The ACNA Is the Anglican Reconquista

Clipped from: https://adfontesjournal.com/steven-wedgeworth/the-acna-is-the-anglican-reconquista/
By Steven Wedgeworth

There’s a guy named “Young Anglican” who has a Youtube channel that a lot of people watch. I don’t think I have ever watched him before. But he just released a video announcing that he is going to leave the ACNA for TEC because of the “Reconquista” concept. I confess that I only made it about 15 minutes into his video before I had to take a break. Sorry Joe! The confusion was so strong, and the apparent lack of familiarity with some pretty basic stuff– the 1662 BCP communion exhortations for one, as well as the historical and ecclesiastical work of Stephen Noll being another– that I just didn’t have it in me to continue. Maybe I will come back around to it one day.

However, I do want to say a few words about the idea of Reconquista.

This is a metaphor from another Youtube guy called “Redeemed Zoomer.” The idea is that the Protestant mainline churches are like Spain under the occupation of the Moors. The field has almost been lost but there is a tiny remnant of fighters, backed into a corner, who are still alive and can keep fighting, even if it takes a few centuries. It worked for Spain. It can work for the PCUSA or TEC.

So, let’s talk about this.

First, I can’t help but notice that both Redeemed Zoomer and Young Anglican are, well, young. They don’t appear to have children yet, and they don’t seem to have spent a lot of time working in formal church leadership. Grand ideas are grand and all, but actually using your parental or clerical authority and responsibility in a real church community with real people, and under the authority of real presbyteries or bishops, is a different thing entirely. Let’s see the specific plans of attack, including the actual way that they will use the options that are in play.

But secondly, the metaphor doesn’t work. In the Spanish Reconquista, the beleaguered Castilians did not join the same organized institution as the Moors and try to work from within to bring about internal reformation. They were warring nation-states! Neither group recognized the true legitimacy of the other, and the Reconquista only ended when one side vanquished the other in literal combat.

The various Spanish princes did vacate their castles. They did retreat from off their property. The people who should have been under their care were lost, at least for a time. It’s only because they later won out that we can tell the story as if the reconquest is a unity with their original rule.

And so when you put it like that, the ACNA is the Reconquista. TEC is the Almohad Caliphate. (And before you balk at the comparison, I know of at least one occasion where TEC sold a building to a literal mosque rather than allow the original orthodox parish to buy it back.)

The ACNA is small. It’s got its back against the wall. A few dioceses have been able to keep their ancestral lands and buildings. Others have had to cede the territory as they retreated in order to live to fight another day.

The ACNA is the orthodox version of the national Anglican body in the United States. It’s got problems, sure. There is a certain amount of dysfunction. But it’s still fighting, and the future is not yet written.

I’m also in an optimistic mood for the ACNA right now. In the aftermath of the “Safe Church” cancellation, Bishop Julian Dobbs hosted an open Zoom meeting for people to ask questions. Someone asked how he was going to ensure that we don’t continue to have our fundamental values undermined in the ACNA. Bishop Julian’s answer was phenomenal.

He said that A) the ACNA’s doctrinal center of gravity is already fixed and it is the historic Anglican formularies, acting as a faithful interpretation of Holy Scripture, B) the 39 Articles of Religion especially state our doctrine and reinforce the authority and integrity of the Scriptures, C) the Ordinal requires clergy, especially bishops, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines.

When is the last time an Episcopal or Anglican churchman in the United States made those sorts of claims in an official capacity? We might have to go back as far as Bishops Meade or McIlvaine. It’s incredible.

This is an answer to prayer. This is an amazing moment. This is the time for all orthodox Anglicans to band together and fight.

You want a reason for ecclesiastical existence? You want an apologia? How about contending for and defending the historic Anglican formularies in actual churches today? That’s the standard being held up. That’s how we advance on the field.

Stop playing silly head games and convincing yourself to do outlandish things. The reality of our moment is obvious. The ACNA is the Anglican Reconquista movement. You might not get another one.

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