Global South Primates Threaten Walkout If Demands Not Met

Church leaders from Africa and Asia are threatening to walk out of a crucial meeting chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury unless American bishops drop their support for gay marriage.

Archbishop Justin Welby last year invited the leaders of the worldwide Anglican Church to the summit in Canterbury next week in a ‘make or break’ effort to avert a permanent split over homosexuality.

The row has torn the Church apart for a decade – with conservatives accusing liberals of abandoning the word of God by backing openly gay bishops and marriages for gay couples – and the Archbishop wants to broker a deal to allow both sides to co-exist peacefully.

Archbishop Justin Welby last year invited the leaders of the worldwide Anglican Church to the summit in Canterbury next week in a ‘make or break’ effort to avert a permanent split over homosexuality. Read More

If what this article reports is true, then this particular group of Primates is attending the upcoming Primates Meeting solely to stage a walkout. They must realize that the liberal Primates are not going to backtrack on gay marriage nor is Archbishop Welby going to suspend or expel the liberal provinces from the Anglican Communion. It is clear that they are seeking further justification for their establishment of a separate Communion--at least in the eyes of the folks back home. I would think by now that they have enough reasons to establish such an organization without engaging in this kind of theatrics. What concerns me is what is going to happen to Anglicans here in North America who are faithful to the Bible and the historic Anglican formularies and stand in the Reformation heritage of the Anglican Church. Their plight could have been addressed at the Primates Meeting. The Global South Primates are ignoring their plight, having thrown their support behind the Anglican Church in North America which in its formularies is unreformed Catholic in its doctrine and practices and extends no standing to the Scriptural and Protestant beliefs of these Anglicans. I have little confidence that the Global South Primates will address this issue at any meeting that they hold following their walkout. The Archbishop of Canterbury will go on recognizing the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada and the Global South Primates, the ACNA, and North American Anglicans faithful to the Bible and the historic Anglican formularies and standing in the Anglican Church's Reformation heritage will be left out in the cold.