Editor’s Note: You may read the three previous installments of this series here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 This is from a pre-event address by the Rt. Revd Robert Duncan, Moderator of the Common Cause Partnership in north America and Bishop of Pittsburgh delivered “Anglicansim Come of Age: A Post-Colonial and global Communion for the 21st Century.”
The following are excerpts of this 18th June Opening Plenary Address delivered in Jordan.
The African Bishops Conference of October 2004… was gathered by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa, not by any of the present Instruments of Unity. An oft-repeated theme was “Africa comes of Age.” What happens as a global Anglican Communion comes of age? Is the result thirty-eight autonomous Provinces united only by their history? (The clear and unmodified use of the words “autonomous” and “autonomy” describing the Provinces in the St. Andrew’s draft of the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant delivers such a future.) Or is Anglicansim to renew itself as a globally coherent Christian Church? What new Instrument of Unity–what new Instrument of Communion–will emerge to meet the needs of an interdependent and coherent Christian Body, reliably evangelical, catholic and Pentecostal across the globe? If the interdependent rather than autonomous road is chosen –dare we say the “strait and narrow” rather than the “wide”–what post-colonial mechanism (or mechanisms) will emerge , as emerge it (they) surely must?….
The ecclesiological ground of a Global Settlement is the more elusive piece. But surely an answer will be begun here. That we are meeting together as pilgrims in this Global Anglican Future Conference–just as the African Bishops Conference four years ago gave similar witness–is a sign that some answer to the question of a globally appropriate Anglican ecclesiological future must already be in God’s mind. This is how our God has worked with us Anglicans since at least the end of the sixth century. That this Global Anglican Future Conference was called in the present Communion crisis… plants the inescapable question: “What Instrument of Unity will emerge to serve a Global Anglican Communion come of age?” Sometimes a question is enough….
What emerges is an ecclesiological structure… will be neither British nor Western. What emerges… will represent the conciliarism that has characterized Anglicanism at its best….
Archbishop Williams remarked at the beginning of the Dar es Salaam Primates Meeting: “It is all a question of who blinks first.” Neither the American orthodox, nor the Global South Primates, nor history would blink. Not then, not now. The so-called “blink” has taken place, but it has taken place in the re-definition of the Lambeth Conference as a place of managed conversation, not conciliar decision, and in the recognition that to call the Primates Meeting together ever again would be to confirm that the Communion’s engine has shifted to the South. Re-defining the Lambeth Conference and not calling the Primates Meeting are exercises of colonial control. But the inexorable shift of power from Britain and the West to the Global South cannot be stopped, and some conciliar instrument reflective of the shift is bound to emerge as the Reformation Settlement gives way to a Global (post-colonial) Settlement….
Back in 1967, Dr. John Stott, defending his commitment to spend his ministry within the Church of England, spoke these words:
In conclusion, can we envisage a situation in which orthodox believers feel absolutely obliged to leave? Such an extreme situation might be
- when an issue of first order is at stake, such as deserves the condemnation “antichrist” (1 John 2:22) or “anathema” (Galatians 1:8-9)
- when the offending issue is held not by an idiosyncratic minority of individuals but has become the official position of the majority
- when the majority have silenced the faithful remnant, forbidding them to witness or protest any longer
- when we have conscientiously explored every possible alternative
- when, after a painful period of prayer and discussion, our conscience can bear the weight no longer
Until that day comes, I for one intend to stay in and fight on. [From The Living Church (2008), Historical Appendix, pp. 164-165.]
In the United States and Canada every one of Dr. Stott’s conditions has been met. There remains no way to go forward together…. Priests are deposed for nothing more than being faithful to what the Church has always believed. In a few cases, a similar fate has befallen bishops who have acted to serve those who are bravely standing. In one case, my own, the Episcopal Church actually proposes to remove me for “abandonment of the Communion of the Church” just for speaking out and for drawing together the fragments while still a sitting diocesan bishop….
The whole world is watching. This gathering is about the future….
We are here on pilgrimage. With the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, we know ourselves to be strangers and exiles, aliens here. We are headed to a lasting city.
We know that everything we do has to do with the story: the old, old story. Finally, it is not about England, or Caterbury, though these relationships matter to us. Our life, our witness, our leadership, our pilgrimage here is all about Jesus.
What comes out of this gathering we cannot predict. But we are confident that God is not done with Anglicanism. We are confident that GAFCON is one piece of what God already has in mind as part of a Global Settlement of Anglicanism. This Global Settlement of Anglicanism we also understand to be but one aspect of a 21st century Reformation of the whole Christian Church.
It is tempting to be impatient. But impatience is just that, a temptation. Impatience does not become servants. We will do our part here. Will work hard here. We will build relationships here. We will focus on the story here. We will try to get out of God’s way here. We will say our prayers here. We will dream here. But finally we will entrust everything to our Master here. Our God is sovereignty re-forming his Church, of that we may be sure, and of that this Global Anglican Future Conference is an unmistakable sign. The Prophet Jeremiah has a word for us: “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer. 29:11) We do well also to remember St. Paul’s assurance at the end of I Thessalonians: “He who has called [us] is faithful, and He will do it.” [5:24]
This promise is true, as are all the promises, not least for us Anglicans.
Brethren, we are here
Because we are bound together in a godly fellowship by the Gospel-the gospel that shaped the theological and ecclesiological foundations of our Church-the same gospel with its transforming power that made the difference in the lives of our heroes like Thomas Cranmer, William Wilberforce, the Clapham brothers and Ajayi Crowther.
Because we are convinced that GAFCON is a veritable tool within the Communion which God is using to bring together all who are concerned not only about the need to preserve the faith, but also to persevere and bequeath a legacy of wholesome, undiluted faith to future generations of Anglicans. It is God’s gift to the Anglican Communion and to the world.
To draw fresh inspiration to enable us ‘contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints’ both for our sake and for the sake of future generations of Anglicans.
Because we want to renew our commitment to our sacred duty to preserve and proclaim uncompromisingly, the undistorted word of God written to a sinful and fragmented world. GAFCON is a meeting of ordained and lay leaders concerned about the mission of the Church and how best to carry it out and be poised to address the ever-present challenges of self-reliance, good governance, overcoming corruption and to prepare a strong and stable platform for upcoming generations.
Yes, GAFCON offers fresh hope for a meaningful spiritual haven for orthodox Anglicans who can no longer hold out and be truly Anglican under revisionist leadership.
We are here because we know that in God’s providence GAFCON will liberate and set participants [particularly Africans] free from spiritual bondage which TEC and its Allies champion. Having survived the inhuman physical slavery of the 19th century, the political slavery called colonialism of the 20th century, the developing world economic enslavement, we cannot, we dare not allow ourselves and the millions we represent be kept in religious and spiritual dungeon.
Because we know that together as lay leaders, clergy and bishops of our Church we can banish the errors plaguing our beloved Communion-for we will not abdicate our God-given responsibility and simply acquiesce to destructive modern cultural and political dictates.
We are here because we know that in spite of the fractures in our Communion, as orthodox Anglicans, we have a future and so we are here in the holy land to inaugurate and determine the roadmap to that future.
