Primates Critical of Communion Structures

(Staff)  A Primates Council representing over thirty-four million Anglicans -- more than half of the active membership of the Anglican Communion -- issued a strongly worded communiqué arguing that “the current structures” of the worldwide body “have lost integrity and relevance.”

“The Anglican Communion will only be able to fulfill its gospel mandate if it understands itself to be a community gathered around a confession of faith rather than an organisation that has its primary focus on institutional loyalty,” it declared.

The communiqué was issued at the end of the Primates Council of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON/FCA) which met in Bermuda April 5-9.

(On the same day, April 9, a separate and far more detailed public letter critical of the Joint Standing Committee was sent by the Archbishop of Uganda to the Archbishop of Canterbury. See page 6.)  

The Primates Council consists of Primates (Senior Archbishops) of Anglican Provinces who met together in Jerusalem in June 2008 as part of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). That Middle Eastern gathering led to the establishment of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA).

They acknowledged that “the issues that divide our beloved Communion are far from settled” and noted one recent event in particular: “the election of the Reverend Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, as a Bishop in Los Angeles in The Episcopal Church (TEC), makes clear to all that the American Episcopal Church leadership has formally committed itself to a pattern of life which is contrary to Scripture.

“This action also makes clear that any pretence that there has been a season of gracious restraint in the Communion has come to an end. Now is the time for all orthodox biblical Anglicans, both in the USA and around the world, to demonstrate a clear and unambiguous stand for the historic faith and their refusal to participate in the direction and unbiblical practice and agenda of TEC.”

They also argued that the strategy to strengthen structures in the Anglican Communion “by committee and commission has proved ineffective” and that “only by a theologically grounded, biblically shaped reformation such as the one called for by the Jerusalem Declaration” will God’s Kingdom advance.

Their statement closed by remembering those in Nigeria, Iraq and Sudan who live “with the threat of violence because of their Christian faith,” and “those who live in places of deprivation and disaster such as Haiti and Chile.” They also acknowledged that there are a growing number of nations, such as Kenya, Uganda and Britain “where Christian views are marginalized or ignored.”

Archbishop Gregory Venables, (Southern Cone) was elected to succeed retiring Archbishop Peter Akinola (Nigeria) as Chairman of FCA. Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini (Rwanda) and Eliud Wabukala (Kenya) will serve as Vice-Chairmen. The Bishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, will continue as General Secretary.

Other Primates present or represented were from Uganda, West Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria and the newly-formed Anglican Church in North America.

The FCA Council members will meet with other theologically conservative Anglican leaders at the Fourth Global South to South Encounter, to be held at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Singapore, April 19th-25^th.