“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3, KJV
By Robin G. Jordan
I only briefly watched the beginning of new ACNA
Archbishop’s investiture. A video of the service can be found here, the text of Archbishop Beech’s
sermon here, and the program for the
service here.
As I had anticipated, the Anglican Church in North America
pulled out all of the stops for the occasion. Archbishop Beech himself was
resplendent in cloth of gold vestments. After the ritual anointing of his head,
lips, and hands with blessed oil—an unreformed Catholic practice of which the
English Reformers would not have approved and which speaks volumes about the
theology of the Anglican Church in North America—I would not have been
surprised if Archbishop Wabukala had placed a papal tierra on Archbishop
Foley’s head.
The willingness of Archbishop Wabukala to so anoint
Archbishop Beech is suggestive of how far the chairman of GAFCON will go to
show solidarity with the ACNA. On the other hand, Archbishop Wabukala may not
have had any qualms about anointing Archbishop Beech. If this was the case, it
says a lot about Archbishop Wabukala’s own theology and raises questions about
his commitment to what Dr. Mark Thompson describes in his recent article as the “confessional formularies” of historic Anglicanism.
The service program
lists the Global South primates and bishops who were present at the
investiture. Their presence may have been intended as a display of support for
the Anglican Church in North America. But like Archbishop Wabukala’s anointing
of Archbishop Beech, it raises questions about their own theology and their
commitment to the “confessional formularies.”
The Anglican Church in North America does not in actuality
affirm the Jerusalem Declaration despite its claim on its website. In its constitution the ACNA relegates its affirmation of the Jerusalem Declaration to the preface where the affirmation is purely incidental to the narrative of why the ACNA was founded and is not in any way binding upon the consciences of congregations and clergy in the ACNA. It certainly
does not subscribe to the “confessional formularies.” Individual congregations
and clergy may but not the denomination as a whole. This is quite evident from
the doctrinal statements that the ACNA has produced to date—its fundamental
declarations, its canons, To Be A
Christian: An Anglican Catechism, Texts
for Common Prayer, and its proposed rites for admission o catechumens,
baptism, and confirmation. It is also evident from the ritual anointing of
Archbishop Beech at his investiture.
Anglicans in North America who are faithful to historic
Anglicanism’s “confessional formularies” and to Biblical Reformed evangelical
doctrine and practice cannot look to GAFCON or the Global South primates to champion
their cause. This is the message that the participation of GAFCON’s chairman in
Archbishop Beech’s investiture and the presence of Global South primates and
bishops at the investiture conveyed. They are not prepared to distance
themselves from an ecclesial body that does not stand for what they ostensibly
stand and to support those who do. It suggests that their commitment to the
Jerusalem Declaration and historic Anglicanism’s “confessional formularies” is
superficial at best. Whatever they say in support of these doctrinal statements
must be taken with a grain of salt.
See also
GAFCON primates help celebrate ACNA investiture
Papal greetings for newest Anglican archbishop
Photo: Kevin Kallsen
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