How is consecrating a missionary bishop for Scotland within the mission of our church?

Jun 23, 2017 by Jill

by Canon Phil Ashey, AAC:

On Friday June 30, God willing and the Bishops of ACNA already consenting, and the Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach, Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) Presiding, Anglican Primates, Archbishops and Bishops from around the globe will consecrate the Rev. Canon Andy Lines as a Missionary Bishop for Scotland and Europe on behalf of GAFCON. This will be the concluding service—the exclamation point, if you will, of our Provincial Assembly.

These interventions are relevant to the crisis of false teaching that has troubled the Anglican Communion for the last 50 years. The fundamental point is simply this: a bishop who departs from the orthodox faith contradicts the very basis on which he is a bishop. The reason the order of bishops emerged at the end of the first century was to maintain apostolic faith and order after the death of the apostles. This unique and historic role of bishops to guard the faith and order of the Church (including doctrine, discipline and liturgy) is a governing principle in the canon law of the Churches of the Anglican Communion.[1] Therefore the ministry of a bishop who does not guard and teach the apostolic order of the Church is a contradiction in terms. This is precisely why orthodox bishops in the Patristic period seem to have felt it necessary to replace an unorthodox bishop or to ordain in the dioceses of unorthodox bishops—presumably because in both cases the See was de facto vacant.

Following both their example and their reasons for doing so, the GAFCON Jerusalem Declaration (2008) authorized the formation of a Primates Council “to authenticate and recognize confessing Anglican jurisdictions, clergy and congregations,” and went on to declare

“We recognize the desirability of territorial jurisdiction for provinces and dioceses of the Anglican Communion, except in those areas where churches and leaders are denying the orthodox faith or are preventing its spread…”[2]

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