Via Media: The Twilight?

Dear Diary,

Caught the movie “Taxi” on TV… kinda felt I wasted my time. Not very interesting, haha… Anyway, I was totally surprised to be seeing my former university classmate (and pre-reg training colleague) along the road leading to my house just now! Apparently, she had just attended Mass at Church of St Stephen. I used to think she attends Mass at Church of Risen Christ or Church of Christ the King. Well… I was wrong, she has been attending a church just somewhere not too far off my backyard! Hmm… Had a short chat with her and her church friend. I guess she really saw me in my most “unglam” state ever! I had just completed a 5-km evening run…. my hair dripping with perspiration, my t-shirt soaked, my sports shorts are short, I was wearing my old glasses (which is not very modern or “hip” in any way, haha)… Oh well. That coincidental meeting marked a very incredible week. Out of the 7 days of this week, I met someone from my university 6 out of 7 days!!!! How strange! Yesterday, a former university classmate (and also pre-reg training colleague!!!) also dropped by my shop with her mum. I told her that she looked young, pretty and radiant! Apparently, studying seems to slow down the ageing process? I jokingly told another person that I might just make a “pilgrimage” to NUS someday to arrest my ageing process too! Haha… Haven’t met up with many of my good classmates doing Masters and PhDs in NUS for quite a long while! =)

Today’s Holy Communion and Confirmation service was 3 hours long! Think many worshippers did not expect that as some left the church midway. I stayed all the way and watched the Asst Bishop Rt Rev. Rennis Ponniah administered the sacrament of Confirmation upon about 15 candidates. I was quite surprised to be seeing the Rev Canon Dr Louis Tay conducted the service in a very traditional way which he constantly faced the altar instead of the congregation, in what we know as the “ad orientem” or “ad altare” posture. The bishop prayed for every candidate individually, following the liturgy and then adding more specific prayers for every individual (approximately 5 minutes each). I wonder how he knew the condition of each individual so clearly as to pray so specifically since he is actually a visiting bishop (not based in the cathedral) from the St John- St Margaret Church. A prophetic vision or revelation? Anyway, we welcomed the 15 newly confirmed members into the “Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church”… so said the bishop.

The Anglican church, my dear church, is probably in one of the most difficult periods in her history. In Singapore, the Anglican church is very much associated with the protestant churches which she constantly takes up leadership of the National Council of Churches. Abroad, in the western countries especially, she is usually segregated from any other denomination because of her unique doctrinal position of “Via Media”. In reality, the Anglican Church can range from the most Pentecostal to the most evangelical to the most traditional forms… Traditionally, Anglicanism lay claims to the apostolic succession as do the Roman Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodoxy.

Since the controversial approval of the ordination of female clergy and the fiasco of the homosexual issue, many clergy have left the church. In fact, just as recently as in September this year, Bishop Jeffrey Steenson of Rio Grande quitted the Episcopal Church (Anglican Church in US) and joined Roman Catholicism. That is probably the 3rd bishop to defect this year! Sigh… while I do not doubt the apostolic succession in the Anglican Church, there seems to be serious uncertainty within the church ranks as they adopt more and more the relativism of scriptural interpretation through individual private study.

Sometimes, I really wonder if there will even be a schism of the Anglican communion worldwide during my life time. I was quite surprised to learn that on 16 May 2005, the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) released a statement in Seattle that the both churches affirm devotion to Mary and agree that her Immaculate Conception (which means she was born without the original stain of Adam’s sin) and Assumption are “consonant” with scripture. Personally, the fact that I know it only 2 years later… I am quite sure that the ecumenism movement is possibly not viewed favourably by evangelical factions of Anglicanism.

The Anglican communion looks fragile and I won’t be awfully surprised if it splits into the traditional faction (which will rejoin Rome) and the evangelical faction. I know this is a very bleak view of my own church but in a way I am sad that it has become this way also. Just a personal view of how it will turn out if the status quo remains as now. The rich vestige of the Anglican Church and its beautiful English-language liturgy will become a thing of the past. The Anglican Archdiocese of South East Asia is unlikely to enter the Catholic Church’s fold though.

A candid personal opinion of mine, not representative of any institution.

God Bless,

Andrew