Another Look at the Controversy in the Anglican Community

Discussions in Tanzania about the governance of the Anglican Church were of personal interest. The issue of how religion based on historical, and often rigid, tradition can transition to new understanding influenced by current ethos and cultural mores is relevant to all Christian churches, as well as other religions, especially those based on some form of text considered to be derived from God.

The Anglican Church epitomized the leading edge of evolution of Christian belief and morality. It has demonstrated the ability to change while permitting a wide range of theological understanding of Christian faith. The issue of ordaining gay bishops and blessing gay and lesbian unions is now threatening a world-wide ecclesiastical structure that accepted ambiguity as an essential ingredient of life.

Jack Miles (1) presents an entirely different perspective. In fact, he indicates that the foundation of the Anglican Church as an inherently “national” church was based on an interpretation of the structure of the early church. All local churches were essentially autonomous. The bishop of Rome did not have control over local churches. The rationale for the Anglican Church in America becoming the Episcopal Church was logically determined by the establishment of our national constitution. If the nation was no longer aligned to England, then the church had to develop its autonomy. The need to maintain aligned with the Anglican community was no longer needed. Maintaining communion with the greater Anglican community is inconsistent with its foundation.

In short, this current controversy may represent an opportunity for the Episcopal Church to gain its rightful autonomy.
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(1)Born in Chicago, Jack Miles was a Jesuit seminarian from 1960 to 1970, studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem before completing a doctorate in the department of Near Eastern Languages at Harvard. He is fluent in several languages.
Over a period of nearly twenty years (1975–95), Jack Miles was an editor at Doubleday, the executive editor at the University of California Press, the literary editor at The Los Angeles Times, and a member of the Times editorial board, writing on politics and culture.
Jack Miles has been a Mellon visiting professor of humanities at Caltech, the director of the Humanities Center at the Claremont Graduate University, a Regents' Lecturer at the University of California, a visiting fellow with the Committee on the Conceptual Foundations of Science at the University of Chicago, and scholar in residence at the Getty Research Institute.
Currently senior fellow for religious affairs with the Pacific Council on International Policy and general editor of the forthcoming Norton Anthology of World Religions.