Did the GAFCON/Global South Primates Sell Out North American Anglicans at Their Recent Cairo Meeting?

Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Psalm 146: 3-4 ESV

By Robin G. Jordan

In its formularies, in its fundamental declarations, its canons, its catechism, and its proposed Prayer Book, the Anglican Church in North America takes doctrinal positions that are not in line with genuine Biblical Christianity as well as authentic historic Anglicanism. In the same formularies the ACNA has adopted an exclusionary policy toward the beliefs and convictions of Anglicans whose theological views are in line with the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine of the Anglican formularies.

In their refusal to publicly recognize and acknowledge the existence of this problem, much less its seriousness, Archbishop Iliud Wabukala and the other GAFCON and Global South Primates who attended the Cairo meeting have lost their credibility as champions of Biblical Christianity and historic Anglicanism in the Anglican Church. Their talk of intervening on the behalf of excluded groups comes across as just that—talk.

The existence of the problem is indisputable. Its seriousness is beyond question. The evidence is there in the Anglican Church in North America’s formularies.

The Anglican Church in North America takes a position that is the same as or close to that of the Roman Catholic Church on a number of key issues, for example, the essential nature of the episcopate, the order of salvation and the number of sacraments.

The Anglican Church in North America’s formularies do not simply permit clergy and congregations to subscribe to these positions among others. They make these positions exclusively the official doctrine of the jurisdiction. The jurisdiction’s canons require that its clergy conform to this doctrine, teaching it to their congregations as well as subscribing to it themselves.

When Archbishop Wabukala and the other GAFCON and Global South Primates that met in Cairo recognized the Anglican Church in North America as a partner jurisdiction of the Global South provinces and seated Archbishop Foley Beach as a voting member of the Global South Primates Council, they condoned the ACNA’s exclusion of confessional Anglicanism from its official doctrine. They revealed themselves not to be champions of Biblical Christianity and historic Anglicanism. Rather they came out of the closet as its opponents!

Actions do speak louder than words. Their actions showed that their championing of Biblical Christianity and historic Anglicanism are empty words. They gave their unqualified support to a jurisdiction that in its formularies opposes the Protestant and Reformed principles of the Anglican Church based upon the Holy Scriptures and set out in the Anglican formularies. They failed to defend these principles, much less to advance them

Their actions were a major setback for the cause of confessional Anglicanism in North America. They showed that the GAFCON and Global South Primates who met in Cairo are unreliable allies if they can be considered allies at all.