Andrew Gerns, writing over at AndrewPlus has posted a riff on his thoughts about a series of notes discussing the future of the Anglican Communion (in an interview with the Bishop of Durham and an editorial in the Telegraph):

Andrew responds to a statement that it is only English pragmatism that has been able to keep the CoE on an even course over the centuries, and that such comprehensiveness might be unique to the English people. Andrew sees it differently and argues that it might be the American expression of the Anglican Church that is really the one that truly shows comprehension.

“I realized that there was something about being Episcopalian—that’s American to you, Bishop Wright!—that made a trek between two such disparate parties [as the English Low and High Church parties] possible. That ease of moving from one world to another, I later came to realize, was a result of the real practical comprehensiveness that grew out of our more fluid, democratic experience. Our experience is also profoundly shaped by the fact that Episcopalians have always lived outside of the mainstream of American religious experience, whereas the Church of England has lived at the heart of British culture.

It seems to me that there are two kinds of comprehensiveness and pragmatism. There is the kind that is imposed from the outside. Then there is the kind that comes from choosing to live together. This is the style of practical comprehensiveness that the North American Churches have brought to the Anglican Experience.”

Read the rest here: Practical, Comprehensive, and Different

(Via andrew plus.)