ACA Responds to Florenza

The following was published on July 11 in The Messenger, the newspaper of the Traditional Anglican Communion:

IN a Pastoral Letter recently read to parishes and missions of the Anglican Province of Christ the King's (APCK) Diocese of the Eastern States, Bishop Rocco Florenza pledged increased “cooperation and fellowship” and declared “a state of genuine unity and full communion” with the Anglican Church in America. In response, the following statement has been issued by Bishop George Langberg, speaking for the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America:

“We rejoice at the news that this significant step toward the greater unity of the Church has been taken by Bishop Florenza and others. We join our brother in Christ in proclaiming that we are in full and unimpaired communion with each other, and we are committed to working with him toward the vision our Lord expressed for His Church in John 17 – that we might be one, as He and the Father are One. Our hope and prayer is that our work together may inspire others to set aside man-made divisions and come together in fulfillment of Christ's explicit Divine Will for His Church.”

When asked to explain what shape Bishop Florenza's “genuine unity” and the ACA bishops' “working together” would take, Bishop Langberg referred to the “form follows function” principle of architecture and engineering, saying, “We first need to focus on getting everyone on both sides thoroughly committed to following our Lord's clearly-expressed will for His Church. Once we all thus agree on what we are determined to do, we can address the issue of how to make it happen, in full confidence that if we trust in the Lord, He will direct our paths.”