimate matters.
GAFCON now thunders against the choice of the new Welsh archbishop, who is a lesbian. But apostasy was denounced in the same Anglican circles by Keble’s sermon in the 1830’s, and he rightly understood it in Creedal terms. The lack of success in rooting out the apostacy in the almost two centuries since that sermon is the core problem. If you cannot do that, you should not be surprised by what happens next, even as GAFCON itself is currently unable to deal with some member churches, who have consecrated women to the episcopate, in direct contradiction to the foundational documents of GAFCON.
So many in the leadership of ACNA have come from the ranks of the Episcopal Church, where endless pronouncements on various iterations of sex and gender have emanated over the past several generations, each setting a new standard, as deemed correct by TEC’s leadership.
Having departed in despair from TEC, the ACNA leadership now proclaims endless pronouncements on various iterations of sex and gender, as the expression of orthodoxy among us. As in the case of women ordained to the priesthood and consecrated to the episcopacy, such discussions reveal a lack of one mind, unresolved and becoming more unresolved. A lack of love might also be detected. For many who fled TEC, it must seem increasingly like “déjà vu all over again,” in the colorful words of Yogi Berra.
Perhaps it is time to worry less about sex and gender. After all, a lesbian heretic is no more or less a heretic than a heterosexual heretic.
Keble, we might be tempted to observe, didn’t know the half of what was coming. Apostacy beyond his worst fears is rampant. The Oxford Anglo-Catholic remedy, birthed with vibrant energy from his classic sermon on the apostasy of his time, is now moribund and declining. It is understandable that many have given up the struggle and moved on to Eastern Orthodoxy or Rome.
Yet, the flicker of life still burns in the embers of Anglicanism. If God will not demolish a city for ten righteous men, as the Old Testament informs us, perhaps he will not forsake us if there are ten orthodox remaining in the Anglican community. The Holy Spirit has not left the premises. If the Holy Spirit will rebuild the catholic community out of the contemporary rubble of Anglicanism, we can be part of the reconstruction team.
The Creedal Faith, still standing after 1700 years, is our lifeboat. And Dr. Jarrett is right: only through love can we achieve the one mind to find the one thing necessary.