The summer academic term is a memory now, and it is a good one. As a student, I participated in an academic class at the Anglican School of Ministry, “BIB 505: Using Exegetical Tools.” It is a new offering at ASM and one of the most difficult and useful classes I have taken. (I am in the new MMin program.) It is especially appropriate for an adult learner who does not have biblical languages. Anybody handling the scriptures needs to have a knowledge of several academic topics and the use of concordances, lexicons, dictionaries, and so on.
On the other side of the educational world, I conducted a “continuing ed” level course on “Anglicanism>” It was enlightening and frustrating. It is clear that, since the 1500s (actually since about 30 AD) the church has faced the same issues dressed up in period costumes according to historical context. We are troubled by the failings of ego, status seeking, tunnel vision, inflexibility and the ever dominant pride. Did I leave out greed? If there is any of that in the Anglican experience, I do not find much of it. Maybe I am wrong. Fallen human nature is a unified collection of moral weaknesses.
It is difficult to speak coherently about American Anglicanism because there seems to be very little common ground. The Book of Common Prayer is, in the first place, more typically a pamphlet of common prayer, or the projection screen of common prayer. This is a far journey from a single unifying book of liturgy and doctrine. The modern freedom of word processing permits “cut and paste” worship, and that means that every parish will have a distinctive expression of faith. That may seem benign, but the underlying problem is that the cutting and pasting is often accomplished by people, sometimes educated and well-intentioned, who are ill-equipped to appreciate the importance of moving or removing a line or two here or there.
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