Dr. Alice C. Linsley
The fractured condition of the Anglican world is due to compromises. In this essay I address the fractures from an anthropological perspective and offer observations about practices and cultural frameworks that contribute to greater unity.
I also will speak about obedience to the Gospel as the only ground of unity as Christ’s body. Truth can be sacrificed for the sake of numerical growth. We compromise truth when we rush ahead of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is compromised when we embrace the big tent model. The larger the man-made circle, the more distinctive Christian doctrines are either marginalized or denied.
Before Egypt emerged as a political entity, around 2900 B.C., the Nile Valley was home to a religion which involved belief in God Father, God Son, and the life-generating Spirit of God. This has been demonstrated through the study of ancient texts of Nilotic funerary priests, many of whom were Hebrew.
As Egypt expanded into a vast empire, it maintained its hegemony by blending the religions of the numerous populations that it sought to control. By 1450 B.C. Ancient Egypt reached its greatest territorial expansion, and the distinctive features of the original Trinitarian faith were lost in what today might be termed “globalist ambitions”.
The big tent model inevitably leads to suppression of the Gospel, divisiveness and schism. It requires too much compromise. This should not be the Anglican approach to unity.
Anglican compromises with Protestantism have diluted our catholicity and cheapened our liturgical customs.
Anglican efforts to build a global community have diverted energy and money from evangelism and the building up of local congregations.
Anthropologists do not agree on many things. However, there is consensus on blood as the primary basis for kinship. Every society traces descent by blood through the paternal or maternal lines, or both. Studies in anthropology shed light on how Anglicans should live together to reflect the reality of one Body formed through Christ’s Body and Blood. Our unity is bought with a price. We must remind one another of that reality.
Anthropologists have noted that of all possible kinship ties, blood ties are the strongest and most enduring. Christians are made one family through the Blood of Jesus Christ.
St. Paul says in Ephesians 4, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
Blood is the basis of the unity of the Church. In the Nicene Creed we declare our common belief in “one holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” We cannot make the Body of Christ one. It is one though we often fail to make that reality apparent.
From one blood, he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him (Acts 17:26-27).
For Christians, like-mindedness does not guarantee unity. That comes from being in Christ and having his righteousness. Christ does not demand that we think alike or agree on everything.
The faithful of Christ are made one by His blood. Being covered by His blood makes us kin. Jesus often spoke of this reality. He famously posed this question, “Who are my brothers and my sisters…?”
In Matthew 12 we read that Jesus was approached by his mother and his brothers who wanted to speak to him. Jesus points to his faithful followers and says these are my family. He is not speaking metaphorically. He is speaking of a spiritual reality. We who are in Christ as his family, his kin, his blood relatives. He makes us one people, and we are his inheritance from his Father.
We cannot worship Him in the Sacrament of His body and Blood while denying the blood bond that makes us one Body. We are commanded to leave our offering and first go to make peace with our siblings in the Faith. Our unity is that of an unbreakable blood bond. It is time to act like blood relatives!
We often hear of the need for masculine leadership in the Church and for many this implies assertion of territorial or jurisdictional rights. We neglect the model of our Lord Jesus who laid down his life for the Church. We forget the scriptural injunction to submit one to another in the fear of God (Eph. 5:21). Mutual submission involves humility, motivated by reverence for Christ Jesus whose blood was shed to make us one body, His Body.
Cultural anthropology sheds a great deal of light on where Anglicanism should go if we are to pursue both truth and unity.
We should go to the Cross. We should stop acting like a tribe. We should acknowledge instead that as part of the Church, bought by Christ’s blood, we are a clan. What is the difference between a tribe and a clan? The difference is a matter of blood.
A tribe consists of subgroups, not all of which are blood relatives. Although most tribes have stories about common ancestors, some in the tribe are not blood descendants of those apical ancestors. They may be outsiders who are incorporated by a ritual act or for mutual benefits.
That is not the case with the biblical Hebrew. Anthropological studies reveal that they were a caste of ruler-priests, and as is typical of castes, they did not marry outside of their caste. Marriages were formed between blood-related clans. Nor did they incorporate non-Hebrew.
This may sound strange because we have grown accustomed to hearing about the “tribes” of Israel. However, a closer look at the Israelites, reveals that these were Hebrew clans and blood relatives of Jacob, who was called Israel. They are members of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste, and before the time of Abraham that caste was already widely dispersed. The account of Nimrod’s movement from the Nile Valley into Mesopotamia (Gen. 10) is an example of the early Hebrew dispersion out of the Nile Valley.
Clans hold together because of shared values, common ancestry, and consensual exchange of what is regarded as sacred. The early water treaties were grounds for association between members of the clan. Now we touch on the nature of sacramental Baptism. By water and the Blood, we receive the promise of an eternal Kingdom.
To understand how Anglican Christians are family through Christ’s blood, we must claim the spiritual reality of which Jesus spoke when he stated that whoever does the will of his Father is his brother, sister, and mother (Matt.12:46-50, Mk. 3:31-35, and Lk. 8:19-21). This teaching specifies obedience to God’s will as the basis for kinship, and that kinship is formed through Christ’s blood shed on the Cross.
Our kinship as Christians is blood-based. Therefore, we should not speak of ourselves as a tribal entity. We are a clan of blood relatives with common ancestors. Anglicans should speak of themselves in these terms since, as Christians, we are under the Blood of Jesus and God is our Father. A clan is a narrow circle. It does not seek new members except by birth. The early Church understood this. It was cautious about admitting people to the inner circle because of persecution and because it understood the Church’s duty to preserve the tradition received from the Apostles. Baptism is how people are born in the Church. Solid, on-going discipleship is how they mature in the Church. This understanding is essential if we are to pursue both truth and unity.
How should we Anglicans retain unity in the truth? Not by attempting to herd the Anglican cats through jurisdictional maneuvers. Never by sacrificing truth for the sake of unity. Like-mindedness does not guarantee unity. Nor does Christ demand that we think alike on everything. Rather, our unity is grounded in Christ, in being clothed in his righteousness. Too often attempts at unity entail Christological compromises. It is an old story. In the early days of the Church ecumenical councils deliberated and resolved theological matters. Today such councils are impossible so we must rely on what we have received.
Anglicans affirm the essential truth about Christ when we repeat the words of the Nicene Creed. The Creed informs us as to who we are. It shapes our prayers. For Anglicans to be unified, we must identify shared values, acknowledge what is common in our history, and uphold the sacred status of the historic Creeds and the Canonical Scriptures.
God’s original people, the early Hebrew, were of one blood because they practiced endogamy. They married only members of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. Today, the faithful of Christ are made one by His blood. Being covered by His blood makes us kin. Jesus often spoke of this reality. He famously posed this question, “Who are my brothers and my sisters…
Recognizing one another as family allows for differences but requires that we honor His blood which makes us one. Such a precious reality should never be sacrificed for a temporary unity.
Nor should we embrace the corporate model which tends toward synthetic inclusivity, international coalitions, and global governance. Unity in this model requires accountability to the shareholders whose ambitions do not align with the mission of the Church.
With the corporate model there is no sense of kinship and even the most loyal and hardworking employee is expendable. Loyalty to one’s employer does not demand everything. Loyalty to Jesus Christ always does.
Christ's Sacrifice as the Single Basis for Unity
When it comes to our future as Anglicans, we must look to the model that Christ our God has provided. Scripture indicates that Christians are made one people through Christ. We share one kinship because we are under the cover of his blood. St. Paul refers to the blood of Jesus no less than twelve times in his writings. Because God makes peace with us through the blood of Christ, the Apostle urges us to "Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together" (Eph. 4:3). When we are indifferent to the bonds that make us one, we exhibit the deadly sin of sloth.
Blood is essential for life. Blood purifies. It redeems. It is the basis of all biblical covenants, especially the “blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb. 13:20). Blood bonds are the strongest of all kinship bonds. Blood speaks of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope of bodily resurrection.
For at least 100,000 years humans buried their rulers and chiefs with red ocher powder, a symbolic blood covering. This practice has been witnessed universally. Red ocher burials have been found in Alaska, Australia, Bavaria, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and Wales. It might interest you that the earliest known example of red ocher burial was found in Galilee, the region to which the Lord Jesus returned after his resurrection.
The extremely valuable red ocher was used on people of high social status such as clan chiefs and kings because people believed that were the ruler to rise from the grave, he would lead his people to immortality. Adapting the language of Psalm 68, the Apostle Paul uses this royal procession language in reference to the ascension of the Risen Lord in Ephesians 4:8.
A principle of anthropology holds that the wider the distribution of a trait or custom, the older it is. Since the use of red ocher as a symbol of blood is universal, we may conclude that it is very old and that the earliest populations viewed blood as a primal substance akin to water.
They also regarded blood as having power. This is reflected in the story of Abel’s blood crying to God from the ground. In war, the shedding of blood leaves a profound psychological and spiritual mark; what we might term “blood guilt”. Anthropologists have noted anxiety about blood among various primitive populations that they have studied.
Blood anxiety and blood guilt are mitigated by shamans and priests. In Genesis chapter 14 we read that the priest-king Melchizedek ministered to Abraham after combat, bringing bread and wine. The Church’s priesthood is about the Blood of Jesus Messiah. It should not surprise us that priests and the priesthood are constantly under attack.
Historically and almost universally blood is gendered. For biblical populations such as the early Hebrew the blood work of males and the blood work of females was distinct. The blood work of females pertains to the monthly cycle and childbirth. The blood work of males pertains to war, hunting and execution. Men preparing to hunt or go to war sequestered themselves from menstruating women. Women in childbirth sequestered themselves from men. The distinction between the two types of blood work speaks of life and death. The two are never to be confused or mixed. Men were never allowed in the birthing chambers and women were never allowed in the place of animal sacrifice.
God wants us to think clearly about life and death. "Choose this day life or death" (Deut. 30:19) is a powerful exhortation to think about the distinction between life and death. That is why the people were commanded never to boil a baby goat in its mother's sustaining milk (Ex. 23:19, Ex. 34:26, and Deut. 14:21). This action blurs the distinction between life and death.
In his 2006 lecture “The Tragic Meaning of Blood”: Symbol, Myth, and the Construction of Criminology, Jonathan M. Wender (University of Washington) explains:
When it comes to our future as Anglicans, we must look to the model that Christ our God has provided. Scripture indicates that Christians are made one people through Christ. We share one kinship because we are under the cover of his blood. St. Paul refers to the blood of Jesus no less than twelve times in his writings. Because God makes peace with us through the blood of Christ, the Apostle urges us to "Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together" (Eph. 4:3). When we are indifferent to the bonds that make us one, we exhibit the deadly sin of sloth.
Blood is essential for life. Blood purifies. It redeems. It is the basis of all biblical covenants, especially the “blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb. 13:20). Blood bonds are the strongest of all kinship bonds. Blood speaks of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope of bodily resurrection.
For at least 100,000 years humans buried their rulers and chiefs with red ocher powder, a symbolic blood covering. This practice has been witnessed universally. Red ocher burials have been found in Alaska, Australia, Bavaria, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and Wales. It might interest you that the earliest known example of red ocher burial was found in Galilee, the region to which the Lord Jesus returned after his resurrection.
The extremely valuable red ocher was used on people of high social status such as clan chiefs and kings because people believed that were the ruler to rise from the grave, he would lead his people to immortality. Adapting the language of Psalm 68, the Apostle Paul uses this royal procession language in reference to the ascension of the Risen Lord in Ephesians 4:8.
A principle of anthropology holds that the wider the distribution of a trait or custom, the older it is. Since the use of red ocher as a symbol of blood is universal, we may conclude that it is very old and that the earliest populations viewed blood as a primal substance akin to water.
They also regarded blood as having power. This is reflected in the story of Abel’s blood crying to God from the ground. In war, the shedding of blood leaves a profound psychological and spiritual mark; what we might term “blood guilt”. Anthropologists have noted anxiety about blood among various primitive populations that they have studied.
Blood anxiety and blood guilt are mitigated by shamans and priests. In Genesis chapter 14 we read that the priest-king Melchizedek ministered to Abraham after combat, bringing bread and wine. The Church’s priesthood is about the Blood of Jesus Messiah. It should not surprise us that priests and the priesthood are constantly under attack.
Historically and almost universally blood is gendered. For biblical populations such as the early Hebrew the blood work of males and the blood work of females was distinct. The blood work of females pertains to the monthly cycle and childbirth. The blood work of males pertains to war, hunting and execution. Men preparing to hunt or go to war sequestered themselves from menstruating women. Women in childbirth sequestered themselves from men. The distinction between the two types of blood work speaks of life and death. The two are never to be confused or mixed. Men were never allowed in the birthing chambers and women were never allowed in the place of animal sacrifice.
God wants us to think clearly about life and death. "Choose this day life or death" (Deut. 30:19) is a powerful exhortation to think about the distinction between life and death. That is why the people were commanded never to boil a baby goat in its mother's sustaining milk (Ex. 23:19, Ex. 34:26, and Deut. 14:21). This action blurs the distinction between life and death.
In his 2006 lecture “The Tragic Meaning of Blood”: Symbol, Myth, and the Construction of Criminology, Jonathan M. Wender (University of Washington) explains:
"The sight of blood always invites a moment of disequilibrium. Perhaps this is because we know that life’s equilibrium depends on blood, and so, to see blood is to find oneself reminded of the tenuousness of existence. To lose too much blood is to lose life itself; and conversely, this is why we often speak of donating blood as giving the 'gift of life.'"
Anthropologists do not agree on many things. However, there is consensus on blood as the primary basis for kinship. Every society traces descent by blood through the paternal or maternal lines, or both. Studies in anthropology shed light on how Anglicans should live together to reflect the reality of one Body formed through Christ’s Body and Blood. Our unity is bought with a price. We must remind one another of that reality.
Anthropologists have noted that of all possible kinship ties, blood ties are the strongest and most enduring. Christians are made one family through the Blood of Jesus Christ.
St. Paul says in Ephesians 4, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
Blood is the basis of the unity of the Church. In the Nicene Creed we declare our common belief in “one holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” We cannot make the Body of Christ one. It is one though we often fail to make that reality apparent.
From one blood, he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him (Acts 17:26-27).
For Christians, like-mindedness does not guarantee unity. That comes from being in Christ and having his righteousness. Christ does not demand that we think alike or agree on everything.
The faithful of Christ are made one by His blood. Being covered by His blood makes us kin. Jesus often spoke of this reality. He famously posed this question, “Who are my brothers and my sisters…?”
In Matthew 12 we read that Jesus was approached by his mother and his brothers who wanted to speak to him. Jesus points to his faithful followers and says these are my family. He is not speaking metaphorically. He is speaking of a spiritual reality. We who are in Christ as his family, his kin, his blood relatives. He makes us one people, and we are his inheritance from his Father.
We cannot worship Him in the Sacrament of His body and Blood while denying the blood bond that makes us one Body. We are commanded to leave our offering and first go to make peace with our siblings in the Faith. Our unity is that of an unbreakable blood bond. It is time to act like blood relatives!
We often hear of the need for masculine leadership in the Church and for many this implies assertion of territorial or jurisdictional rights. We neglect the model of our Lord Jesus who laid down his life for the Church. We forget the scriptural injunction to submit one to another in the fear of God (Eph. 5:21). Mutual submission involves humility, motivated by reverence for Christ Jesus whose blood was shed to make us one body, His Body.
Cultural anthropology sheds a great deal of light on where Anglicanism should go if we are to pursue both truth and unity.
We should go to the Cross. We should stop acting like a tribe. We should acknowledge instead that as part of the Church, bought by Christ’s blood, we are a clan. What is the difference between a tribe and a clan? The difference is a matter of blood.
A tribe consists of subgroups, not all of which are blood relatives. Although most tribes have stories about common ancestors, some in the tribe are not blood descendants of those apical ancestors. They may be outsiders who are incorporated by a ritual act or for mutual benefits.
That is not the case with the biblical Hebrew. Anthropological studies reveal that they were a caste of ruler-priests, and as is typical of castes, they did not marry outside of their caste. Marriages were formed between blood-related clans. Nor did they incorporate non-Hebrew.
This may sound strange because we have grown accustomed to hearing about the “tribes” of Israel. However, a closer look at the Israelites, reveals that these were Hebrew clans and blood relatives of Jacob, who was called Israel. They are members of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste, and before the time of Abraham that caste was already widely dispersed. The account of Nimrod’s movement from the Nile Valley into Mesopotamia (Gen. 10) is an example of the early Hebrew dispersion out of the Nile Valley.
Clans hold together because of shared values, common ancestry, and consensual exchange of what is regarded as sacred. The early water treaties were grounds for association between members of the clan. Now we touch on the nature of sacramental Baptism. By water and the Blood, we receive the promise of an eternal Kingdom.
To understand how Anglican Christians are family through Christ’s blood, we must claim the spiritual reality of which Jesus spoke when he stated that whoever does the will of his Father is his brother, sister, and mother (Matt.12:46-50, Mk. 3:31-35, and Lk. 8:19-21). This teaching specifies obedience to God’s will as the basis for kinship, and that kinship is formed through Christ’s blood shed on the Cross.
Our kinship as Christians is blood-based. Therefore, we should not speak of ourselves as a tribal entity. We are a clan of blood relatives with common ancestors. Anglicans should speak of themselves in these terms since, as Christians, we are under the Blood of Jesus and God is our Father. A clan is a narrow circle. It does not seek new members except by birth. The early Church understood this. It was cautious about admitting people to the inner circle because of persecution and because it understood the Church’s duty to preserve the tradition received from the Apostles. Baptism is how people are born in the Church. Solid, on-going discipleship is how they mature in the Church. This understanding is essential if we are to pursue both truth and unity.
How should we Anglicans retain unity in the truth? Not by attempting to herd the Anglican cats through jurisdictional maneuvers. Never by sacrificing truth for the sake of unity. Like-mindedness does not guarantee unity. Nor does Christ demand that we think alike on everything. Rather, our unity is grounded in Christ, in being clothed in his righteousness. Too often attempts at unity entail Christological compromises. It is an old story. In the early days of the Church ecumenical councils deliberated and resolved theological matters. Today such councils are impossible so we must rely on what we have received.
Anglicans affirm the essential truth about Christ when we repeat the words of the Nicene Creed. The Creed informs us as to who we are. It shapes our prayers. For Anglicans to be unified, we must identify shared values, acknowledge what is common in our history, and uphold the sacred status of the historic Creeds and the Canonical Scriptures.
God’s original people, the early Hebrew, were of one blood because they practiced endogamy. They married only members of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. Today, the faithful of Christ are made one by His blood. Being covered by His blood makes us kin. Jesus often spoke of this reality. He famously posed this question, “Who are my brothers and my sisters…
Recognizing one another as family allows for differences but requires that we honor His blood which makes us one. Such a precious reality should never be sacrificed for a temporary unity.
