By Robin G. Jordan
In declaring the Anglican Church in North America a partner
province of the Global South and in seating Archbishop Foley Beach on their Council the Global South Primates
have shown themselves as no friend to confessional Anglicanism in North
America. Beach is the chief bishop of a self-styled “Anglican” jurisdiction whose constitution and canons equivocates in
their acceptance of the longstanding doctrinal and worship standard of
authentic historic Anglicanism—the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, the Book
of Common Prayer of 1662, and the Ordinal of 1662, and whose College of Bishop in its endorsement of To Be a
Christian: An Anglican Catechism and the rites and services of proposed ACNA Prayer Book has displayed a decided antipathy toward the
principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Anglican formularies and
have countenanced Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox teaching and practices in
their place.
The Global South Primates have tacitly given their stamp of
approval to the Anglican Church in North America’s departure from the doctrine
and faith commanded in the Holy Scriptures and taught in the Anglican
formularies. They are also condoning the prohibition against teaching authentic Anglican beliefs and convictions that the formal adoption of this
catechism and Prayer Book will impose upon clergy and congregations in the
Anglican Church in North America and the resulting exclusion from the
denomination of clergy and congregations that are faithful to the Bible and the
Anglican formularies and most importantly of all to the gospel.
While the Global South Primates may have been motivated by a
desire to make a display of support for the cause of conservative North American
Anglicans, they clearly did not think through the ramifications of their
actions. Such actions encourage the leaders of the Anglican Church in North
America to continue on their present course of taking that jurisdiction away
from authentic historic Anglicanism in the direction of unreformed Catholicism,
leaving North America bereft of a genuine Anglican presence and witness.
North American Anglicans who are faithful to the Bible, the
Anglican formularies, and the gospel must contend not only with liberals and
Anglo-Catholics seeking to suppress their Biblical and Reformation beliefs and
convictions but also with Global South Primates oblivious if not unsympathetic
to their plight.
Of the North American groups that identify themselves as
Anglican, they more than any other group is fully Anglican. At the same time
they face the most challenges and have the least support. The negligible
support that they receive from ostensibly Biblically faithful, orthodox
Anglicans raises serious questions about the depth of these Anglicans’
commitment to authentic historic Anglicanism.
It also casts doubt upon the claim of such Anglicans to be
acting in defense of Biblical Christianity. They give the appearance of being far
more motivated by a desire to preserve conservative social values from liberal
erosion than by a desire to defend the Anglican Church from strange and
erroneous doctrine contrary to the Word of God. Their willingness to overlook
the Anglican Church in North America’s divergence from authentic historic
Anglicanism conveys this impression.
Together the unreformed Catholic position on the essential
nature of the episcopate articulated in the Anglican Church in North America’s
governing documents and the unreformed Catholic teaching and practices
countenanced in To Be a Christian: An
Anglican Catechism and the rites and services of the proposed ACNA Prayer Book give expression to a gospel different from that of the New
Testament. The tolerance of more than one gospel is not consistent with
Biblical Christianity or authentic historic Anglicanism. The Holy Scriptures state
very clearly that those who preach a different gospel are anathema. They are
not to be received, much less embraced. The gospel is not a matter on which
Christians, much less Anglicans, can agree to disagree.
The Global South Primates are right in drawing attention to
the theologically liberal provinces’ departure from the teaching of the Bible
and calling for their repentance. They are wrong, however, in their failure to do the same thing in the case of socially conservative jurisdictions that depart
from the Bible’s teaching. They leave themselves open to the charge of applying
a double standard. Authentic historic Anglicanism subjects ALL thought to the Holy
Scriptures, not just that of theological liberals.
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