By Robin G. Jordan
It would be premature for GAFCON and the Global Fellowship
of Confessing Anglicans to push for the invitation of the ACNA bishops to
participate fully in the 2020 Lambeth Conference as Julian Mann proposes in a
January 17, 2016 opinion piece on Anglican Mainstream, “Time for Gafcon to Lay Down Conditions for Lambeth 2020” The
Archbishop of Canterbury should invite them to attend the conference as
observers but not as full participants. Here’s why:
The bishops that Mann would have Archbishop Welby invite to
fully participate in the 2020 Lambeth Conference will be the same bishops who
have been entrenching the views of their particular school of unreformed
Catholic thought in the formularies of the Anglican Church in North America to
the exclusion of the views of legitimate schools of Anglican thought
represented in the ACNA, particularly that of orthodox Anglicans faithful to
the Bible and the historic Anglican formularies and standing in the Reformation
tradition of the Anglican Church. Inviting them as full participants in the
2020 Lambeth Conference would be in effect sanctioning their policy of
excluding the views of legitimate schools of Anglican thought represented in
the ACNA and rewarding them for adopting and implementing such a policy.
For the bishops of GAFCON and the Global Fellowship of
Confessing Anglicans to make their own participation in the 2020 Lambeth Conference contingent on
Welby’s inviting these bishops as full participants in the conference would be
incongruent with the declared purposes of GAFCON and the Global Fellowship of
Confessing Anglicans, which include the restoration of the Bible and the
historic Anglican formularies to a central place in the Anglican Communion. It
would further undermine the credibility of the GAFCON and the Global Fellowship
of Confessing Anglicans and its leaders. It would also be reprehensible on
their part as they would be siding with the ACNA bishops AGAINST confessing Anglicans in the ACNA who, unlike the ACNA
bishops, are fully committed to the declared purposes of GAFCON and the Global
Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.
The ACNA bishops’ commitment to these purposes is rhetorical at best, designed to garner the support of GAFCON and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. It is evident from a number of their statements and from the formularies of the Anglican Church in North America that their actual commitment to these purposes is negligible, if not non-existent.
The ACNA bishops’ commitment to these purposes is rhetorical at best, designed to garner the support of GAFCON and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. It is evident from a number of their statements and from the formularies of the Anglican Church in North America that their actual commitment to these purposes is negligible, if not non-existent.
If the Episcopal Church in the USA at its 2018 General
Convention fails to retreat from its position on gay marriage, Archbishop Welby
should not invite its bishops to the 2020 Lambeth Conference. If the Anglican
Church of Canada in its upcoming General Synod takes the same position as the
Episcopal Church, its bishops should also not be invited.
The next four years is ample time for the Anglican Church in
North America to amend its constitution and canons and change its other
formularies to make the denomination more comprehensive and to implement other
needed reforms. The support of GAFCON and the Global Fellowship of
Confessing Anglicans for the full participation of the ACNA bishops in the 2012
Lambeth Conference should be tied to whether the ACNA makes credible, genuine, and meaningful reforms during this time period.
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