Anglican Forums Reformation, Advent 2014

Anglican Forums Reformation
Advent, 2014​

Dear forum members,

We as a forum or community of people are entering upon a new stage of existence. The world as we see it today, the crisis of our civilization -- moral, spiritual, epistemological -- calls for an intense self-examination, for we must claim ourselves to be the reason for the world's failure. We are called for intense self-sacrifice, a fiercely renewed understanding of our values, principles, and ideals. The People of God, far from impeding the secular onslaught, have become its enablers and abetters, and the Church has become no longer aware of her principles, her Master, and her purpose. In this community we have tended to exemplify the trends of larger Christian disintegration through personal and destructive feuds, puffed-up pride, acrimony, doubt, thrashing side to side in fear, uncertainty, and ultimately -- despair.

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
-Hosea 4:6​

Our Lord has no confusion, and certainly no fear. In our Lord there is no space for despair, and no reason for doubts. To speak of our Faith together with a doubt or despair is to combine contradictory, mutually exclusive statements. Therefore to fulfill the mission of God, in this little corner of the world, we must strive to exemplify these divine characteristics ourselves. We must live out the mission of the Church in an implacable reaffirmation of her core divine values -- peace, certainty, hope, and truth.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off
the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
-Romans 13:12​

For this reason these forums shall undergo a renovation -- a Reformation -- during this Advent season (and possibly beyond). We as an online community have exhibited tremendous doubt and confusion and doubt about what is truth, and the July 2013 discussion Church and forum unity, begun to address our concerns, became prime evidence, Exhibit A, for just how far we have lost confidence in our church (despite professing it in the Creed), and in one truth (the bedrock of our belief).

And yet, doubts that plague our discussions are to be traced primarily to the Admins and the Forums Leadership. That is always the case. We have not yet put this corner of the world on a Godly and divine foundation, but rather exemplified faults of the larger Christian world: timidity about truth and faith; reliance on compromise, ecumenism and doubt; and an lacking pastoral care of souls. Consequently, the cure for what ails us will be found in an embrace of our divine faith -- one that is allergic to doubt, exhibits a passionate love of souls and truth, and possesses a tender affection for our historic Saints, Doctors, Bishops and Pastors.

There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout
again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
-Job 14:7​

In order to effect the Reformation we will go through these consecutive stages, in order:

1. A total rejection of modern errors such as women's ordination, and gay "marriage." They may still be discussed or asked questions about, but no longer promoted.
   
   
2. An affectionate embrace of our Creeds and Formularies. Anyone may still, as before, participate in any discussion, but those who affirm the Anglican faith will be categorized as Anglicans (via an "Anglican" badge by their username), and provided with special privileges.
   --- a higher rank from among these will be able to promote and feature threads, make site-wide announcements, and even affect our editorial policies.
   
   
3. Substantially revamped and improved help pages and Forum usability. We intend to supply plentiful help tips to Newly Registered Members, and add detailed Help Pages on topics such as "New To Forums?", "Internet Privacy", and "Badges and Orthodoxy."
   
   
4. A reorganization of our forum Layout and Categories (announced February, 2013). Whether following that thread's schema or another, our top priority will be a forum layout which will aim to prioritize brotherly conversation, amiable questions, pastoral and life questions, and challenges of living in the world. This part of the effort may extend into the new year.

These steps will have an announcement, as they go into effect. We hope you will join us for this next tremendous milestone of our journey. As announced from the beginning, the sole purpose and goal for the existence of this site has been to help the church, and to serve truth. For this reason it is exciting and a tremendous privilege to serve those goals even better than before. May you have a happy and blessed Advent, the birthday of our Lord, the final triumph of Truth in the World.

 

Step 1: Modern Errors

Modern errors such as women's ordination and gay "marriage" have no warrant in Holy Scripture, nor secondarily in any traditions of the church. They are founded in post-modern conceptions of truth that are incompatible with the Truth taught and embodied by God. Promotion of these topics not only serves to endanger one's soul, but splits and fractures the Christian community which is the living body of Christ, and thus is also deadly in this secondary sense as well.

In the past, these topics here have been neither encouraged nor prohibited, which has allowed them to deliver their deadly payload, rending our community and leading some of the members into mortal error. For this reason the first and foremost step of this Advent Reformation is a total and unambiguous prohibition on promoting, or speaking in favor, of these topics in the future. Discussing and questioning these topics continues to remain open, as in the past.

 

Step 2: Holy Formulas

Unity is at the heart of every Anglican, unity such as has always been the Anglican hallmark, and always ought to exist insofar as our Lord and Holy Savior had prayed for it and instituted the Body of Christ in it. While the Anglican Communion contended with the rise of Secular Paganism, horrid divisions arose amidst our ranks setting brother against brother, even as both were already losing to the paganism of the larger culture. Camps arose within the Church, each with its own hermeneutic and theology, prejudices and hatreds against their brothers in the Anglican Communion; and as the Faithful had decapitated each other, the heretics grew stronger, rising to the highest levels and trumpeting their horrid Victory as nearly complete.

In order to recover our strength we must follow the steps of our heroic predecessors, who had triumphed over the devilish forces in their times. It is incumbent on us to abolish self-will, pride, private theories and theologies, and joyfully submit to the united holy Creeds and Formularies of our Church, as the only safe truth, our only route back into brotherhood with the larger Anglican community, wherewith we can join forces arm in arm, brother with brother, in triumph, in victory, and in our Lord, together.

For this reason you are invited to profess a solemn adherence to

• The ancient Creeds of the faith: the Apostolic Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed,
• The Articles of Religion, the Prayerbook of 1662, the Church Catechism, and the Church Homilies,

As the only documents (of all existing Christian writings today), which may be completely relied upon; which are so marked with apostolic humility and brevity, that all faithful Christians (even non-Anglicans), may safely find in them all holy Doctrine which is beyond dispute, and on which all men may wholly rely on for their salvation.

Solemn professors of this unity will be marked with a Anglican badge, granting privileges in the present and drastically expanding features on this site. From these will come a select group, Friends of Anglican.net, who will be able to directly assist with the leadership of this Site and contribute to Site-wide plans, decisions, and policies.

 

Step 2 Addendum: The Formulary Polemic

One tactic to undermine the Formularies had portrayed them as beholden to more fundamental, prior, external sources -- indebted to Papism and Arminianism as the Puritans claimed; or to Lutheranism and/or Calvinism as the Church of Rome had claimed. Because the great English Reformers were the greatest patristic scholars of their age, the only safe origin we may admit to the Articles, the Prayerbook and other Formularies, is the Church Antiquity, the Church Fathers, and Holy Scripture, at most through consultation with other Patristic scholars (Of other Churches) of that era.

It belongs to every holder of the Anglican badge to assure himself of this Apostolic Origin, by investigating the Primary Sources of the 16th and 17th Centuries, and especially the sources which the Anglican Reformers themselves cited and considered important. Commentaries on the Articles together with many other Primary Sources can be found at www.anglican.net, and will be continually expanded in the future.

N.B. The polemic can take the form of pitting the various editions of the Formularies against each other, such as the 1549 Prayerbook versus the 1552. These editions must be seen as transitory, and at each stage compatible with the recovery of Patristic Knowledge, as then known. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is the definitive edition which has been used and beloved by Anglicans for many centuries, and the holder of the Anglican badge should own it to be fully apostolic and beloved, as it has been seen -- apostolic and beloved -- for many centuries.

 

Step 3: Community Pages

Community Pages are vital to conveying the site's purpose, forum features, moderation guidelines, and other helps to a cohesive community. Our previously-lacking Pages have been almost completely rewritten, receiving a clean aesthetic edge, and filling out with content around the edges.

New Pages:

• New to Forums?, introduces newcomers to forums and their advantages to Anglicans, over other types of social media;
• Anglican Orthodoxy, describes modern Church challenges with their solutions; and the new importance of Anglican orthodoxy for Site Membership.

http://forums.anglican.net/pages/community/

 

New Pages

A new page has been added:

• Ranks of Membership, outlines the various types of Site Membership, each with its permissions and privileges.

http://forums.anglican.net/pages/ranks/


The Page on Orthodoxy (http://forums.anglican.net/pages/orthodoxy/) has been revised. You are encouraged to look it over.

 

Layout Reorganization

Has finally taken place in July 2018. Please see here:
https://forums.anglican.net/threads/forums-2-0-new-reorganization.2559/