The Anglican Reformation Began in 2008 - Stephen Noll

Just as trying to pin down a date for the Protestant Reformation has proven to be problematic, where to draw a mark on the timeline of history for the Anglican Reformation will forever be debated (if Anglicanism survives as an important Christian entity).

Stephen Noll has written extensively on the rift in the Anglican Communion and states that the 2008  Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) marked the beginning of the Anglican Reformation, although the roots had sprouted at least 5 years earlier as he describes in his "Commentary on the 2018 GAFCON Letter to the Churches Part Five: Reforming God’s Church",

"I have documented (see Essay 4 of my book and also here) the rejection of Lambeth I.10 and the failure of the Instruments to discipline the Episcopal Church in the years that followed the 1998 Lambeth Conference, culminating in the consecration of an openly homosexual bishop in 2003. The so-called 'Windsor process,' which occupied much time and expense, warned that the actions of the Episcopal Church might 'tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level' but then did nothing about it. The responsibility for the failure of the Instruments of Communion to discipline those who had violated biblical doctrine and morals is unequally placed: the Primates, especially those from the Global South, called repeatedly for repentance and obedience throughout this period and most clearly in 2007, but their call was undercut and ultimately negated by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Communion Office. 

As Lambeth 2008 approached with no resolution of the crisis, Archbishop Peter Akinola commissioned a Statement for the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA), titled 'The Road to Lambeth,' which warned:
The current situation is a twofold crisis for the Anglican Communion: a crisis of doctrine and a crisis of leadership, in which the failure of the 'Instruments' of the Communion to exercise discipline, has called into question the viability of the Anglican Communion as a united Christian body under a common foundation of faith, as is supposed by the Lambeth Quadrilateral. Due to this breakdown of discipline, we are not sure that we can in good conscience continue to spend our time, our money and our prayers on behalf of a body that proclaims two Gospels, the Gospel of Christ and the Gospel of Sexuality. 

 We must therefore receive assurances from the Primates and the Archbishop of Canterbury that this crisis will be resolved before a Lambeth Conference is convened. There is no point, in our view, in meeting and meeting and not resolving the fundamental crisis of Anglican identity. We will definitely not attend any Lambeth Conference to which the violators of the Lambeth Resolution are also invited as participants or observers. 

Archbishop Rowan Williams ignored 'The Road to Lambeth' and invited all the bishops of the Episcopal Church except Bishop Gene Robinson (note: the offense was not just Robinson’s example but the teaching of those who elected and consecrated him, as Jesus makes clear in Matthew 5:19 and 18:5-6). 

In consequence, the Global Anglican Future Conference met in Jerusalem in June 2008. A reformation had begun."

I hate to argue with Dr. Noll, but I will believe it when I see a wholesale rejection by GAFCON bishops of their invitations to the next Lambeth gathering. If that happens this next time around, I will name GAFCON 2018 as the beginning of the Anglican Reformation because as long as people remain in communion with Canterbury,  reformation will be tethered to the dead weight of the Church of England, the Episcopal sect USA, the Canadians, the Scots, Wales, and all of those rotten branches that refuse to repent of the damaging innovations that they have promoted over the past several decades.