Thoughts from my first read of "The Way, The Truth and The Life"

1. My first reaction is that the document takes positions that were not remarkable when I was ordained just 20 years ago. The Vestries, Bishops, Commissions on Ministry, Standing Committees, national Board of Examining Chaplains - all of those who sponsored and evaluated me for ordination in the Episcopal Church (and in the Diocese of Los Angeles, no less!) would have expected me to be fluent in most of this material and to teach it to people as the Anglican way.
2. This brought to mind the move to change the disciplinary canons of the church - one of the advocates of this made a comment about "having a say in who gets to be a minister in this church." Well, layers and layers of people already had that say in ordaining me. And now the "church" - or at least the little elite that's left in its bureaucracy - wants to say that nobody, for 2,000 years of church history, knew anything about anything.
3. The clarity and consistency of the document is wonderful. It practices what it preaches - what God wants known, God will express in a way that any person can get at it. A striking contrast with most stuff spun out by the Episcopal Organization.
4. Look for revisionist clergy, bureaucrats and bloggers to whine and moan about "anti-intellectual" and "fundamentalist" tendencies. What used to be "the thinking person's church" is now the church of name-calling. You know, ad hominem. You know, logical fallacy.
5. Praise God for the awesome leaders He is raising up for this challenging time!