Thanks to the spiritual leadership of Churches in the southern hemisphere and Asia, the Anglican Communion looks set for more change. The next major milestone for the Communion appears to be the Anglican Covenant, a document leaders hope would clearly articulate the Anglican faith, and a real system of authority.
In this exclusive survey of the views of Anglican Global South archbishops and representatives, The Christian Post learns of their concerns and hopes as they eagerly draw the curtains to their collective future.
The following are full-length transcripts of interviews conducted with most of the archbishops and their representatives gathered at a summit held last week at St. Andrew’s Cathedral.
This is worthwhile reading. Among other things, it shows the deep spirituality of Archbishop Earnest of the Indian Ocean and the still-pretty-liberal nature of the representative from the Province of Southern Africa. I was also surprised by the church of Melanesia saying “we’re so far behind, we haven’t even gotten to women’s ordination, there’s no way we would handle same-sex matters now.” Also note where archbishops focus either on the Covenant or directly on faithfulness to God’s word.
It’s 15 rather small pages, and not all the archbishops present consented to participate in the interviews. Notably ++John Chew, the host, did not. But I’d agree with #1 that reading through the whole thing is worthwhile, mostly to gain greater familiarity with the various GS provinces. For example, I welcome the way the various bishops were identified with an estimate of the approximate size of their province.
Some of my favorite quotes:
++Peter Akinola (ret., Nigeria), “[i]If (we) fail to resolve the current crisis, we have no future as one family.[/i]”
++Henri Isingoma, Primate of the Congo, “[i]We will not allow them (the wayward North American provinces) to distract us any longer.[/i]”
David Handy+
I found some of the comments quite worrisome–from Southern Africa, Melanesia, and West Indies, for example. There is some real confusion there about the difference between liberal and orthodox views. Not everybody, it seems, is convinced that the pro-culture movement is not more “advanced” than the Biblical. Fortunately, these ideas are not in the majority. It has been reported that there was some clash of ideas Thursday: this may be what was meant.