The Anglican Communion has been broken and it is an “illusion” to believe things can ever be the same again, the archbishops of the Gafcon movement said last week following their first organizational meeting in London.The leaders of the conservative wing of the Anglican Communion, representing more than half of the Church’s active members, on Aug 29 released a statement affirming the aims of the movement --- now known as the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) --- and restated its commitment to the reform and renewal of the Communion.
However, they disagreed sharply with the course taken by Archbishop Rowan Williams in avoiding a full and frank airing of the issues, with one insider telling The Church of England Newspaper the Anglican Communion’s sex wars had taken on a Dickensian quality, and like “Jarndyce and Jarndyce” was still dragging its “dreary length before the court, perennially hopeless.”
The Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, the Primate of Uganda, Archbishop Henry Orombi, the Primate of Rwanda, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini, the Primate of Kenya, Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, and the Primate of the Southern Cone, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables (pictured) --- later joined by the Primate of Tanzania, Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa, also offered a critique of suggestions made by the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG) that another committee such as a “Pastoral Forum” might successfully address the issues dividing the church.
While applauding the aims of the “Windsor Process” and the intent of its supporters, the premise underlying the WCG’s argument was flawed, the FCA archbishops said. The WCG had argued that unless all parties agreed to moratoriums on gay bishops and blessings, as well as cross-border incursions “the Communion is likely to fracture.”
However, the “Communion fractured in 2003, when our fellowship was ‘torn at its deepest level’,” by the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
The response to the Robinson ordination had been a series of hapless committees that pour forth jejune words and useless empty phrases that achieve nothing. We are “continually offered the same strategies which mean further delay and unlikely results. Indeed, delay itself seems to be a strategy employed by some in order to resolve the issue through weariness,” they said.
Sadly, the archbishops observed, there were now three realities that “must be faced,” and are “past the time when they can be reversed.”
“First, some Anglicans have sanctified sinful practices and will continue to do so whatever others may think.” Second, those “affected by this disobedience have rightly withdrawn fellowship while wishing to remain authentic Anglicans. So-called ‘border-crossing’ is another way of describing the provision of recognition and care for those who have been faithful to the teachings of Holy Scripture.”
And, third: “there is widespread impaired and broken sacramental communion amongst Anglicans,” the archbishops said, noting that the “hope that we may somehow return to the state of affairs before 2003 is an illusion.”
The way forward for the communion lay not through committees but through spiritual revival, the archbishops said. “We believe that the Jerusalem Declaration provides for a viable way of helping to deal with the crisis in the Anglican Communion brought about through the disobedience to Scripture by some in North America and elsewhere.”
The Aug 29 communiqué stated the primates had created a Secretariat and an Advisory Board, “which will work with them on fulfilling the aims of the movement.”
The FCA “isn’t a new church, nor is it an alternative power [bloc]” within the Anglican Communion Bishop Venables told CEN. “It is about the survival of Biblical values within the communion.”
“What is being worked out” in the formation of the FCA “is the Gospel. Gafcon [FCA] is a proclamation of the ‘truth’,” he said.
Anglicanism “need not be unclear. We are seeking to say what God says,” Bishop Venables explained.
Archbishop Orombi told CEN “Gafcon is a movement of hope for the Anglican Communion members who love Jesus and live in obedience to his Word. We are full of passion for Gafcon’s future,” he said.
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(Source: RI)