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New province is a sad reflection on Canterbury & co
Glenn Davies
April 21st, 2009

Last week the GAFCON Primates met in London to deliberate on a number of significant issues. However, the most far reaching of their decisions was to recognise the new Province of the Anglican Church in North America.

In the words of the Primates' Statement of 16 April 2009:

“We met with Bishop Bob Duncan and a number of the Episcopal leaders of the proposed new Province. Careful consideration was given to the new 'Province in formation' in North America. This is made up so far of approximately 100,000 Anglican Christians in Canada and the US who wish to be known as Anglicans and to be in fellowship with the Anglican Communion worldwide. We have asked whether we can recognize and authenticate this movement as truly Anglican.

As a result of this process, we celebrate the organization and official formation of ACNA around the same principles that gave rise to the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) and now the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA). Though many Provinces have expressed impaired or broken communion with TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada, our fellowship with faithful Anglicans in North America has remained steadfast.

The FCA Primates' Council recognizes the Anglican Church in North America as genuinely Anglican and recommends that Anglican Provinces affirm full communion with the ACNA”.

It has usually been the case that the Archbishop of Canterbury has been involved in the formation of any new Province in the Anglican Communion (if not actually requiring his consent).

In recent years the Primates' Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council have also been actively involved in creating new provinces, as was the case in the inauguration of the Province of Hong Kong in 1998.

However, none of the so-called Instruments of Communion have been involved in the formation of this new province in North America.

Indeed, one could be forgiven for thinking that each of these Instruments of Communion has been culpable in allowing the Anglican Communion to come to such a crisis point that demanded a new Province in North America. If any of them had acted more decisively than they did since the events of 2003 with the election and consecration of Gene Robinson, we would not be where we are today.

Thank God that the GAFCON Primates have had the courage, conviction and common sense to recognise the ACNA as genuinely Anglican.

We await with interest the reaction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the ACC who are due to meet in Jamaica in May.

 

Robert Ian Williams    22 April 2009 5:17am
The GAFCON primates assembling in London recognised the new "Anglican "Church in North America with the following words. "It is our aim to ensure that the unity of the Anglican Communion is centered on Biblical teaching rather than mere institutional loyalty. It is essential to provide a way in which faithful Anglicans, many of whom are suffering much loss, can remain as Anglicans within the Communion while distancing themselves from false teaching."

However the question that needs to be asked of these primates is why is it, that a self proclaimed Biblical and Orthodox Church cannot agree not only on womens ordination but as to the very meaning of the Gospel? Whilst the Anglican Church in North America affirms the 39 articles in" their grammatical, and literal sense" and that they express "fundamental priciples of authentic Anglican belief," the Church is set to be launched in a Cathedral Church where at least six of the articles are openly flouted. At St Vincents Cathedral ( Diocese of Fort Worth, Southern Cone ) there is eucharistic reservation, worship of the communion elements, masses for the dead, invocation of Saints and venerated images. You can also find the times for auricular confession and the Rosary group listed on thei Cathedral web site. How conservative Evangelicals can sit easily with this is a mystery to me.

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Jeffrey Carr    22 April 2009 6:20am
I think the new province is a sad reflection on the schismatics that created it.The Anglican Church has always been inclusive of different churchmanship and theological views.When one group insists that everyone else believe as they do, it is not a sign of spiritual maturity but arrogance.The history of Protestantism is one of division after division and this will be no exception.
Pax
Jeffrey

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Michael Canaris    23 April 2009 5:12am
Since Rome encompasses both neo-Thomists and Molinists (not to mention myriad other divisions), they are hardly in a meet position to pluck splinters from our eyes.

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Robert Ian Williams    23 April 2009 5:20am
Prior to the emergence of Anglo-Catholicism in the 19th century, all the starnds within Anglicanism ( even the High Church )were Protestant. For instance Archbishop Laud opposed invocation of saints, prayers for the dead, the propitiatary nature of the Mass etc Anglo-Catholicism is a usurption and false to Anglicanism and this current Evangelical equivocation is a great mistake. Thankfully Church Society designate ACNA as " orthodox"in inverted commas

Have you so soon forgotten TC Hammond and Doctor Broughton Knox?

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Michael Canaris    23 April 2009 5:34am
Notwithstanding that (my current churchmanship is "High but dry"), Magisterial Protestants hold a firmer claim to catholicity than Hildebrandine usurpers.

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Robert Ian Williams    23 April 2009 5:49am
I repeat the authentic high church tradition within the Protestant church of England was Protestant. Anglo-Catholicism is not high Church Anglicanism..it is an alien import. To fail to recognise this is to fail to understand the very nature of Anglicanism. It s whole Gospel message, sacramental system and ritual is contradictory to the 39 aticles and the 1559 settlement.

the GAFCON and ACNA mistake is to equivocate on this issue. the Sydney Anglicanism of yesterday would never have touched this compromise.

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Michael Canaris    23 April 2009 6:10am
Anglo-Catholicism is multifarious, with certain variants thereof remaining in full or substantial Conformity to the applicable Articles, Homilies, BCP, Ordinal, Canons and Statutes.

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Jeffrey Carr    23 April 2009 6:49am
The English reformers reformed a Catholic Church,they did not invent a Protestant one!This was an issue that Hooker took up with both Puritan and Papist alike.
BTW Michael, I'm Anglican not Roman Catholic.
Pax
Jeffrey

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Michael Canaris    23 April 2009 6:56am
Quite so, Jeff (my comments were directed to Robert Ian Williams.)

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Robert Ian Williams    23 April 2009 1:37pm
Anglo-Catholicism is not the Catholicism that Hooker or the Reformers envsioned for the Church of England. Are there any true Sydney Protestants left out there?

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Robin Grant Jordan    23 April 2009 11:20pm
My reading of the provisional constitution and draft canons of the ACNA is that they bar conservative evangelicals like Sydney evangelicals from membership and ordained ministry in the ACNA since in order to become a judicatory (diocese, cluster, or network) of the ACNA a group of congregations must subscribe to the ACNA Fndamental declarations. These Fundamental Declarations affirm the Catholic position on the historic episcopate, that is, episcopacy is of the "esse," or essence of the church. The position of evangelicals has hsitorically been that episcopacy is a very ancient and commendable church polity but it is not essential to the existence of the church. This is known as the "bene esse" position. Those desiring to minister in the ACNA must also subscribe to the Fundamental Declarations and the "esse" position on episcopacy. The draft canons require that in order to become a "mission partner" with the ACNA, a church or organization must "unreservedly" subscribe to the Fundamental Declarations,including the Catholic position on the historic episcopate. In doing so, the draft canons bar churches and organizations holding to the evangelical position on the historic episcopate from partnering in mission with the ACNA. This includes churches and organizations that support GAFCON and the formation of a new Anglican province in North America.

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Robin Grant Jordan    23 April 2009 11:31pm
I have posted two papers examining the draft canons on my web site Anglicans Ablaze drawing attention to a number of problems with the canons. The papers, “The ACNA Draft Canons: An Analysis of Their Provisions with Proposed Changes - Part I” and “The ACNA Draft Canons: An Analysis of Their Provisions with Proposed Changes - Part II,” are on the Internet at http://anglicansablaze.blogspot.com/2009/04/acna-draft-canons-analysis-of-their.html and http://anglicansablaze.blogspot.com/2009/04/acna-draft-canons-analysis-of-their_18.html

I have also posted a paper, “The ACNA Provisional Constitution: A Blueprint for Radical Innovation in Church Government,” examining the provisional constitution on the same website. It is on the Internet at http://anglicansablaze.blogspot.com/2009/04/acna-provisional-constitution-blueprint.html

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Robin Grant Jordan    23 April 2009 11:41pm
The Fundamental Declarations of the ACNA provisional constitution are so worded that the commitment of the ACNA to the Thirty-Nine Article is token. "7. We receive the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1562, taken in their literal and grammatical sense, as expressing the Anglican response to certain doctrinal issues controverted at that time, and as expressing fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief." Compare this declaration with that of the GAFCON Jerusalem Declaration: "We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today."

So is its commitment to the Book of Common Prayer of 1662: "6. We receive The Book of Common Prayer as set forth by the Church of England in 1662, together with the Ordinal attached to the same, as a standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline, and, with the Books which preceded it, as the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship. The Books that precede the 1662 Prayer Book include the 1549 PrayerBook. In North America appeals to the precedent of the 1549 Prayer Book have been used to justify changes in the Prayer Book that incorporates unreformed Catholic doctrine and usages from the period before the English Reformation into the Prayer Book.These doctrines and usages are not found in the 1549 Prayer Book but come from the Medieval service books.

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Robin Grant Jordan    23 April 2009 11:58pm
In adopting the African practice of the provincial house of bishops choosing the bishops of a judicatory (diocese, cluster, or network) as the principal and preferred mode of selecting bishops, the ACNA provisional constitution and draft canons has not only weakened the autonomy of the judicatory (or diocese) in the ACNA but also has declared in so many words that there is no room in the ACNA for North American Anglicans who value the autonomy of the judicatory, including its right to elect its own bishop or bishops, and a synodical form of church government in which the clergy and laity share with the bishop or bishops in the governance of the church. The ACNA fundamental documents rely heavily upon church order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the church rather than sound doctrine. The particular mode of selecting bishops that the draft canons imposes upon all new judicatories admitted to the ACNA and commends to the very small number of founding entities of the ACNA that still elect their own bishops is seen as a deterrent to liberalism and heterodoxy. Together with a number of other provisions in the ACNA provisional constitution and draft canons it represents a decided shift toward a more authoritarian form of church government in the ACNA.

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Mark Short    24 April 2009 3:43am
Hi Robin,

What would be the provincial house of Bishops in the case of ACNA - ie would it only include American Bishops, or would it it include Bishops from provinces such as Uganda and Nigeria who've already consecrated Bishops for ministry in the US?

Also, IMHO it's slightly incorrect to refer to the selection of Bishops by the Provincial House of Bishops as "the African practice." It's certainly the practice in Nigeria but I understand that other African provinces such as Sudan have a broader electoral procedure. If so, this suggests the influence of +Akinola is writ rather large in the whole ACNA make-up.........

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Robert Ian Williams    24 April 2009 5:34am
Hurrah for Robin Grant Jordan..he is on the ball. Plus the fact that the Reformed Episcopal Church ( which formerly received non episcopaally ordained ministers as clergy ) has been subverted by High Church TEC refugees and has abandoned its Reformed position and now has to accept the necessity of episcopal ordination in ACNA. However more serious thatn the episcopal issue , the ACNA allowa wordhip of the eucharistic elements, reservation and invocation of saints etc

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Robert Ian Williams    24 April 2009 5:43am
Mark..ACNA also includes a Canadian grouping where Jim Packer and other evangelicals are content to accept an Anglo Catholic bishop who has a great devotion to Outr Lady of Walsingham. It would seem that the only necessary test for orthodoxy is rejection of homosexual practice. On other moral issues ACNA is liberal..it plays lip service to the permanence of marriage and yet allows divorce and re-marriage , because the right to such is determined by the local bishop! Peter Toon ( an Evangelical liturgist and President of the North American Paryer Book Society) has pointed out how these American conservatives are liberal on this issue. How sad and ironic Sydney and the Anglican Church league are supporting a new denomination , of which a core of evangelical Reformed Episcopalians are refusing to join. This is what David Ould and his friends on Stand Firm are all papering over.ACNa is being birthed at a cost to evangelicals.

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Michael Canaris    24 April 2009 6:19am
How sad and ironic Sydney and the Anglican Church league are supporting a new denomination , of which a core of evangelical Reformed Episcopalians are refusing to join.
On a similar note, how sad and ironic it is that they seem to allow your malicious sowing of discord.

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Jeffrey Carr    24 April 2009 6:33am
Robert,
Of course Anglo Catholicism is not the catholicism that Hooker envisioned, as the Reformed Church is not what Calvin envisioned.Things change or die, it is the nature of existence. Now, as to whether that change is for the better or not, is another area for discussion.
As for true Protestants? I used to think I was one in another life.
Pax
Jeffrey

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Robin Grant Jordan    24 April 2009 2:01pm
Mark #15

I use the term "African practice" in relation to how the bishops of the "founding entities" of the ACNA that are an extraterritorial jurisdiction of an African province are chosen. I recognize that all African provinces do not use these mode of selecting bishops but it is a mode of selecting bishops that is commonly used in a number of African provinces, particularly those who have extraterritorial jurisdictions in North America. The Anglican Church of Rwanda's Provincial House of Bishops chooses the bishops of the AMiA. The Church of Nigeria's House of Bishops chooses the bishops of its dioceses. The canons of the Church of Nigeria provide for the appointment of administrators of extraterritorial convocations and chaplaincies by the General Synod. The Anglican Church of the Province of Uganda's Provincial House of Bishops chooses the bishops of its dioceses. I was not able to ascertain the mode of election of bishops of the Anglican Church of Kenya. The particular mode of episcopal selection that the ACNA has adopted is modeled on thatof the Anglican Church of Rwanda.This mode of election represents a significant departure from how bishops have been chosen in North America. They have historically been elected by the diocesan synod or convention and confirmed by the provincial bishops and the diocesan standing committees or the General Convention in case of the USA and by the provincial bishops in the case of Canada.

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Robin Grant Jordan    24 April 2009 2:18pm
Mark #15

I believe that the adoption of this particular mode of episcopal selection is actually an American initiative. The ACNA leadership and the ACNA Governance Task Force see it as a deterrent to liberalism and heterodoxy, a view also held by its supporters in the ACNA. They see a need for a strong central authority like the Roman magisterium in the ACNA. A number of its supporters speak highly of the notion of an Anglican "pope."

In the case of the AMiA the Rwandan Primate and Provincial House of Bishops will continue to play a substantial role in the selection of that organization's bishops. I have not been able to ascertain the extent of the continued role of the hierarchy of the other African provinces in the selection of the bishops of their extraterritorial jurisdictions.

Among the problems with this particular mode of episcopal selection is that it gives a minimal role to the clergy and the laity in the selection of a bishop of a judicatory. In the AMiA the Council of Missionary Bishops selects nominees and the Primatial Vicar has authority to veto their nominations. As the ACNA draft canons are worded, a retiring bishop could nominate his successor. The ACNA College of Bishops is not bound to choose any of the nominees of a judicatory. The draft canons are silent on what happens if the College of Bishops rejects all a judicatory's nominees. It says nothing about the judicatory being able to make further nominations.

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Robin Grant Jordan    24 April 2009 2:42pm
Robert # 16

In the United States self-identified "evangelicals" sit rather loosely to the beliefs and principles that have historically defined classical evangelical Anglicanism. This can be attributed to a number of factors. The former Protestant Episcopal Church had no evangelical wing from 1900 to the 1960s. The church was dominated by the Anglo-Catholic and Broad Church movements. The Episcopal Church experienced something of an evangelical revival during the 1960s and the 1970s. The charismatic renewal movement, the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, and a small group of English evangelicals and evangelicals trained or influenced by English evangelicals were major contributing factors. The result was a rediscovery of the Bible and some evangelical distinctives. However, a significant number of those influenced by the charismatic renewal movement came from a High Church background. Since the Episcopal Church had no evangelical wing, the remainder of those affected by this evangelical revival came from a Broad Church background. When the evangelical Reformed Episcopal Church broke away from the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1873, evangelicals remaining in the Protestant Episcopal Church were absorbed into the Broad Church movement. Even with the evangelical revival in the Episcopal Church in the closing decades of the 20th century classical evangelical Anglicanism remains at a low ebb in the USA. I cannot speak for Canada.

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Robert Ian Williams    24 April 2009 6:51pm
Robin the real issue is what is the Gospel.. is eucharistic reservation and worship orthodox..can it be squared with the 39 articles? Is it authentically Anglican to pray to the Saints and for the dead. At leat 200 parihes in te new denomination follow a Gospel which apes the Roman Catholic interpretation. At one time Sydney waold have been unequivocal in its response, but the current leadership are playing a very differnt game of ball. I have just heard Archbishop Jensen preaching in Scotland against false doctrine and advocaing ACNA..yet he ignores this anomaly. I belive the meanoing of truth and the Gospel are the most important issue.

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David Palmer    24 April 2009 11:31pm
I hope there is some kind of response from the Sydney Gafcon people to what Robin Grant Jordan has written. I must say I've listened to Robert ian Williams beating this drum of an incompatible alliance of evangelicals and anglo catholics for some time and wondered if there wasn't more than a grain of truth in what he has been saying.

One way of looking at it, is to say that life is never straightforward, always messy, and nothing is likely to be more messy than the AC. Sometimes I thank God I'm a Presbyterian because our messes seem more bite size.

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Robin Grant Jordan    25 April 2009 2:24am
The proposed code of canons of the Anglican Church in North America was not released for public comment until April 3, 2009, twenty-one days before the meeting of the Provincial Council at which they were to be considered for adoption. Interested parties were given until noon on April 20, 2009 to submit their comments and suggestions to the Governance Task Force. While the length of time was totally inadequate for a careful study of the document, it was a vast improvement upon the period of “public comment” on the provisional constitution and canons. It consisted of a brief question and answer session before the vote of the Common Cause Leadership Council meeting at which they were adopted this past December. The two documents were kept under wraps up to the day of their adoption and were not really made public until their adoption. Compare the amount of time that interested parties were given to study the draft canons with the amount of time that the constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia normally gives the dioceses of the ACA to study a proposed canon—at least 90 days.

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Robin Grant Jordan    25 April 2009 2:28am
The ACNA leadership appears to be driven to present a code of canons for ratification at the Inaugural Provincial Assembly in June. I do not know what is driving them except perhaps the desire to have a fully operational church before the 2009 General Convention of The Episcopal Church, complete with constitution and canons. My own study of the draft canons within the limited time allowed for public comment indicates that they need a lot more work. So does the provisional constitution, which will also be presented at the Inaugural Provincial Assembly for ratification. For this reason I recommend the adoption of an Interim Instrument of Governance in place of the provisional constitution and the draft canons to provide more time to complete this work. I also recommend the formation of a new and expanded Governance Task Force to undertake the revision of the two documents and the establishment of a Constituent Assembly to adopt the constitution and canons in their final form before their submission for ratification to the governing bodies of the ecclesiastical organizations forming the ACNA.

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Robin Grant Jordan    25 April 2009 2:29am
The attitude that I have run into here in the United States is that no one wants to talk about the draft canons. If I raise the subject on the Internet, I receive no response. When I drew attention to the problems in the provisional constitution, I was told that I did not have all the information and that the ACNA leadership did. If the provisional constitution had any problematic provisions, they could be fixed later after the provisional constitution was adopted. In other words, I should not question or criticize what the ACNA leadership was doing

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Robert Ian Williams    25 April 2009 6:27am
My Bible informs me that the devil is the author of ALL(not some) lies..to found a denomination on a deliberate falsehood..paying lip service to the 39 articles of religion and the Reformation, whilst at the same time flouting them is down right dishonesty. Orthodoxy is not restrictive to anti-homosexuality..as the Mormon, JW's and a host of others ( including the Taliban )are anti -homosexuality... it rests on the truth and meaning of the Gospel. This denomination that The ACL and Sydney are promoting in part
( about 256 parishes)worships Jesus in the Holy Communion elements, prays for the dead and to the Saints etc That is the heart of the matter. At least David Palmers's Presbyterianism knows what it belives. Sydney hang your head in shame!If you now ban me for stating the truth ..so be it. I repeat ACNA is not historic Anglicanism.

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Robert Ian Williams    25 April 2009 10:42am
Archbishop jensen ( who I still admire) stated this in a sermon in Glasgow... "Make sure that you speak the truth. The evil one is the father if all lies, wherever he is there is deception, lies and fraud and gossip..we must not become involved in deception and lies, or the evil one will have a filed day amongst us.

I ask any honest person reading this , is the Anglican Church of North America based on truth or fraud? Just go to the St Vincent's cathedral web site and see the very church where it will be launched. the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

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David Palmer    27 April 2009 7:02am
You are a stirrer Robert ian Williams, however, I note no response to my question of several days ago??

At least some discussion? Michael, Craig, the grumpy Bishop, Glenn Davies, Sandy, Gordon,anyone but RiW.

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Robert Ian Williams    27 April 2009 7:36am
David..I hope I am salt rather than a contentious stirrer and a contender. Without charity our faith is in vain. I would love to send you a copy of my critique of Doctor Jensen's sermon to a Presbyterian congeregation in Glasgow.Robert.williams7@homecall.co.uk Hope that is not classed as advertising..please remove it if it is.

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