Anglican Mainstream

Chris Sugden in Evangelicals Now, January 2009

On December 3rd   – 4th 2008, 800 Anglicans representing over 100,000 Anglicans in 700 congregations. gathered in Chicago to celebrate the publication of the constitution for a new Anglican entity in North America – the Anglican Church in North America, led by Bishop Bob Duncan as its moderator bishop.

They were encouraged to do so by 1200 Anglicans at the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem in June 2008 who said:  “We believe the time is now ripe for the formation of a province in North America for the federation currently known as Common Cause Partnership to be recognised by the Primates’ Council.” 

On December 5th five members of the seven strong Primates Council met with Archbishop Williams in Canterbury to discuss the formation of ACNA.  In their  communiqué the GAFCON Primates said:

“We fully support this development with our prayer and blessing, since it demonstrates the determination of these faithful Christians to remain authentic Anglicans.

North American Anglicans have been tragically divided since 2003 when activities condemned by the clear teaching of Scripture and the vast majority of the Anglican Communion were publicly endorsed. This has left many Anglicans without a proper spiritual home. The steps taken to form the new Province are a necessary initiative. A new Province will draw together in unity many of those who wish to remain faithful to the teaching of God’s word, and also create the highest level of fellowship possible with the wider Anglican Communion.

Furthermore, it releases the energy of many Anglican Christians to be involved in mission, free from the difficulties of remaining in fellowship with those who have so clearly disregarded the word of God. “

It is probable that in months to come, other Anglican bishops and entities will say that they are in full communion with this new entity.

What justifies the formation of this new Anglican entity in North America?  Aggressive secularism seeks to deny any space for religion in the public or private sphere.  The London “bendy-bus” atheist advertising campaign is one example.  This is allied with a liberal social agenda which considers social conservatives to be against all the freedoms which they believe women, racial minorities and homosexual persons want and should have.

This aggressive secularism has collaborators in the church.  Vinay Samuel, a leading Indian theologian and observer of US society, writes:  “The liberal social agenda forms the basis of The Episcopal Church in the USA’s approach to biblical authority and interpretation, the mission of the church and ethical frameworks. For the orthodox their commitment to the Bible as the revealed word of God and authoritative for the Church’s life and witness leads it to commitment to pro life and traditional marriage and family which are at the heart of a socially conservative agenda. Their social agenda flows out of their biblical faith. TEC liberals consider the social conservatives dangerous to a liberal society and they must be excluded or converted.  An orthodox Anglican entity is needed in the USA to ensure a space for those whose commitment is to the orthodox Anglican faith who are under attack because they have a socially conservative agenda.” 

The liberal social agenda has an authoritarian streak, believing that the righteousness of the cause justifies the means, as the July General Synod showed in refusing to make proper provision for diversity on the issue of women bishops and as Bishop Bob Duncan warns: “It masquerades as liberality but it is illiberal in the extreme. It is in fact a kind of totalitarian political agenda: that is to say you will do it our way or you will at best be silent or at worst we will banish you.”

Some with orthodox Christian commitments remain in TEC because their bishop is conservative or neutral.   The development of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans as a global home provides an orthodox Anglican identity for them.

Bishop Donald Harvey, the moderator bishop of the Anglican Network in Canada and a bishop of the Anglican Church in North America will be addressing the Anglican
 

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