The Anglican Communion Is Already Divorced

Is the Anglican Communion about to split over different views of sexual ethics?

You might think so after reading headlines about the archbishop of Canterbury’s proposal to “loosen” the structures of the Communion — a way of retaining his relationship to the liberal wing of the Western churches as well as the traditional Anglicans of the Global South.

But to interpret the archbishop’s recent announcement as a split over sexuality is to miss the bigger picture. First, the impending dissolution of Anglicanism as it currently exists institutionally is over much more than sex. Second, the divorce has already taken place, just not formally. Read more

Also see
The wages of spin: death of truth?

Archbishop Justin Welby's proposal for restructing the Anglican Communion would make a formal relationship with the See of Canterbury the sole distinguishing characteristic of Anglican identity. It would jettison the teaching of the Bible and the principles of the Anglican formularies as the doctrinal foundation of Anglicanism, defining Anglican identity. It would establish moral and theological pluralism as normative in the Anglican Communion. It would "fix" the problem of the deep divisions separating Anglicans by no longer defining it as a problem. It would essentially do what the bishops of the 1958 Lambeth Conference did. Instead of calling the Anglican Communion back to the teaching of the Bible and the doctrinal and worship principles of the Anglican formularies, the bishops of the 1958 Lambeth Conference embraced the divisions that existed within the Anglican Communion and expanded the bounds of Anglican comprehensiveness to include them. The 1958 Lambeth Conference was a watershed moment in the history of the Anglican Communion. The bishops of the 1958 Lambeth Conference opened the floodgates to all kinds of changes--good and bad--in the Anglican Communion. We are seeing the consequences of their decisions in the present state of affairs in the Anglican Communion today. Their solution to the problem of  denominational divisions was a latitudinarian or Broad Church solution which is no solution at all