Why the GAFCON Bishops Should Not Tie Their Own Participation in the 2020 Lambeth Conference to the Invitation of the ACNA Bishops

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.

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.