Report: Peter Toon at Holy Cross, Franklin, TN

If you visit Peter Toon's website or blog, you will notice that he is currently addressing what he considers confusion in the Anglican Communion as to just what Anglicanism is. This past weekend, he told those of us gathered at
Holy Cross Anglican Church (EMC), that the best way to answer the question is to "read the birth certificate" of the Anglican Church. In other words, the Anglican Church is defined by her Formularies: the Prayer Book, the 39 Articles, and the Ordinal. He said those who tried to divorce these from one another are in a vain exercise, because the same "team" that wrote the Prayer Book wrote the rest - the same theology permeates all three.
He spent some time demonstrating this to be the case by having us examine what the Formularies teach regarding the Scriptures.
Indeed, the centrality of the Scriptures is what distinguishes the "Reformed Catholic" church of Anglicanism from the Sarum rite previously in use in England. He pointed out in particular how, in the Reformed Ordinal, instead of the priest being handed the chalice and patten, as in the Sarum rite, he is handed the Bible.

The lectures were informative, but the best part of the conference was our discussion times. A few things mentioned:

The Athanasian Creed was taken out of the Prayer Book by the American Church due to her latitudinarianism.

The Church is no longer the "guardian" of the Scriptures in the West, but the Bible publishers!

Daily morning prayer was emphasised, as well as the role of the Scriptures in the Divine Service and the life of the Church.

There was also much discussion about paedocommunion and confirmation, of which I will have more to say later today.

There is no question that he is trying to steer the Anglican Church in the West toward her historic root in the Protestant Reformation in contradiction to the influence of the Anglo-Catholics (St. Louis Affirmation - to which the EMC subscribes, interestingly) and the more broadly American Evangelical influences (in the Anabaptist tradition) which have crept in of late. I can't help but sympathise with him, having come out of the Reformed tradition. I invite any one else that attended to please provide your own comments.