Editorial: GS2010 - a Series of Very Polite Events

Well, by now you have all heard of the happenings of the Triennial meeting the Anglican Church of Canada. Whether good or bad, it is over for another three years. For those of us who have been dreading the moment when the church crosses the threshold, I think we can breathe a sigh of relief as we have another three year reprieve.

But before we get to that let’s consider some of the good things which occurred in Halifax in early June. First it is always wonderful when you have gathered together in one place some of the godly people who serve our church faithfully. From some of the northern bishops, priests and laity who have such a clear sense of the gospel, to some of the wonderful local arrangement people who gave selflessly of their time to ensure we all were registered properly. There can be no doubt that our church has been richly blessed with some wonderful people. The King’s College Chapel choir both in their choral ministry and in their generous hospitality give great reason for us to believe that Anglicanism does have a future in Canada. Finally without a word of exaggeration the best part of GS 2010 was the faithful witness of Mr. Ted Williams, a young man who stood outside General Synod and like an Old Testament Prophet drew the delegates’ attention back to God’s Holy Word. So much more could be said about that, but, we must move on.

The Primate and some of his communication staff have been busy describing GS 2010 as “a watershed moment”. We really are not sure what they mean by that as nothing terribly dramatic occurred on our watch. The absence of virtually any secular press underlined the fact that the world has really stopped paying attention to the Anglican Church of Canada. There were some organisational changes etc... but again, not really ground-breaking. The Anglican Covenant was all but ignored. What was touted as the great success of General Synod is the ‘respectful dialogue’ surrounding the major issue of the day. If speaking respectfully is the best we can do as a church, then things really are in a dire state.

More than that (and I think this will be the point) we are not really convinced that ‘respectful dialogue' was achieved in Halifax. Certainly we have heard that people were polite with one another in their discernment groups. And, with one or two exceptions most of the talk from the floor was civil. But does this really constitute ‘respectful dialogue’. Moreover was this ‘respectful dialogue’ really an achievement, or was it the commonly held 'second prize' that both sides had to settle for.

Here is how we see it. What we saw in Halifax was essentially a re-framing of the question from one of blessing same-sex unions to one of remaining a full member of the Anglican Communion. The gravity of Canon Kearon’s withdrawl of TEC members from representing the Anglican Communion on international committees had an enormous effect on GS 2010. Although not openly discussed, it was clear that many of the Communion-minded delegates were not willing to follow the TEC path. This took the wind out of the sails of the delegates pushing forward more extreme revisionist agendas. Several Integrity delegates and representatives were clear that they did not have the necessary support to move forward. On the other side of the aisle, the conservative movement in recent years has become so scattered and fragmented that despite the good efforts of the Anglican Communion Alliance, there was no unified group to take advantage of the weakened state of the progressives who have really controlled the game for the last several synods.

So, we don’t know if we would call “respectful dialogue” a great achievement of GS 2010, it seemed much more like the polite conversation that any mature person has when they find themselves in a public discussion with their adversaries. Canon Kearon at the behest of the Archbishop of Canterbury has called “game-off”, and both sides hauled their nets and sticks to the side of the road.

So we are still together, not unified in understanding, nor meaningfully discussing the real questions facing us as a Church, but politely waiting for external forces to pass so we can start again. The effect this has is that our church is now forced to live at least for the foreseeable future in quite a deeply divided state. And recognising this may, in fact be the great watershed moment of General Synod.

There has been a growing awareness amongst many that our divisions are causing us to become more and more a congregationalist church. We cannot agree institutionally about so many things right now, that we are forced to just keep our head down and tend to the local parish. Certainly it is a distortion of our glorious Anglican ecclesiology, but what in our day is not? And as far as distortions go, it really isn’t a bad one. Dr. Ephrain Radner, who keeps a keen eye on the Anglican Communion, has gone so far as to suggest that we should employ congregationalism as a strategy for the next decade while things at the Communion level get worked out.

So dear friends, it is fairly safe to say that GS 2010 was neither a win nor a loss, you would be hard pressed to call it a draw, let’s say ‘called on account of rain’. Let us not be idle as we wait for the match to be rescheduled, but let us be faithful in evangelism and discipleship in our parishes, and trust that God is still sovereign over His church.