The Church of England and ++Welby are culture bound. They formerly sent missionaries to the far corners of the earth. Much of the pushback against Canterbury is from lands Canterbury missioned through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The prophetic voice for Anglicanism is from the Global South not Canterbury. It should be Canterbury speaking truth to power not cowering and renting her garments because she is ashamed of her guiding documents and Lord. Does accommodating the cultural change make the church more relevant; more genuine; more truthful; more liked? Does ++Justin Welby actually speak the mind of the WWAC any more than the former ABC ++Rowan Williams? His collaboration, while cloaked is progressivism not true reconciliation or repentance.
The bitter irony is that Canterbury in an attempt to be more relevant and responsive to her immediate culture has made herself less relevant to the Christian church in general and the WWAC in particular. Since when does taking the majority side make the church right or more liked? Does Canterbury even understand that lukewarm Christianity is no match for Islam which will ascend to power by demographics alone? England is in danger of having a new and less tolerant established religion.
The title of my article is “A Way Forward For Anglicanism”. It is different than two years ago. We are further down the road. There is more clarity. GAFCON II will be meeting in Kenya in October. I am hopeful.
I certainly support the concept and the coming reality of GAFCON II. I agree it is critical that Anglicans have a way to relate to each other beyond Canterbury, which Fr. Dale describes well.
And then I get an email from the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans that reads in part, “Please pray for GAFCON 2 meeting in Nairobi, Kenya from 21-26 October 2013. For the sake of the Holy Gospel in the world, this is arguably one of the most important meetings in Christian Church history since the Day of Pentecost”
Really??!! On what basis? Because 1200 delegates travel to Kenya, representing say 60 million Anglican Christians around the world?
How about the First Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Church? The Council of Trent?
Again, I am a full-fledged supporter of GAFCON II, but find some of the hype a little off-putting.
The article mentions the old SPG (pre-USPG). In the interests of accuracy I would like to add: also Church Missionary Society, CMS.