GAFCon
July 3rd, 2008 | by Matthew Smith |I still don’t claim to fully understand all of what is going on for the Anglican Church right now but there have been some interesting developments since the resolutions of GAFCon have been published.
According to the Religion Report, the outcome of GAFCon is that the members have resolved to be in schism with the Canadian and US Episcopal Churches. Actually part of the membership of GAFCon are disenfranchised American churches who have somehow moved themselves to be under the leadership of the Archbishop of Uganda. (Disclaimer: this is my simplified understanding of things based on media reportage and interviews but without actually understanding the relationships of various leadership roles in the Church). As far as I know this is mainly because the US and Canadian Churches have ordained gay bishops.
Also, GAFCon has set up a group of primates (which I think refers to a position of governance) which seems to be set in opposition to the Archbishop of Canterbury or maybe intended to be an alternative. This group of Bishops will rule on what is acceptable Anglican doctrine and practice and decide which Anglican churches meet the standard.
There has also been some clarification of why these groups don’t want to split from the Anglican Church. Yes it has to do with property, people and money but it is also about wanting to change the Church rather than risk becoming marginalised as a small splinter group. If they were to break away, they would lose certain resources that they have now and possibly lose their legitimacy. To me in a way, this is about wanting to have control of the Anglican “brand” rather than trying to start a new one.
The African Churches and conservative US and Australian Dioceses (aka Sydney Anglicans) main thrust is that the Anglican Church has become too liberal and needs to be more orthodox (i.e. return to traditional morality and Biblical interpretation). However, the mainstream US churches argue that while traditional Christianity is having a great run in Africa (a mainly patriarchal society that tolerates persecution of homosexuals), western society will not tolerate traditional Christianity and so they must respond by re-reading the Bible and reconstructing Christianity in the context of contemporary society.
It was interesting to hear Thomas Oden commenting that the Anglican Church has had this tension between Anglo-Catholics and Protestants, liberals and conservatives (although the two seem to have swapped places in some ways) for five centuries without the need for schism.
The report on how conservative Christians are being funded in the US is just downright scary and worth a listen as well.
Religion Report Coverage:
Jerusalem and Global Anglican Futures – following the money and leaders. Thomas Oden on the Confessing movement in the United States . In the context of these USA “Confessing movements”, has the “Global Anglican Futures” conference really amounted to anything new for the international Anglican church?
US Episcopalian Canon Jim Naughton on GAFCON
The ideas, the money and the effort behind the conference in Jerusalem.
Newcastle Bishop Brian Farran on GAFCON
What implications does the “Global Anglican Futures” conference have for the Australian Anglican church?