Anglicans: ‘Choose whom you will serve’

I was part of a small contingent of a dozen delegates from the Gafcon Europe region who had the privilege of attending the Gafcon G26 conference in Abuja, Nigeria earlier this year.

Gafcon is a global movement of orthodox, Bible-based Anglicans. As with past gatherings, it was a wonderful experience of Christ-centred worship and Bible-based teaching, warm fellowship and a feeling of belonging in a diverse but united communion from across the world. We met old friends and made new ones, celebrated stories of church growth and prayed with tears with those ministering in contexts of terrible suffering.

To help us in our main task of consulting together about the future of Anglicanism, speakers from different perspectives outlined a common theme with a relentless logic: the need to unite around a vision for authentic Anglicanism, and move forward with reordering the communion apart from Canterbury. Now that some time has elapsed since the conference, it’s worth summarising and reflecting on some of the content, especially how this next stage of “Anglican realignment” affects those who remain in the Canterbury structures as well as those like myself who are outside but still very much Anglican. Here are some key takeaways:

Recounting the history. We were reminded of the 16th-century Reformation background to the Church of England, the history of Anglican contribution to world mission resulting in today’s global communion, and the highlights of the recent fractures caused by theological revisionism, especially since 1998.

Rejecting Canterbury structures. Successive Gafcon statements have expressed a consistent line of thought. Canterbury Anglicanism has been irredeemably compromised by alignment to Western secularism, which cannot be a basis for communion or reaching the world with the gospel. Church, communion and structures must be based on shared understanding of faith, not on an institution.

Releasing the church for mission. There is no intention of starting a new church, or of competing for control of the existing Canterbury-based structures. Rather, Gafcon seeks to clarify and embody a post-colonial, post-tribal ecclesiology, based on the original ethos of Anglicanism, so that the church can focus on stewardship, service and making disciples.

Reading the Scriptures correctly. Reading them as intended by the authors, as interpreted by the early church and the reformers, while understanding and rejecting false, especially modernist, ways of reading Scripture and understanding faith.

Recognising the spiritual reality. The reality of poverty, violence and opposition to Christ as contexts in which we minister, behind which are spiritual powers of darkness. This can only be addressed by all members of the church, united in fellowship by common faith and mutual support, worshipping, praying and working together with the energy that the Spirit gives.

Resourcing the renewed vision. Since money continues to be used as a means of control from Canterbury and TEC [The Episcopal Church], we must find ways of generating and unlocking resources to support the faithful church around the world.

Relocating the dividing line with Canterbury Anglicanism. We need to go upstream to locate the source of the controversies around sex, gender and marriage. Contradictory attitudes to homosexual practice, for example, are one symptom of the main problem: two incompatible understandings within the same church tradition of the authority of Scripture, what it means to be a Christian, what is church and how the gospel relates to culture. Gafcon’s Abuja Affirmation focusses on the main problem and its solution, not the one symptom.

Remaining Anglican. Signing the Jerusalem Declaration, while being flexible about how to relate to the Canterbury structures. The Church of Nigeria has left reference to Canterbury out of its revised Constitution; the Anglican Network in Europe and Anglican Church in North America (and others) are recognised by Gafcon and GSFA [Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches] but not by Canterbury. Sydney, Myanmar and Uganda among others continue to relate to Canterbury while rejecting its ethos and fully committing to Gafcon’s theology and mission vision. Faithful Anglicans remaining in the Church of England need to work out how they will respond to the conference theme call: “Choose this day whom you will serve”.