I think the heart of the matter is that TEC does not have evangelism as a priority, which makes it bump heads with other parts of the AC that are willing to experiment with different things in order to bring more people to Christ.
Says who that TEC doesn't consider evangelism a priority?!
I think there's great merit in both - and absolutely loved the TEC service I attended last time I was visiting my family in the States - but honestly you are not going to bring many new people through the doors with what's on offer - hard-core liturgy that's confusing to a newcomer and a stance on issues that doesn't differ much from a local liberal political group or a Unitarian Universalist church - neither of which require kneeling or reciting creeds!
Anglicanism
is the liturgy. If your quibble is truly a concern of charismatic evangelicals, that's a travesty that they point fingers at specks when they have a log of their own.
At the same time however, the charismatic evangelicals in CofE are not very conservative - total support of women bishops and simply doesn't touch the gay issue on a congregational level - although I would imagine that in small groups/accountability partnerships people are having more private conversations on the Anglican position regarding those types of relationships. So I was wondering if my rector was getting involved with more right-wing groups or not.
1. Conservative, liberal...these terms are nearly meaningless within Anglicanism. I've seen, in my almost 10 years of being here, conservatives who are for women clergy and liberals who are not; I've seen conservatives who deny the Holy Trinity, Real Presence, Apostolic Succession, and who are Chiliasts, Monophysites, Nestorians, etc, and I've seen liberals who are the most ardent Nicene-defending folks you've ever seen! Even on the homosexual issue, you'd be amazed to see some of the things posted here on STR and in CF in general.
2. One of the biggest problems in Anglicanism today is the reasons
why we have issues with homosexuality, women clergy, abortion, etc: we are forgetting what Anglicanism is. We need to reeducate ourselves what Anglicanism is: its very core, its history, its
everything. And we need to start with
the belief of the Anglican faith: the liturgy. When we loose the liturgy, we loose Anglicanism.
And I'm not saying that no one can have a "Rite III" (as we call it in TEC) service that is popular, but we do need to have an authentic Anglican liturgy each Sunday as it was intended, which does include Holy Communion. I don't care if it is the Sarum Rite or the 1662 Rite, etc; at least it is Anglican. And then to actually learn what we believe in those Rites.