The Global Anglican Future Conference is meeting this week in Rwanda. Hopefully they can start forming a structure that has some sort of discipline built in for provinces that go astray.
George Conger at Anglican Ink reported on Archbishop Foley Beach's address which sounds encouraging,
The archbishop then turned to the core of his address, speaking about the “four marks of a continuing spirit filed movement:” a repenting church, a reconciling church, a reproducing church, and a relentlessly compassionate church.
“We” Anglicans “can go on playing church, being religious, and even making statements that make no spiritual impact on our world.” However, the desire of Christians today is to see “revival break out and spread to every part of the world.”
A repenting church was one that modeled the Lord’s call for all people to repent of their sins. It served no purpose to call out the sins of others if we ignored our own sins and shortcomings, he explained. The Holy Spirit “reveals” to a believer their sins, giving you a choice to turn away or to continue in sin.
Here the archbishop made his only comment on the situation facing the Church of England – not as a rallying cry for action, but as an example of reprobate behavior. He stated: “In recent days we have seen the Church of England led by the Archbishop of Canterbury walk away from the plain teaching of Scripture. We call on them to repent, to return to the teaching of the word of God. We call on them to stop blessing sin and return to the sanctity and holiness of marriage.”
He then called out the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales, the Episcopal Church of Brazil, the Anglican Church of New Zealand, the Church of Australia, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Episcopal Church of the USA to “repent and turn to the teachings of Holy Scripture.”
“Sadly,” he observed, “and with broken hearts, we say that until the Archbishop of Canterbury repents we can no longer recognize him as the first among equals and the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion.”
“It is time for the whole Anglican establishment to be reformed,” he declared, and then asked “Why does the secular government of only one of the nations represented in the Anglican Communion still get to pick the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion? This makes no sense in today’s post-colonial world.”
One question the leaders need to consider is do we need one global Anglican leader, and if we do, what will be his role and scope of power? If we don't want one person in charge, what other structure or structures need to be created.
In other words, learn from the mistakes of the past, and don't let this tale devolve into another Canterbury!
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I agree with you. We don't need to reproduce the structures which have failed, just populated by other people. Mutual recognition of believing provinces and joint charitable funds would be enough.
ReplyDeleteI am following GAFCON news rather closely. What I hope is that the conference will call upon all believing provinces to withdraw from all Canterbury-controlled structures. No more Lambeth conferences, no more Canterbury-generated Primates' meeting, no more quasi-legislative conferences (ACC). I hope that GAFCON and the GSFA (Global South Fellowship of Anglicans) will not attempt to replace these failed structures.
ReplyDeleteAs I read the Kigali Statement, it appears that GAFCON and the GSFA are committed to creating a new structure, but when that will happen is an open question.
DeleteFrom the statement: "We have no confidence that the Archbishop of Canterbury nor the other Instruments of Communion led by him (the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates’ Meetings) are able to provide a godly way forward that will be acceptable to those who are committed to the truthfulness, clarity, sufficiency and authority of Scripture. The Instruments of Communion have failed to maintain true communion based on the Word of God and shared faith in Christ."
DeleteIt does not say that the GSFA provinces will stop cooperating with these failed instruments. I hope they will.
One point made was that various provinces are going to have to go through their own legal structures at home to change their foundational documents, which at this time specify communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
If, in the interim, they just stop going to these expensive, pointless, and anti-biblical meetings sponsored by Canterbury, this will be a constructive step.
It in encouraging that the GSFA and GAFCON are now working in tandem.