Questions from a visit to North Africa

I recently attended the consecration of Dr Ashley Null as Anglican bishop of North Africa, a new Diocese in the Province of Alexandria.

The service took place in Tunis, and I was among the leaders from around the world who represented the GAFCON movement. It’s estimated that there are around 30,000 Christians in Tunisia (0.2% of the total population) of whom some are Anglican (English, Arabic and Berber-speaking); there are also Anglican congregations able to meet openly in Chad, and groups of underground believers (including Anglicans) in Mauritania, Libya and Algeria.

The history of Christianity in North Africa is complex, tragic, challenging and fascinating. The involvement of Simon of Cyrene in the crucifixion, and that same town in eastern Libya mentioned in Acts 2:10 at Pentecost, suggests that there was a Christian community there from earliest times. The church grew rapidly westwards along the Mediterranean in the first three centuries after Christ, despite persecution from the Roman government with its official devotion to (often politicised) pagan deities.

This persecution began to ease off and then cease completely when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. Sadly this led to division. A bishop was consecrated in Carthage (modern day Tunis) who in the view of some, had, in previous years, compromised as part of a survival strategy of submitting to the Roman state rather than risk imprisonment or martyrdom. Those who felt this bishop was so unworthy of the office that his ministry was not valid rejected his authority and instead elected their own bishop, Donatus.

Depending on which history you read, the “Donatists” were schismatics and even heretics, refusing to be reconciled to the Roman church even decades after the persecutions had ended (this was the view taken by Augustine of Hippo, North African-born foundational theological thinker). Or they were heroic guardians of the truth, the original “protestants”, who refused to allow the gospel to be co-opted by the ruling culture. Perhaps the Donatists were right at the time of formation, but in subsequent decades developed an identity and ethos in battles of the past rather than the gospel of grace itself?

Parallels with Church of England today

While clearly there must be caution in drawing direct parallels given the complex history, one cannot help making an association with today’s debates. Should gospel-hearted believers stay in or leave the Church of England? Is Anglicanism, like Roman Catholicism, inherently “pro-establishment” and prone to compromise? Do other denominations always preserve Bible-based purity of character and doctrine? When believers separate over an issue such as the church leadership’s relationship with the state and the prevailing values of the culture, there are different motives: principled standing in opposition to error and obedience to Christ; ungodly disunity based on impatience and pride; or fear of unpopularity and discomfort.

It seems that the Donatists and the Roman Catholics continued side by side in North Africa, at times in conflict, at times in tolerant coexistence, through the collapse of Rome and various cultural and political changes, until around 650AD when the Islamic Arab armies swept all before them. From then, until the establishment of expat. chaplaincies under French and British interests in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Christian church was all but eradicated in North Africa. Some no doubt submitted to Islam in public but practised as secret believers in small home groups. Many were martyred for their faith in Christ during this dark period and are still being persecuted and even killed to this day.

Some more key questions from this history and from my brief visit: How can we still confidently proclaim God’s sovereignty when a region full of churches then becomes closed to the gospel for more than 12 centuries? What would I have done as a believer during the Islamic advance? And, how can I and my colleagues best support Bishop Ashley, noted Cranmer scholar, and the church he now leads in that challenging context for worship and witness?