Religion Unplugged writes about the growing pains of the Anglican schism. ACNA split off 15 years ago, and has grown mostly by attracting people from non-liturgical churches who were hungry for liturgy but didn’t want the lunacy that comes with the ‘mainline’ package. ACNA didn’t anticipate the intake, so its bylaws were written to satisfy the comparatively “liberal” Anglican splitters. Women as priests are an unexpected hot button. Some of the original congregations already had female pastors, so the bylaws allowed it. The newcomers are more fundamentalist.
There’s an economic factor as well. Mainline churches are rich. They have endowments. When you’re running on a trust fund, you don’t want or need new members. Disputes about wills are aimed at eliminating heirs, not adding more heirs.
ACNA has disowned the will, so their habits need to change.
This difference shows up nicely in those car dealer training films I’ve been enjoying at bedtime. GM dealers didn’t worry much about bringing in conquests from other brands. They tried to keep their own customers somewhat happy, and that was enough. Hudson and Rambler dealers had to work hard on both sides of the fence. They had to prevent their loyal owners from moving to the more fashionable GM and Ford, and they also needed conquests from other brands.
ACNA is accustomed to being GM. Now they’re Hudson, plus a dilemma that didn’t apply in the auto world. Favor the comparatively “liberal” existing members and scare off the conquests, or favor the conquests and lose the congregations with woman pastors.
Rambler was able to satisfy the Conservative Prospects with its small American, and grab some Step-up Prospects with its somewhat larger Rebel V8. Variety in cars is acceptable. A religious brand couldn’t divide its congregations by sub-brand because the fundamentalists wouldn’t get near a brand that had any V8s at all, and the “liberals” wouldn’t get near a brand that had any sixes at all.
Polistra's Mill 