Mr. Hartin offered up five theses which we will examine at length.

1. Both TEC and ACNA are diminished churches because of the schism.

No one's hands are clean and no one has the higher ground -- at least on the ecclesial level. That the founding churches of the ACNA felt pressed to separate from TEC is a failure of both bodies. Both lacked the will and imagination to bear witness to Christ together.

TEC has pandered to the worst of liberalism for decades, and this came to a head with an abandonment of Christian sexual ethics in favor of the values of Hollywood. As far as I can tell, TEC has sided with those in power once again, with views on marriage and family that would be lauded in centers of power in America -- from elite colleges to the hubs of the most fashionable entertainment.

On the other hand, the ACNA -- in an effort to preserve pure Christian teaching -- has left many queer Christians out in the cold. Moreover, the rigorist separation from swaths of siblings -- the wheat and the tares together -- is just as reprehensible as the values from which they are trying to flee.

No one has done right, but all of us like sheep have gone astray.

VOL: The reason we had a schism is precisely because TEC pandered to the worst forms of liberalism, forcing out those who could no longer stomach the innovations that defied, Scripture, history and tradition. Faithful ACNA believers argued they did not leave TEC, TEC left them by these innovations and has not repented in order for ACNA to make it possible to return.

Furthermore, ACNA left no one out in the cold especially homosexuals and lesbians (LGBTQ). They have argued you can come as you are, but you can't stay as you are if you believe in the gospel, because the gospel demands change from the inside out. You cannot be "in Christ" and "in sodomy" at the same time; the law of non-contradiction forbids it.

True all we like sheep have gone astray, but repentant sinners enter the fold by reason of the New Birth. TEC does not believe that.

2. The only genuinely Christian teleology for the two churches is reconciliation and reunification.

I understand that this may not be on the horizon of many of our minds. But, keeping in view Jesus' prayer for unity in John 17 and the reality that separation from individual sisters and brothers in Christ is purgative, "so that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord," this means that reunification in Christ ought to be the goal for the ACNA and TEC. This must always be on the table. And we cannot have a Christian vision of the future unless it includes some kind of movement toward wholeness.

More practically -- unless some kind of scheme for reintegration is on the horizon as churches plan and discern for the future, we have lost the plot.

VOL: John 17 speaks to people who were already believers who might start theological fights and Jesus warns against it. Many of us believe that the vast majority of TEC priests and bishops are not really true believers; with many bishops publicly denying basic doctrines ie. (Jefferts Schori could not uphold the bodily resurrection of Jesus), and so spiritual warfare led to eventual schism. Paul in Galatians warns his Galatian believers that if anyone preaches "another gospel" let him be declared anathema. This, in effect is what TEC did. By splitting, ACNA said that TEC now had "another gospel," "another Jesus" that did not comport to New Testament revelation. Under those circumstances they were finally forced out.

Let me give one example. For more than two decades former Albany Bishop Bill Love stayed in TEC as he watched it go from one spiritually ruinous resolution to the next; resulting finally in B012 and gay marriage. He stayed to the bitter end (longer than I think he should have) and finally got pushed out (in the name of inclusion and diversity of course) because there was no room for his position that marriage could only be between a man and a woman. His biblical position was ridiculed by some of his priests and not a few bishops. He was out the door. Hartin does not understand the deep hatred of orthodoxy by progressives (as they are now called). They are the most intolerant of people. Tolerance for orthodoxy is mocked, despised and exorcized at every turn. Hartin is ignorant, refusing to see the truth of the matter.

3. Time is of the essence.

The longer TEC and ACNA wait for formal, institutional mutual repentance and recognition, the more difficult it will become. This is a purely pragmatic reality. Each church will continue to develop its own institutional structures, be solidified in their own liturgical traditions, and struggle with decline.

This latter point is especially important. While the decline narrative within TEC is ubiquitous, post-pandemic numbers show that ACNA is facing the same issues, if to a different degree. There are no winners here. Putting off conversations about how churches can work toward common ground is only to delay the inevitable, even if those conversations begin as ecumenical dialogues.

VOL: The ACNA waited for over 30 years for TEC to repent. TEC's bishops dug in, pushed by pansexualists with more and more gay and lesbian priests now being consecrated as bishops every few months. Furthermore, ACNA and TEC are NOT facing the same issues. TEC is rapidly dying, now around 300,000, while ACNA is coming out of the post-Covid slump and is rising. See here: https://virtueonline.org/anglican-attendance-strongly-rebounds

As a recent sign of TEC's lack of inclusion, observe what happened to Charlie Holt, an evangelical who got the nod to be the next Bishop of Florida. It took two elections but the pansexualists triumphed and Charlie was history. See the story here: https://virtueonline.org/diocese-florida-sorry-charlie-youre-history

4. We have all the time of in the world.

I must also point out that God does God's work in God's time. The work of reconciliation is not linear, and through fits and starts it will continue to go on. It took Lutherans and Roman Catholics almost 500 years to converge on the doctrine of justification. It may take 500 years for Anglican convergence in North America. Likely, it will at least take the retirement of the shell-shocked leaders in both churches who still bear the wounds of the initial split.

VOL: That RC/Lutheran convergence on Justification is only on paper. Nothing has changed at the pew and pulpit level. I don't know a single RC who could articulate Luther's doctrine of Justification and Rome's; and then say "I see the light, infusion verses imputation. I now believe in imputed righteousness."

Catholics basically believe in salvation by increments - salvation by sanctification. They teach that forgiveness of sins is based on inherent righteousness and that justification is a process by which a person is actually and morally made righteous through the infused righteousness of God available in the sacraments. Protestants, on the other hand, understand that we are never righteous enough, not innately and not in this lifetime, therefore our salvation depends on Christ's righteousness credited to our account (justification by grace alone through faith alone by Christ alone). Thomas Cranmer wrote that "Justification precedes a right heart" because, like the other 16th century reformers, he saw salvation as the extrinsic righteousness of Christ received by faith, not as an intrinsic righteousness infused by grace.

5. Reconciliation is already happening at the grassroots; this ought to be recognized and celebrated.

While the formal teaching of Christian churches is extremely important, what churches actually do can be equally as instructive.

While TEC and ACNA are out of communion, at the grassroot level, Episcopalians and other North American Anglicans are sharing in mission and perhaps even communion across differences. The cease-fire in places like Duke and Nashotah House offer salutary examples, but so does the complex communion that both churches share with provinces in parts of Africa and Asia. What does it mean when Episcopalians and Anglicans living in the same city are not in communion, if when they travel to Egypt or Kenya they both receive the sacrament together?

That clergy and laity pray together, serve together, and perhaps even share the Eucharist together calls for some recognition.

The church in North America faces strong cultural headwinds. Increasing secularization and generational trends of disaffiliation from Christian churches mean that the future is challenging. This is to say nothing about the internal rot that is present in all churches. This is manifested in many ways, from clerical abuse to unsound teaching. Anglicanism is not immune to any of this, and the scandal of division weakens rather than strengthens Christ's Church as a whole. As TEC and ACNA plot their future, imagining a way to walk together is an opportunity to witness to the gospel.

VOL: The fact that candidates for ordination of both denominations attend Nashotah House and Duke does not mean much of anything. When they leave, they must choose who to come under. Trinity School for Ministry (TSM) ended its relationship with TEC because of TEC's apostasies and all their students are heading to either ACNA or an orthodox Lutheran group. I am told there are no TEC ordinands there. There will be no "plotting their future" together. That day is done. Millions were spent on who owns church property and the memory of those fights will linger for decades, so will lost pensions.

ACNA will never go back to being part of TEC, nor is unification (unity) remotely on the books; too much spiritual blood has been spilt, and TEC has dug in for the duration, and for their sins they are slowly withering and dying. The biggest and fastest growing statistic in TEC are funerals. ACNA is seeing new growth. Light and darkness can never exist together; you cannot serve two masters.

Mr. Hartin's fantasy world only exists in Disney, not in the world of ecclesiastical realpolitik.

END