There will be no schism from the Anglican Communion by conservatives, Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola told the opening session of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem.The week-long gathering of 300 bishops and 700 clergy and lay leaders hopes to offer a way forward through the crisis over homosexuality.
But secession was not the answer. The introduction of gay bishops and blessings justified by novel methods of Scriptural interpretation would not drive out traditionalists, the Nigerian church leader said. We are Anglicans by “conviction” who had no “intention to start another church.”
“Anglicans we are, Anglicans we’ll remain until the Lord shall return in glory to judge each one according to his deeds,” Archbishop Akinola said on June 22.
While remaining steadfast in his opposition to the “apostasy” of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Akinola offered an olive branch to Archbishop Rowan Williams, pledging to work within the constitution and canons of the Anglican churches to resolve the crisis.
In a hard-hitting speech that outlined the history of the Communion over the past decade, the Nigerian leader denounced the grip of Western liberalism on the church.
“GAFCON will liberate and set participants, particularly Africans, free from spiritual bondage which [the Episcopal Church] and its allies champion. Having survived the inhuman physical slavery of the 19th century, the political slavery called colonialism of the 20th century, the developing world economic enslavement, we cannot, we dare not allow ourselves and the millions we represent be kept in religious and spiritual dungeon,” he said.
Archbishop Akinola also expressed his disappointment with Dr Williams for ignoring the pleas of traditionalists that he discipline the errant North American churches, noting he was “not interested in what matters to us, in what we think or in what we say.”
However he refrained from criticising Dr Williams by name, reserving his opprobrium for decisions taken by “Lambeth Palace.”
Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney told The Church of England Newspaper the choice of language was deliberate, likening the distinction to that made between the Sovereign and the Crown.
Archbishop Akinola also expressed reticence in attacking his opponents within the Communion. Asked whether he had included Dr Williams amongst the “apostates” of the Anglican Communion, he responded the Archbishop of Canterbury “was not guilty of apostasy.” We are “not able to agree on certain things,” he noted.
The olive branch was also extended towards bishops of the Episcopal Church. Asked to comment on published reports that several California bishops were seeking ways of incorporating last month’s state court decision authorizing gay marriage within the liturgical life of the Church, Archbishop Akinola said it “would be presumptuous of me to offer advise” to them.
However, he said the introduction of gay marriage was a consequence of sin and the failure of the church to maintain standards.
“Whenever there is a crack in the wall, you cannot stop the reptile from creeping in,” he said. “If the church had been faithful we would not be in that mess,” Archbishop Akinola said.
Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda also rejected accusations Gafcon was a political gathering designed to destabilize the Communion.
Its purposes were eschatological, he said on June 23.
“Some of us think that it will be by our genius, debate or our communiqué” that the Anglican Communion will be reformed, Archbishop Orombi said.
However this is Christ’s church and “has nothing to do with us.”
“Jesus will never let down the Anglican Communion” but will “send hope where hope is very small. We will walk out of Gafcon full of the power of the Holy Spirit” and bring this power to the reform of the church.
Over the coming week, delegates will be asked to review seven questions. What can be done to restore sacramental Communion amongst the divided Anglican Churches; can the Communion be reformed from within; are cross-border Episcopal jurisdictions an appropriate way forward to resolve differences; is Gafcon merely a Global South initiative or does it have a role to play in the wider church; will the initiatives that arise from Gafcon be neutralized by the strategic use of money by its opponents in the Episcopal Church; can Gafcon provide a path towards the Anglican future; and should Gafcon become an institutional entity in order to achieve the tasks it has set for itself.
Archbishop Orombi said there were no predetermined answers to these questions.
The archbishops behind Gafcon believed it important that clergy and lay voices be heard in formulating a way forward for Anglicanism.
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