An Inconvenient Truth: Anglo-Catholicism and Biblical Evangelism and Discipleship

By Robin G. Jordan

In his article “Many Paths? Teachings differ in Episcopal-Anglican schism,” Jack Estees draws attention to the irreconcilable theological divide that separates liberal Episcopalians and conservative Anglicans. A similar divide separates traditionalist and convergentist Anglo-Catholics and conservative evangelicals.

Traditionalist Anglo-Catholics have their roots in the Anglo-Catholic movement and Catholic Revival of the nineteenth century; convergentist Anglo-Catholics have their roots in the Convergence and ecumenical movements and the Catholic Resurgence of the twentieth century. Conservative evangelicals have their roots in the English Reformation of the sixteenth century and the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century.

Of the three schools of thought, conservative evangelicals stand in continuity with the English Reformers and authentic historic Anglicanism. Traditionalist and convergentist Anglo-Catholics, on the other hand, display in their beliefs and practices the strong influence of unreformed Catholicism—of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Both traditionalist and convergentist Anglo-Catholics embrace a contemporary version of Puseyism—the notion that “Anglicanism,” as they define it, embodies the third great Catholic tradition alongside Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The Tractarian leader Edward Bouverie Pusey promoted this theory in the nineteenth century. Pusey led the Oxford movement after John Henry Newman’s conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Traditionalist and convergentist Anglo-Catholics have different views of revelation, salvation and the sacraments from conservative evangelicals. They also and more importantly proclaim a different gospel. Conservative evangelicals maintain salvation by faith as the essence of Gospel teaching. In contrast, traditionalist and convergentist Anglo-Catholics emphasize good works and sacraments.

While Reformed and Arminian evangelicals may disagree on a number of matters, they do agree on what is the essence of gospel teaching—salvation by faith. We are accounted as righteous before God, not because of any good works or deservings on our part but only by faith which rests on the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They hold to the teaching of the Bible and of Article 11. This, however, is not the case as far as Anglo-Catholics are concerned.  

This is one of a number of inconvenient truths that North American Anglicans do not want to face. Indeed, they are likely to become very defensive when it is drawn to their attention. But it is a truth that cannot be ignored no matter how unsettling it may be.

Any scheme to bring together Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals in a single entity exposes evangelicals to a number of hazards or dangers. In seeking to accommodate Anglo-Catholic beliefs and practices evangelicals risk not only losing their identity but also compromising the gospel. They incur the risk of sacrificing biblical truth for false unity.

One only has to examine closely documents such as the Constitution, Canons, Common Prayer and Liturgy Taskforce Reports, and Ordinal of the Anglican Church in North America to see this is already occurring in that entity. It can be anticipated that the publication of the ACNA’s Communion rites and its Catechism will further confirm this development.

In his August letter Archbishop Wabukala notes how the intransigence of the liberal Episcopal Church on the issues of actively gay clergy and same sex unions became a serious hindrance to those committed to biblical evangelism and discipleship. He reminds us that the original purpose of the Global Anglican Future Conference was to address the widespread confusion about the gospel and Christian discipleship in the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Wabukala further reminds us that those who signed the Jerusalem Declaration made a commitment to restore Scripture to its rightful place in the Communion.

The GAFCON Theological Resource Group handbook, The Way, the Truth, and the Life:Theological Resources for a Pilgrimage to a Global Anglican Future, which served as a theological introduction and definition for GAFCON, identifies two major challenges to the authority of the Bible and the classic formularies in the Anglican Communion—liberalism and Anglo-Catholicism. While liberalism has received the greatest attention, Anglo-Catholicism, like liberalism, has contributed to the confusion about the gospel and Christian discipleship in the Communion. If GAFCON is to fulfill its original purpose, it must address that contribution as well as the contribution of liberalism.

One way that GAFCON can do this is to adopt a clear statement regarding the essence of gospel teaching—a statement that is firmly grounded in Scripture and the classic Anglican formularies. The Jerusalem Declaration does not go far enough in clarifying confessing Anglicans’ understanding of the gospel in the light of what Scripture and the classic Anglican formularies teach. The Council of the Church Society in its critique of the Jerusalem Declaration drew attention to this particular weakness of the declaration.

At all costs GAFCON must avoid glossing over the major differences between Anglo-Catholicism and authentic historic Anglicanism in this and other critical areas. It would be a serious disservice to the cause of the gospel to deal too lightly with these differences or to not deal with them at all. At issue are primary matters that affect an individual’s salvation. 

The New Testament affirms only one gospel. It declares accursed by God those who proclaim a different gospel. The Thirty-Nine Articles rejects the notion that people are saved no matter what they believe or what sect they belong to as long as they sincerely live their lives according to their beliefs and to the light of nature (Article 18). Yet in the Anglican Church in North America churches are proclaiming more than one gospel. Tacit acceptance is given to the very notion that the Articles reject.

The gospel is not a secondary matter upon which Anglicans can agree to disagree. Believing the gospel has eternal consequences for those who do so.

A church that permits the proclamation of a false gospel is not committed to biblical evangelism and discipleship whatever its leaders may claim. It will seriously hinder those who do have a genuine commitment to biblical evangelism and discipleship. It will be sowing tares while they are sowing wheat.*

 *In biblical use, tares are an injurious weed that resembles wheat when it is young. See Matthew 13:24-30. Tares can so choke a field of wheat that a large part of the harvest is lost.