Contributors Tony Clavier

Tony Clavier

I was born in Yorkshire, England, at the beginning of World War II. My father was from the West Indies and an officer in the Royal Tank Corps who won the Military Cross at Dunkirk. My mother from Yorkshire was a district nurse-midwife. I’ve been in the United States, on and off, since 1967. I am a student of church history with particular emphasis on Anglicanism in the late 16th to late 18th Century.

I’ve been in the ordained ministry for more than 50 years. For 25 years I served as a bishop in the American Episcopal Church (now the Anglican Province of America) and was present at the creation of two parishes from scratch, entirely financed by the local parishioners.

I was received into the Episcopal Church in 1999 and licensed to function as a priest. I’ve held parishes in Arkansas; South Dakota; France, where I was dean of the Institute of Christian Studies; West Virginia; La Porte, Indiana. I am now vicar of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Glen Carbon, and St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Granite City, in the Diocese of Springfield. I am co-editor of The Anglican Digest and an occasional blogger.

GOING OUT OF BUSINESS?

A return to the parish model would involve training seminarians and young clergy to create core groups of lay people who live into their baptismal promises, having the courage to be missionaries in the territorial parish, caring for the sick, relieving poverty, providing young people with tools to live for Jesus in a secular world.

The trivial round

Placing names on the prayer list commits the parish to be involved in the lives of those for whom we pray.

Protestant or Catholic?

A debate that began about halfway through the 16th century continues to this day.

Call to remembrance: Our Catholic and Reformed past

Are Anglicans Protestants who have taken on the trappings of Catholicism, while eschewing its discipline?

Calling the shots

I don’t believe that doctrine should be legislated, period. This was once a fairly common view in Anglican circles.

Apostolicity at stake

This issue is not about who may tell TEC what to do, but whether apostolicity is to remain a feature of Anglicanism.

The ignored minority

On Sunday, the Episcopal Church invests its new Presiding Bishop and Chief Pastor. One significant and growing minority won't be represented.

Why we do this

Receiving the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is treated like a weekly Pill by some of us.