Who are the Donatists today?

One of the frequent critiques by pecusa liberals of those who have left pecusa and joined the emerging North American Anglican province is that we are Donatists. It comes up nearly as often as the shellfish argument. Let's examine this charge.

The Donatist party believed that priests who were once unfaithful to the church ought not to be restored to the church. One of the issues for the Donatists was the validity of the sacraments by priests who had been restored. Just as they believed that priests who had failed the church should not be restored, they also believed that the sacraments consecrated by those restored priests were invalid.

The views of the Donatists divided the church in North Africa and the Donatists asked Constantine to adjudicate the matter. The group that Constantine called together to address the Donatist schism ruled against the Donatists. In 316 Constantine issued an edict against the Donatists and they would not submit to the emperor's edict.

Now, let's apply this today. pecusa liberals say that those who have left them are in schism like the Donatists. The basis of this is that the Donatists believed that they stood for the purity of the Church, and pecusa believes that they hold in tension beliefs that should be allowed to live together in communion. Yet, we have seen that all four instruments of unity in the Anglican Communion have stood against pecusa. We have seen pecusa repeatedly violate the Windsor standards as well as those of the Dar es Salaam communique of the primates. We see that pecusa today argues for autonomy over interdependence and diversity of doctrine over common beliefs.

I haven't heard those on our side of the divide question the validity of pecusa sacraments. While many of us believe that there is a pattern of unfaithfulness in pecusa today, I don't know anyone on our side of the divide who wouldn't cheerfully and joyfully receive any pecusa liberal who would repent of the unfaithful practices of pecusa.

So, who are the Donatists? Isn't it clear that while pecusa cannot claim any semblance of the purity that the Donatists sought for the Church, they are certainly in the Donatist position on the issues that precipitated the current crisis in Anglicanism.