How Legalism Has Destroyed the Communion
by David Ould:
It’s now over 3 months since the pivotal Primates’ Gathering in Canterbury. Much water has passed under the bridge since then and many readers will have been watching along. Apologies that davidould.net has not been more vocal in bringing you up to speed.
As I write the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) is meeting in Lusaka. The ACC forms one of the four “Instruments of Unity”of the Anglican Communion, alongside the decennial Lambeth Bishops’ Conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury himself and the Primates’ Meeting. You may remember that attendance and participation in the ACC was a key topic of conversation coming out of the Primates’ Meeting given that the Primates in their closing communiqué stated:
It is our unanimous desire to walk together. However given the seriousness of these matters [the decision of The Episcopal Church (“TEC”) to unilaterally change doctrine on a key question] we formally acknowledge this distance by requiring that for a period of three years The Episcopal Church no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, should not be appointed or elected to an internal standing committee and that while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion, they will not take part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity.
At the time attention naturally turned to the upcoming ACC meeting given that it would be the first Communion event in which this statement would be tested. Almost immediately bishops of TEC began to line up to state that they would be attending and had every intention of participating fully. Anglican Ink has a fantastic catalogue of many bishops’ statements where there is a recurring theme which can be summarised as:
- we value our relationships in the Anglican Communion and are just as committed as ever to “walking together” with others.
- nobody has the power to remove us from the Communion’s institutions and structures.
This position was also reiterated by the chairman of the ACC, Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga (former bishop from southern Malawi but since then deeply integrated into the TEC theological education system and increasingly influenced by their revisionism, particularly in the downplaying of the divide that TEC’s actions have brought).
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