I'm often asked by continuing Anglicans, "Why don't we seek unity with Canterbury?" The short, correct, and undiplomatic answer, of course, is that Canterbury is in heresy and we cannot seek union with heretics. Yesterday, we saw the final insult as the Church of England Synod voted to "consecrate" women to the episcopate. Not surprisingly, the liberals of the Synod refused to allow for any provision for those who oppose the move to receive pastoral support from sympathetic bishops, much in the same way that the Episcopal Church did a cram-down on those who opposed women "bishops" in the United States.
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, allegedly hung his head when support for traditionalists was denied, the implication being that he was somehow sorry that the church had failed to support traditionalists. I find this surprising, considering that Williams has supported the "ordination" of women for years. More than likely, he was just tired.
Many traditionalists are already jabbering about swimming the Tiber to Rome. If results in the United States suggest anything, a few will do so, a few will join a continuing church (such as the ACC), and most will simply draw a new line in the sand. In short, for the most part, nothing will change.
Ruth Gledhill of the Times of London covered the story. Here's her report:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4289994.ece
On other fronts, the Global Anglican Future Conference, or GAFCON, met in Jerusalem from June 22nd through June 29th. This conference of Evangelical Anglican primates, bishops, and others, formed mainly to protest the consecration of open homosexuals to the episcopate and homosexual marriage. GAFCON does not address other serious differences between traditional Anglicans and the modernist ones, such as the "ordination" of women, the role of Tradition and Scripture in the Church, to name two. Unless these are addressed, it is only a matter of time before even these evangelicals struggle with the same issues as plague Canterbury.
Archbishop Mark Haverland of the ACC has written a cogent and accurate assessment of GAFCON. Here's the link:
http://www.anglicancatholic.org/gafcon.html
2 comments:
Anglocatholics are not part of the GAFCON vision. No major doctrinal or apostolic issues were addressed. Large numbers of Anglican Evangelicals just can't seem to get around their anticatholic bigotry. I have no problem with them as such, but you are right when you say the issue for many of them is a homosexual bishop and little else. Jefferts-Schori is just as objectionable as Robinson, perhaps more so in some ways.
It is hard to believe that they can't see that the product of such a bishop is the result of flawed doctrine and an equally flawed liturgy.
Would they return to communion with TEC if Robinson were removed?
I wish them well, but they are just another protestant denomination now.
Dear Father John,
Thanks for your comments which are, as usual, accurate and to the point.
Be well, my brother in Christ.
RTJ+
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