http://www.anglicanspread.org/?p=178
[SPREAD] 10 Apr 2009--If the reformation set in motion by the GAFCON movement is to be genuinely global and sustained, the question of whether or not Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is to be counted as orthodox cannot be avoided. It is now obvious that two different forms of religion are taking shape within the Anglican Communion as they giving rise to new structures. This is most clearly seen in the United States where The Episcopal Church of the USA and the Anglican Church of Canada are developing what is effectively a new syncretistic religion behind a traditional façade while the emergent province of the Anglican Church in North America gives expression to the GAFCON movement’s reaffirmation of the historic Anglican faith. As Canon Vinay Samuel wrote in preparation for GAFCON in Jerusalem last year ‘We see a parallel between contemporary events and events in England in the 16th century… now, after five centuries, a new fork in the road is appearing. Though this fork in the road may present itself publicly as a choice in relation to aberrant sexuality, the core issues are about whether or not there is one Word, accessible to all, and whether or not there is one Christ, accessible to all.’ [1]
This process is not limited to North America. The same cultural forces are at work in the Western world as a whole and Dr Michael Nazir Ali’s recent resignation as Bishop of Rochester is a symptom of how far advanced this process is within the mother church of the Communion itself. Commenting on his decision he writes ‘I have resigned as Bishop of Rochester after nearly 15 years. During that time, I have watched the nation drift further and further away from its Christian moorings’ and this has ‘occurred while the Church has either looked on impotently or, sometimes, been complicit in bringing about the change it has subsequently regretted.’ [2]
Powerful opposing forces therefore bear in upon the Archbishop of Canterbury.
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