In some ways the newly formed Gafcon body resembles much more this “colonial” strategy than perhaps its organizers contemplate. The banding together of like-minded Anglicans to give mutual support and to encourage evangelism and church growth, in bodies which remain within the traditional structure of the church, but in formal and ad hoc ways exercise their own control, has been a part of the Anglican story for centuries.
What is revolutionary and perhaps troubling is the intention of Gafcon to enter existing Provinces of the Communion without the authorization or consent of the canonical bodies involved. In this perhaps crucial aspect, Gafcon is proposing to act as a church rather than as a large “missionary society” or lobby or interest group.
That such a society exhibits impatience with existing church structures is nothing new. The argument which split the Evangelical Movement in the 18th Century was not simply about “Calvinism” versus “Arminianism”, although neither title precisely fits the moment, but about whether the existing parochial structure of the church was to be respected and used, or whether to go outside that structure and create cells of converts linked in “connexion”. Gradually the Wesleyans “invaded” the structure, placing evangelism above ecclesiology. Church evangelicals remained within the structure, “converting” parishes and accepting high office.
As far as North America and perhaps England is concerned, Gafcon seems to be following the path of the early Methodists in placing evangelical strategy and need over ecclesiology.
My reading of the history of the Great Awakening of the mid-18th century and the development of the Methodists which followed it is that there are some similarities and also some significant differences between that situation and ours. Similarities include the Rev. George Whitefield’s preaching against the unconverted clergy including the then Archbishop of Canterbury and his subsequent exclusion from Church of England pulpits. Commissary Garden of SC convened an ecclesiastical court which passed a sentence of deposition on Whitefield for preaching in the Presbyterian church in Charleston. The Rev. Devereux Jarratt in southside Virginia worked hard to include the Methodists in the Church of Virginia but he was not supported by other clergy and the Methodists decided to organize without reference to the surviving Church of England congregations. Differences include the divisions that the Great Awakening caused in most of the American congregations and the grown of the Church of England congregations as more conservative Old School Presbyterians and Congregationalists left their congregations and joined the more stable Church of England. In Asheville I am seeing a few gay and lesbian people joining the Episcopal Church, but I am seeing a lot of more conservative Episcopalians, including some former parishioners in churches I have served, joining AMiA and APA congregations. But someone this morning said that Asheville was getting a reputation as the San Francisco of the South, so my experience may not be typical.