I have been thinking about the ideas I have put forward here. Sometimes when you look back at things, you find holes in them, or you find things you would change.
I think the parish model is essential for the building up of the Continuum. But it must be built on the state-by-state model of establishing either a diocese, or a province (I would favor a province model) for each state. The important factor is that the Bishop be local and accessible to the people.
The major problem I see in the Continuum is that there is so much distance between a Bishop and his flock. Sometimes up to an 8 hour ride away difference, and that is not healthy. In the original model of the church, before it was based on the Roman Geopolitical model, each city had its one Bishop, who appointed stand-ins (who eventually became the Priests) for the outlying areas that could not get to his church within a few hours walk. This model, however, can be expanded since we have the automobile from a few miles outside a city, to a few hundred miles.
Take North Carolina for example. If there were Bishops in Asheville, Charlotte, and Raleigh, they could cover the whole area of North Carolina with some overlap, and not be more than 2 or 3 hours from any given parish. If North Carolina were a Province, one of the three Bishops would be the presiding Bishop of the Province while still working as the ordinary of his own Episcopal See.
Now, back to the Parish model. There are 100 counties in North Carolina. That's 100 possible Parishes to be established. You would start in the Obvious places, Charlotte, Raleigh (there are three Continuing churches in this area already, one from each jurisdiction) and Asheville (again, there are several Continuing Churches in this area). The APA and the ACA both have churches in Charlotte, but there are none from the UECNA, APCK or the ACC there. Each of the municipal churches would build on the city model from the Church of England of the past, with more than one church serving the city. But in the suburban and rural areas, one church per county with several chapels serving the outlying towns and/or communities in the county would work great.
This gives the church planter a plan of attack, knowing that his target area is contained in the confines of one county. He can begin the work of raising up new leaders in the church, as well as building up the membership so that the new church is supported. Once the main church is well established, small groups of people from the outlying towns and communities will be put together and form a chapel in their area, serviced by the clergy from the main church in a team ministry model.
On the national (and international) level, one of the three provinces (preferably the ACC, since it is already international) will be transformed into a Communion of Provinces. The Provinces at the state level will be in communion with this larger communion, which in turn would be the center of unity for them all. You could go with my old idea and establish an Episcopal See to oversee this Communion, or you could go with a rolling Presidency with a 2-4 year term for the Presiding Bishop before the Presiding Bishop of the next Province in line takes over. This is not so much for central oversight, as for the promotion of unity among the House of Bishops of each Province, as well as the Laity. It will provide something visible for others to see to show that we once squabbled among ourselves, but now we have our act together.
What's more, it might go a long way towards settling the petty disputes of the past if the old Provinces are slowly done away with (along with their Canons, given that that is one of the original points of departure that has given us the alphabet soup) in favor of a brand new church. If you did it right, by having each of the churches leave their jurisdiction and join the newly established state province, having a say in the formation of said province, it would give them ownership of what's going on, and give them a voice in it as well. These new Provinces could start by calling Bishops who are already out there to govern them, then, from the time of that Bishop's retirement, they could call one of their own to leadership. I believe this would solve the issue of jurisdiction jumping prevalent in the Continuum.
Anyway, that's just a refinement of some of the ideas I have presented here in previous posts. I know its just rehashing old themes, but that's what I stated this blog for in the first place. To hash out ideas.
With the coming together of the three St. Louis Provinces (the Anglican Catholic Church, the Anglican Province of Christ the King and the United Episcopal Church of North America), now is our chance to do some inventive things to solidify this unity, and grow the church at the same time. Following, I intend to put down my own ideas on how to bring this about, while at the same time honor the authority of the three different jurisdictions.
The first phase of my proposal involves the creation of an overall communion that will encompass all three of the jurisdictions until such time as corporate union is achieved. This Continuing Anglican Communion would serve to promote the advancement of the church through church planting, missions and other such things. The offices for this Communion would be opened in St. Louis, Missouri, with the eventual goal of building a Cathedral there and the establishment of an Episcopal See. This Episcopal See would eventually be the office of the Presiding Bishop of the new Communion, and a symbol of the unity of the Communion itself.
The second phase of my proposal would be to follow the lead of the new Anglican Church in North America, and begin a program of church planting, in order to build up our membership, and promote a better image of unity among Continuing Anglicans. We have had a history of argument and strife, and this would enable us to put all of that behind us in the pursuit of the advancement of the Kingdom of God. To assist with these new church plants, the three Provinces will begin to roll their Dioceses together to create regional Provinces. One in the Southeast, one in the Northeast, one in the Midwest, One in the Gulf States, and one on the Pacific Coast. To assist with this, a Seminary will be established in each of the five new provinces, building on the experience of the seminary already established by the APCK. These seminaries will be tooled to teach new Priests the techniques of establishing new churches.
In the third phase, the five new provinces will begin the establishment of Dioceses in each state, as they begin planting churches first in the big cities, then in the smaller cities across the country. This will work to bring the leadership of each Diocese to the local level, and alleviate the problem of Bishops having to do so much out of state traveling in order to make Episcopal Visits. The ultimate goal would be for each State to be a Province. Texas alone would be able to support two or three Dioceses alone, and North Carolina would be able to support two or three. As the new Provinces continue to grow, the old Provinces will be slowly done away with, or absorbed into the new ones, along with their churches.
If we don't set solid goals, we will fail to achieve the unity that we are striving for. Without that unity, then outside forces can come in and create even more strife with such things as Anglicanorum Coetibus. I feel that this is what God has called us to do, to advance the Kingdom of God and forget about our own little arguments that have driven a wedge between the Continuing Churches for such a long time. The time is now for us to act.