Comments
The Anglican realignment which began with the ACNA and Global South continues to unfold. The actions we take now may result in the emergence of a revitalized Anglican Fellowship of the Christian Church. This page is designed to be a place for you to share your comments and reflections on the ideas put forward in Anglican Manifesto, or on the reformation of the church in general.
Please e-mail comments to anglicanmanifesto@gmail.com and they will be posted here.
Naturally, rules of civility and mutual respect will apply.
Also, be so kind as to indicate if you are a Reader of the book, or making a General comment.
I look forward to hearing from you, and will interact with your reflections as time allows.
Blessings,
Fr. Jack
The Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Shibley, Founder & Director, The Anglican Internet Church, Oct 1, 2016 - Reader
I've finished reading your book, some it several times. There are points with which I strongly agree and points with which I do not agree. My personal experience with Anglicanism is most likely quite different than yours. Mine is solely within the context of the various Continuing Church bodies and offshoots of them.
I strongly agree with you, or nearly agree with you, on the following points:
3.0 out of 5 stars Needs a more ecumenical focus
By kcmomon December 14, 2015 - Reader ( review from Amazon)
After reading Rev. Estes' book, I was left feeling disappointed that he spent so much time and energy setting up his thesis, and not enough on the ecumenical message I believe he meant to share with all Bible-believing Christians.
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
By Amazon Customeron August 8, 2016 - Reader ( review from Amazon)
Just what I was looking for
Michael Rosengren May 8, 2015 - Reader
I want to highly recommend Father Jack's book Anglican Manifesto! Not only have I read the book, attended a Bible study class in which he lead discussion on the book. He really knows his material. The class was enlightening helped me to understand what was behind the separation from the Episcopalians and it was not homosexuality. Also even though the book addresses the Anglican Church it applies to every church that struggles with being able to declare the faith once delivered to the saints without compromise. This is also discussed in a practical manner. You will enjoy it. Thanks
Please e-mail comments to anglicanmanifesto@gmail.com and they will be posted here.
Naturally, rules of civility and mutual respect will apply.
Also, be so kind as to indicate if you are a Reader of the book, or making a General comment.
I look forward to hearing from you, and will interact with your reflections as time allows.
Blessings,
Fr. Jack
The Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Shibley, Founder & Director, The Anglican Internet Church, Oct 1, 2016 - Reader
I've finished reading your book, some it several times. There are points with which I strongly agree and points with which I do not agree. My personal experience with Anglicanism is most likely quite different than yours. Mine is solely within the context of the various Continuing Church bodies and offshoots of them.
I strongly agree with you, or nearly agree with you, on the following points:
- Reconciliation with the Episcopal Church USA is out of the question. They are a cult, or some other odd variation of traditional Christianity.
- Any new entity must be separate from the English Church. In other words, that the Anglican Communion and its various bodies are a dead end.
- Any new entity should be tied, wherever possible, to the conservative, traditional expression of Anglicanism in Africa (and elsewhere, where appropriate).
- Any new entity must limit participation to those willing to sustain the traditional understandings of the Church as it existed prior to World War II.
- Anglicanism as being in the center of your four polestars. My former bishop put forth a similar idea. I think Anglicanism is actually closer to what you call "catholic" Anglicanism is Catholic, in the true sense of the Greek katholikos. It is the closest denomination inside the Western Church tradition to Eastern Orthodoxy. I believe that Cranmer based his wording on the 1549 B.C.P. upon both the Sarum Rite AND the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which had been published in England at London in the 1520s. His Litary (1544), except the Trinitarian petitions at the beginning, is nearly word-for-word an Anglicizing of the Great Litany still used by the Orthodox Church.
- I accept the prayer book definition of Sacraments as being 7, of course, with two directly instituted by Christ, but with at least one more, Confession/Penance coming from the words of Christ in the Gospel of St. John.
- I am uncertain as to how a central body would actually act as an agent of doctrinal discipline. The idea didn't work too well for Archbishop Laud or for any other Anglican who tried to crack down upon dissent
- I think you are in error over the move toward globalism. I think the trend it actually strongly the other way. The desire for localism, or for nationalism, if you will, is what is driving political changes in the UK, Western Europe and the US. People are sick and tired of enduring "globalism" to the benefit of big corporations, big government and the Chinese at the expense of local jobs and local culture.
- I think that traditional Christianity is stronger in the US than you believe. The revisionists are strong in the media and in academe and in tightly-packed urban areas. Outside of the ten largest cities, in the countryside where real Americans live, the Church is a strong presence -- and resentful of politicians and idealogues who want to take away their liberty.
3.0 out of 5 stars Needs a more ecumenical focus
By kcmomon December 14, 2015 - Reader ( review from Amazon)
After reading Rev. Estes' book, I was left feeling disappointed that he spent so much time and energy setting up his thesis, and not enough on the ecumenical message I believe he meant to share with all Bible-believing Christians.
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
By Amazon Customeron August 8, 2016 - Reader ( review from Amazon)
Just what I was looking for
Michael Rosengren May 8, 2015 - Reader
I want to highly recommend Father Jack's book Anglican Manifesto! Not only have I read the book, attended a Bible study class in which he lead discussion on the book. He really knows his material. The class was enlightening helped me to understand what was behind the separation from the Episcopalians and it was not homosexuality. Also even though the book addresses the Anglican Church it applies to every church that struggles with being able to declare the faith once delivered to the saints without compromise. This is also discussed in a practical manner. You will enjoy it. Thanks
By John Turnbull on February 12, 2015 - Reader ( review from Amazon)
Pastor Estes is a Christian pastor who believes that Christianity has created a problem that threatens to destroy it! In short, too many Christian churches that are members of the Anglican Community, especially the Episcopal Church, have compromised the orthodoxy that Anglicanism requires of its parishioners. For Estes, Christian orthodoxy is a belief system that is inerrant; that is, free from error, and its words must be strictly obeyed if it is to be the source of salvation.
However, if I understand him correctly, the cause of the problem is not with the words; rather, it is the result of the failure of the community to adopt an “authoritative method of biblical interpretation, one that is accepted as the standard for all Anglican churches.” Once this realized, it hopefully will become “a catalyst for a revived and reunified Fellowship of Christian Fellowship worldwide.”
His is an effort that deserves the attention of all Christians who are disturbed by the intrusion of what they believe are non-Christian cultural values into a belief system they consider inerrant. Not to study the very carefully thought out plan he calls the Anglican Manifesto is to abandon the faith in which they say they believe without understanding the possible consequences, which he argues will be the emergence of a “homogenous Oneworld Religion” that “will stand in diametric opposition to a reunified Oneworld Church…because each maintains a commitment to a core set of beliefs and practices that are at heart irreconcilable.” And he bluntly asks: “Which movement will succeed? The Church as the people of God who stand firm in the faith once delivered, or the harmony of a religion with its offer of love, inclusion, and liberality in union with the Divine? In no small part the answer will be determined by you, the reader of this thesis.”
To help the reader make a choice, I have to also offer my opinion that should Estes’ plan become a reality it will “distinguish the church from the world” by erecting a wall of separation that will “prevent the values of the surrounding culture from coming in, but remain open for the influence of the church to flow out in prophetic witness.” In other words, on Judgment Day only the members of the church will know and have done what God requires of them; they will be saved. Those who refuse to become members will not be saved. Ironically, the gospels’ Jesus also lived in a society pervaded by a belief system he refused to accept; the Talmud reflects the disdain with which the leaders of Judaism treated him and his beliefs.
However, he reacted not by condemning them but by trying to convince them that the two faiths could exist side by side. He knew he was offering a new wine and that only those who were not hopelessly addicted to the old would consider taking a sip. “No one puts new wine in an old wineskin, for it will burst the skins and both will be lost”. (Matt.9:17; Mk.2:22; Lk.5:37-39) His teaching was for those with open minds. How wonderful it would be, he taught, if the teachers of the Torah could see that his message added to the world’s storehouse of wisdom. “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” (Matt.13:52)
I feel compelled to ask: If this Jesus were to return today, would he become a member of the Oneworld Church that Pastor Estes hopes to create? Personally, I believe he would not.
Pastor Estes is a Christian pastor who believes that Christianity has created a problem that threatens to destroy it! In short, too many Christian churches that are members of the Anglican Community, especially the Episcopal Church, have compromised the orthodoxy that Anglicanism requires of its parishioners. For Estes, Christian orthodoxy is a belief system that is inerrant; that is, free from error, and its words must be strictly obeyed if it is to be the source of salvation.
However, if I understand him correctly, the cause of the problem is not with the words; rather, it is the result of the failure of the community to adopt an “authoritative method of biblical interpretation, one that is accepted as the standard for all Anglican churches.” Once this realized, it hopefully will become “a catalyst for a revived and reunified Fellowship of Christian Fellowship worldwide.”
His is an effort that deserves the attention of all Christians who are disturbed by the intrusion of what they believe are non-Christian cultural values into a belief system they consider inerrant. Not to study the very carefully thought out plan he calls the Anglican Manifesto is to abandon the faith in which they say they believe without understanding the possible consequences, which he argues will be the emergence of a “homogenous Oneworld Religion” that “will stand in diametric opposition to a reunified Oneworld Church…because each maintains a commitment to a core set of beliefs and practices that are at heart irreconcilable.” And he bluntly asks: “Which movement will succeed? The Church as the people of God who stand firm in the faith once delivered, or the harmony of a religion with its offer of love, inclusion, and liberality in union with the Divine? In no small part the answer will be determined by you, the reader of this thesis.”
To help the reader make a choice, I have to also offer my opinion that should Estes’ plan become a reality it will “distinguish the church from the world” by erecting a wall of separation that will “prevent the values of the surrounding culture from coming in, but remain open for the influence of the church to flow out in prophetic witness.” In other words, on Judgment Day only the members of the church will know and have done what God requires of them; they will be saved. Those who refuse to become members will not be saved. Ironically, the gospels’ Jesus also lived in a society pervaded by a belief system he refused to accept; the Talmud reflects the disdain with which the leaders of Judaism treated him and his beliefs.
However, he reacted not by condemning them but by trying to convince them that the two faiths could exist side by side. He knew he was offering a new wine and that only those who were not hopelessly addicted to the old would consider taking a sip. “No one puts new wine in an old wineskin, for it will burst the skins and both will be lost”. (Matt.9:17; Mk.2:22; Lk.5:37-39) His teaching was for those with open minds. How wonderful it would be, he taught, if the teachers of the Torah could see that his message added to the world’s storehouse of wisdom. “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” (Matt.13:52)
I feel compelled to ask: If this Jesus were to return today, would he become a member of the Oneworld Church that Pastor Estes hopes to create? Personally, I believe he would not.