How Firm a Foundation?

Rummaging through my library recently, I happened upon a book of documents written by the first Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Stephen Bayne. Bayne was quite famous in the early 1960's when the concept of an "Anglican Communion" first began to replace the idea of the "Church of England in other countries."

Obviously, there was the freedom of post-colonialism in the air and there was much talk of each Province being autonomous; in retrospect, Bishop Bayne's concern (in 1962) that the newly -independent Ugandan Church feel free to express its independent views is ironic, given that this Church is now ordaining its own bishops in Bayne's native America!

The other striking feature of the documents is the continual searching for common ground and the frequent attempts to define "Anglicanism." Interestingly, the current suggestion to promote unity, an Anglican Covenant, would have likely been rejected by Bayne and other forward-thinking leaders of his time because it smacked of "confessionalism."

One wonders, then, just how clearly the Anglican Communion understood its identity and mission when it first established formal international links beyond the church of England. 

--J. Douglas Ousley