by Phil Ashey, Anglican Ink
Since my consecration on March 29, I’ve spent much of my time traveling throughout our 30 churches in the West, listening to the hearts of clergy and laity who are trying to follow Jesus in a culture that often feels more like Babylon than Jerusalem. These visits have been a profound blessing. They’ve allowed me to offer pastoral care, share vision, and witness the extraordinary faithfulness of ordinary Christians who want to follow Christ in difficult times. Doing this work alongside my wife, Julie, has been a gift beyond anything I imagined.
Yet amid these joys, my heart has been heavy as I’ve watched our province struggle to address the abuse of ecclesiastical power. These failures have left wounds that can’t be ignored. They’ve also stirred in me the need to reflect deeply on the authority entrusted to bishops from the very beginning of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).
When the ACNA was first forming out of many lifeboats and networks, we knew we needed strong episcopal leadership. Bishops were entrusted with broad executive authority to help knit together a new province and to secure recognition from global Anglican partners in Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, the Southern Cone, and elsewhere. Their boldness, doctrinal clarity, and courage were essential for our survival. In those early years, their role in governance was significant by necessity.
But every family grows. And that growth often prompts questions for reflection and restructuring, questions about how the family not only grows together but lives together. Questions like:
- What happens when a family that needed strong, decisive parental leadership in its infancy reaches adolescence?
- Do bishops need to spend more time listening?
- Should clergy and laity be more intentionally involved in shaping our governance, our culture, and our common life?
- Should we reconsider long-standing practices such as the absence of debate on the floor of Provincial Council?
- Could deliberation within the separate houses of bishops, clergy, and laity strengthen our discernment, even if it requires a longer legislative process?
- Would allowing resolutions to be submitted and discussed more broadly help us address challenges in healthier and more unified ways?
These questions aren’t merely procedural. They touch the very heart of how we walk together as God’s people. They’ll also be explored at the Introduction to Anglican Polity and Canon Law course at All Saints Cathedral in Long Beach this January (click here for details).