September 2024 Anglican Commentary
Hello! My name is Daniel Bentley and I’m Middler (2nd year student) at VTS in the MDiv program.
Though I was born and raised in England, I didn’t become an Anglican until I was received into the Episcopal Church in 2021. Coincidentally, the same year I became a U.S. citizen. (I like to joke that it took becoming American to become Anglican.)
This year I’ll be working at the Center for Anglican Communion Studies (CACS) as a student worker.
Part of the reason I came to VTS was to immerse myself in an Episcopal/Anglican community at a seminary with a global, missional focus. An institution concerned with raising up local leaders for the entire Anglican Communion. Leaders who are able to take what they have learned at VTS and adapt it for their local context.
That’s the heart of what it is for me to be Anglican.
I’ve often been guilty of having a view of the church that is quite myopic; insisting my own preferences, particularities, and experiences are those that are “authentically Anglican”. But the more one learns what it is to be Anglican, the less likely one is to be able to pin down what is a definitive Anglican identity.
Yes, we as a Communion have our roots in the English church, in its colonial project, and later mission work. But our vibrancy and energy comes from how the Spirit speaks in each province. How those churches have contextualized Anglicanism and its worship. We no longer have a church where Canterbury speaks to the world; we have where Anglican churches speak to Canterbury—and to each other.
One of the greatest gifts of the Anglican Communion is the opportunity for encounter.
We are a communion of independent and autonomous provinces. We are not compelled to remain a communion by ecclesial structures but are bound together by affinity and mission. When it works—when we see each other as fellow laborers in the vineyard—it’s a beautiful expression of God’s work in the world across borders, language, and culture.
But it also asks more of us when we encounter those with whom we disagree. There are no easy solutions to the real and ongoing issues that cause divisions among us. We cannot sweep them under the rug, nor can we give up on each other. As Anglicans we are called to the unglamorous work of dialogue, encounter, and common prayer—in our own churches, dioceses, and provinces, and across international borders.
CACS is committed to that encounter. In late October we will be hosting the Science Commission of the Anglican Communion whose work is to bring together faith communities and scientists for the betterment of people and planet. And in the Spring semester we will be hosting a conference for women leaders in the Anglican Communion.
Please pray for the work of the Anglican Communion and CACS. When, in the prayers of the people, you hear those prayers for the Diocese of Santiago, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, or the Diocese of Kigali, Anglican Church of Rwanda, pray for those lay people, deacons, priests, and bishops as beloved members of our common life.
And visit us at CACS! We’re located in Descendants Hall on the ground floor and love having people stop by for a coffee and to hear about our work. Better still, join us as a CACS Companion and help promote the work we do here at Virginia Theological Seminary and across the worldwide church.