The GAFCON statement notes a third sad fact about the Anglican Communion today:<\/p>\n
The third fact is the manifest failure of the Communion Instruments to exercise discipline in the face of overt heterodoxy. The Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada, in proclaiming this false gospel, have consistently defied the 1998 Lambeth statement of biblical moral principle (Resolution 1.10). Despite numerous meetings and reports to and from the \u201d\u02dcInstruments of Unity,\u2019 no effective action has been taken, and the bishops of these unrepentant churches are welcomed to Lambeth 2008. To make matters worse, there has been a failure to honour promises of discipline, the authority of the Primates\u2019 Meeting has been undermined and the Lambeth Conference has been structured so as to avoid any hard decisions. We can only come to the devastating conclusion that \u201d\u02dcwe are a global Communion with a colonial structure\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This third fact is also in line with the observation of Metropolitan Hilarion that the source of false teaching and lax discipline in the Communion has its origins in the \u201cNorth and the West,\u201d\u009d that is to say, in Canterbury\u2019s own jurisdiction. I have noted elsewhere that the \u201cInstruments of Unity\u201d\u009d as currently constituted are under the sway of the \u201cLambeth bureaucracy,\u201d\u009d and hence the ecumenical failure of Anglicanism can only be laid at the door of Canterbury himself. This tough fact is exactly what Hilarion has brought to the banquet table at Lambeth Palace.<\/p>\n
So GAFCON and the Orthodox share the sober critique of contemporary Anglicanism. It would be facile to say that today\u2019s Anglican confessors are of one mind with the Orthodox. Surely there are issues of substance and ongoing discussion between the two.<\/p>\n