Fragments

“ So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away. ”

Four thousand people sit on a hillside and eat bread and fish—a simple Galilean lunch. Nothing strange about it, except that this huge crowd has just satiated itself on seven loaves of bread and some fish. And this: there was, after they filled themselves, leftover bread. Fragments of that multiplied bread were left in people's hands. The miracle was bigger than the people who participated in it. So, not to waste any, Jesus commanded the fragments be gathered up. And the fragments filled seven baskets—seven baskets of broken bread from seven loaves and 4,000 lunches.

Fragments seem to have a special place in God's plan. Something left over, a portion remaining in His Hand when most of the rest is gone; a remnant of God's people is always promised, always brought through the great trials and judgments in every age. Noah and his family make it through the judgment of the world by flood. Abraham is chosen to begin the human race's quest for God once again. Israel disappears from the earth, swept away by two successive empires, only to find a few faithful who have the heart to return and rebuild their city. Of the Jews of His day, Jesus found twelve to send out into the world with the good news, and 120 to remain for the coming Holy Spirit after His Ascension.

Through the history of the Christian Church, there have been greater movements and triumphs, as well as human failures and heresies, scandals and falling away. It's the same story. You can't leave anything to people that they can't destroy in time. The greater our success and fame, the more likely is our eventual corruption. That's perhaps why I am not drawn to large numbers, great fame, pinnacles of success and the world's praise. Pride, ever the most subtle and pernicious of sins, takes you over when you've really done well.

The first great crack in the bulwark of Christ's Church was the Great Schism of 1054 AD. The East and West divorced after 1,000 uneasy years as one. In the West, the Catholics managed almost 500 more years as one church, setting down dissent harshly and managing their people through popes, politics and fear. An educated middle class questioned some of the corrupt practices and the European landscape became a checkerboard of fragmented Lutherans, Calvinists, Annabaptists, and others. England had its own unsteady departure from the Roman See. But the English Church managed to capture its entire Catholic structure—sacraments, Apostolic orders, and 1500 years of liturgical grace. Tensions within between catholic and Protestant parties remained, but the Latitudinarian broad churchmen eventually put the Church of England back to sleep. Some Oxford dons woke up in the 19 th century and found they had a great heritage, something untouched by Roman invention but still truly Catholic and ancient. As much of the Church was withering in the heated blast of higher Biblical criticism, a faithful remnant went deeper with God and found their roots in the ancient Church Fathers, the Great Councils and the Eucharist.

The modern Episcopal Church in America is like a person trying to sit on too many seats at once when the music stops and finds he has no seat at all. Attempting a scholarly pose, it's chased the fads of academic doubt and avant-garde theology. Trying for ecumenicism, it's adopt the flat liturgy of post-Vatican II Rome. Seeking favor with others, it's embrace biblically forbidden practices of sexual confusion and gender-neutrality. A Church that at its peak boasted 3.5 million Americans now finds about 700,000 in its pews: 80% lost in 30 years. Is there a faithful remnant?

We have tried to be that remnant. Called with powerful words and passion after PECUSA's first Minneapolis Convention, thousands met 30 years ago in St. Louis to attempt the founding of a new church, called then the ACNA, Anglican Church of North America. After promises by several bishops to consecrate its new apostles, including Charles Hayden of Sacramento, only one American bishop, Albert Chambers, stood in Denver to consecrate four new bishops-elect for the new church on January 28, 1978: Bishops Doren, Mote, Watterson and Robert Sherwood Morse. In those heady days of revolution and expectation, the human tendencies toward power and ideals, principle and practicality clashed and the union was fractured four ways by the end of a year. Watterson and Morse forged a fragile peace, until Watterson denounced his orders and joined the Roman church as a layman. Doren and Mote, fell apart and created the United Episcopal Church of North America and the Anglican Catholic Church: UEC and ACC. Bishop Morse continued with his Diocese of Christ the King which eventually blossomed into the Anglican Province of that name.

30 years have passed. A new archbishop of Christ the King has been selected, our own Most Rev. James Eugene Provence. And what has happened? Here is a letter he just wrote to us. Please listen: this is important.

Dated July 10, 2007 – to The Clergy and People of the Province: Dearly Beloved Brethren,

The Feast of St. Peter this year was one of historical significance for the Anglican Province of Christ the King. On that day, in the cathedral church dedicated to Peter, the fisherman who became a fisher of men, Robert Sherwood Morse handed over apostolic responsibility for the clergy and people of the APCK to his successor, James Eugene Provence. To underscore the sacramental character of the office of archbishop, the election took place at the offertory of the Mass. Following the announcement of the new archbishop, the Mass continued, reminding us that without Christ, our work is in vain. After the Liturgy, many clergy and laity approached Archbishop Morse to offer their thanks for his nearly thirty years of leadership and for giving us an orderly succession.

The election of the Second Archbishop is also a fitting tribute to the courage of Bishop Albert Chambers who entrusted us with the Apostolic Ministry. Acknowledging that trust, your bishops are committed to increased efforts toward unity with the other two branches that spring directly from the root of the Chambers Succession: the Anglican Catholic Church and the United Episcopal Church, North America. We believe that any progress toward unity must begin at that source.

While unity is an important goal, the primary responsibility of bishops is to feed the flock of Christ with the Word of God and the sacraments of the Church. This is the commission given to Peter, to the rest of the Apostles and to the bishops in their direct succession. Aware of this solemn responsibility, it is our commitment to continue leading this branch of Christ's Church in this most holy mission. Yours in Christ Jesus, The Most Rev. James E. Provence.

The other bodies have written companion pieces that acknowledge and welcome a move toward uniting these three streams of the Denver church again. Whether we are successful or not remains to be seen. It may be that, for just this day, we have been kept fragments; just bread crumbs in so many baskets, only to enter now into a more visible, viable national body, just as the last of the survivors of the Episcopal Church crowd the lifeboats. It may also be we are bound to fragment further. If that happens, even if that happens, don't lose heart. Christ works with fragments, and if you are faithful, He will certainly call you, use you, and commend you in the end.

But imagine, and pray in God's will. Presently we list 58 churches in the APCK. Our churches tend to be larger, self-sustaining parishes. The other jurisdictions have no seminary as we have, and smaller churches, but the ACC lists 90 churches and the UEC 25. Combined, we would be 173 churches in the US, and more overseas, to cover most of the US map. Again, I distrust large groups, and mere unity for the sake of numbers, but this is a hopeful moment and we should truly pray it doesn't betray us. These are, at least, the children of the same vision with the same experience we have had. Episcopalians leaving today have made peace with much we can't abide and they think our worship stilted and arcane. These are our brothers. Pray.

The great sin of the Church for 2,000 years has been a failure to keep Christ's new commandment: to love one another as He loves us. That doesn't demand unity at corporate levels, but love despite our differences. Jesus prayed over His infant Church: “I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are… these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves… Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth… I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. O righteous Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet I have known Thee; and these have known that Thou didst send Me; and I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:11-26

Our mission remains that of the remnant in a Post-Christian world. We are, of course, a remnant, a fragment broken from a once whole loaf. We are not worthy of even His crumbs, and yet as crumbs He is ready to use us, even today. And what shall we do? Listen to a favorite saying of our 1 st archbishop, Robert Morse, quoting T. S. Eliot, the great American Anglican poet: “The Universal Church is today, it seems to me, more definitely set against the World than at any time since Pagan Rome. I do not mean that our times are particularly corrupt; all times are corrupt. In spite of certain local appearances, Christianity is not and cannot be within measurable time, 'official'. The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide.” Thoughts After Lambeth (1931)

“I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.” Jesus looks out on the starving modern world. Are we enough fragments to feed them all, with more to spare? The miracle is bigger than the people who participate in it. The miracle will always be bigger than we are.

PFH+