Becoming Christian and Anglican had always been an Anglophile affair for me. I've explained this in a blog post of mine before, but in sum, before I believed, as an atheist/agnostic, I knew that if I were ever to believe in God, I would become a Christian. It may be a very Chinese way of thinking, but at the back of my mind, I knew that if there was a god, the God of white people must be the correct God. This was the God who gave them science and technology, gave them power, wealth, knowledge and enlightenment to conquer the world. So if they got the science, the technology, the politics, and the morality correct, they must have gotten the religion correct too.
Naturally I did not consciously think in those terms, but those were the background conditions which led me to respond favourably to a Christian classmate who shared the gospel with me, to start reading up on basic apologetic books and philosophy. Eventually I was persuaded by the philosophy to believe in God, although for many years after I struggled intellectually with the historical angle to be sure that Christianity was the true religion. Evangelical apologetic books on the historical reliability of the gospels were very helpful, but also very basic. Yet, I remain Christian throughout my struggles with the historicity of the Bible, carried on by this blind subconscious instinct that the God of White People must be the correct God, even if I could not justify or articulate this in intellectual terms. I only became very sure intellectually of the historical grounding of the Christian testimony once I encountered the epistemological study of testimonial authority and social knowledge, today only studied under the very niche field of social epistemology.
However it bothered me existentially, I suppose in an analogous way it bothered St Paul, that the forefathers who brought the Gospel to us in Singapore themselves no longer believed, just as St Paul anguished that his own Jewish brethren, to whom were entrusted the oracles, rejected the stone they built. This might have bothered me a lot when I was younger, but nowadays, it's less an angst or anguish but sorrow.
It is in this background that I reflect what it means to be Anglican, indeed a Singaporean Anglican, without Canterbury as the instrument of communion or heart of the Anglican Communion. In Salvation History it seems a constant theme that God's own people would reject God, that the descendants of forefathers in the faith may reject the faith, and then it shall be preached and given to others who were not of the faith to join the faith. Unlike certain masochistic Christian who rejoice that the West is no longer Christian because now Christianity would no longer be tainted with "whiteness", that was not St Paul's attitude towards the Jewish obstinacy against the Gospel, he was anguished, he was pained, even as he judged and condemned the Jewish rejection in strident terms. How can we rejoice that descendants of those to whom was entrusted with the faith now no longer keep it, even if we, outside of the West, are now the more faithful?
Salvation is of the Jews, but we no longer look to the Jews for salvation today because salvation is ultimately of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the Anglican Communion is of England, but we can no longer look to England for its life and constitution. As Christians we receive the Old Testament and all its blessings, oracles and promises through Jesus Christ, even if the Jews who were their first recipients rejected the fulfilment of the oracles. Through the Anglican formularies we Anglican receive and inherit all the spiritual treasures and wisdom of the Church of England, even if England herself has rejected that spiritual wealth.
As the Abrahamic covenant and blessings of Israel of old were that it might be for the blessings of the nations and not for the aggrandisation of the Jews, the Anglican Communion and Anglican Christianity do not exist for the sake of England, England exists for the sake of the Christian faith, the Anglican Communion exists for the Gospel and to be a blessing for all Christians everywhere. The true Israel is the property of all who believe in the Lord Messiah, likewise are the Anglican formularies and treasures the property of all Anglicans everywhere, not for the interest of England or even Canterbury.
I was before ambivalent about the continued use of the word "Anglican" for the Anglican Communion. We already have provinces which have nothing to do with the former British Empire, why should we still retain the word "Anglican" in "Anglican Communion", especially now that we've rejected the role of Canterbury from the Anglican Communion? I thought we should do something like adopt the name of East Asian provinces where in the vernacular the names of our churches are like 圣公会, which means something like "Holy Catholic Church", and where the word "Anglican" doesn't appear.
But now, on reflection, I think it's okay to maintain the name of Anglican. We maintain ourselves as being truly Israel or children of Abraham even though the Jews have rejected the Gospel, why should we reject the inheritance of our forefathers in faith just because their descendants have apostatised?
Indeed, as Jesus said that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, now we who have inherited the Anglican faith must be more Anglican than the English who have rejected the faith. And this we do by becoming even more Christian, more faithful, more biblical than they ever were, as was the original intent, purpose, and entire raison d'etre of the Anglican Church: to be faithful witnesses to the Gospel, first to England, then to the British Empire, now to the whole world. The Anglican story may have began with England, but it will not end with them, just as the history of Salvation may have began with the calling of Israel, but it will not end with the Hebrews.
As the Anglican Communion begins this new chapter, there will be many challenges, twists and turns, and yet many more surprises ahead, but I believe that it has pleased God to continue using the Anglican Communion for His Greater Glory, and receiving this inheritance, we must be better stewards of it than our forefathers, and continue to add to this treasure goodness, beauty, and above all, a record of Love, for future descendants and forerunners of the faith to come.
Let us now all become the best of the English, by becoming the very best Christians.