from AAC:
How does the Church of England’s announcement of same-sex blessings square with the Bible and Lambeth Resolution 1.10 (1998)? Does the Archbishop of Canterbury’s explanation that these are blessings of “couples only and not their relationship” make any sense? Has the Church of England betrayed and misled the Anglican Communion? Has the Church of England effectively changed its doctrine on marriage? How will the Church of Uganda respond to this move by the ABC and the Church of England? What would the Anglican Communion look like without the leadership of the ABC and the Church of England? What has happened to the Church of Uganda since it broke communion with The Episcopal Church over these same issues over 20 years ago?
These are among the questions I was privileged to ask Archbishop Steven Kaziimba, the Primate of the Church of Uganda (CoU), during our visit with him and the CoU House of Bishops. In today’s Anglican Perspective Podcast, you will hear his candid, transparent and thoroughly biblical response to these questions and more! (What cost does one pay for choosing Jesus instead of financial aid? How can churches welcome the Holy Spirit for mission and ministry? What does Christian parenting look like in Uganda?)
It was a joy and a privilege to share with His Grace, the Bishops, and other leaders about the way that biblically-faithful Anglicans all over the world are coming together on the basis of a shared confession of faith, missional relationships, and “covenantal structures” that will provide full Communion with interdependence and mutual accountability through the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) Cairo Covenant (2019). On the eve of Gafcon 2023 in Kigali, there is so much to be said and done in bringing GAFCON and GSFA together to restore biblical faithfulness and a focus on Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations.
To that end, I commend to you today’s statement from the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans: Church of England ‘Blessing’ Gay Unions Would Violate Biblical Teaching & Jeopardise Archbishop of Canterbury’s Continuing Role in the Anglican Communion [
Read the Press Release here]. The title says it all. As Archbishop Justin Badi, Chairman of the GSFA notes, the 53 page statement of the bishops of the Church of England, including the ABC, justifying prayers for the blessing of same-sex unions, “turns out to be a farcical compromise, with many contradictions, and no theological case made for blessing same sex unions.” On this side of the pond, both Carl Trueman in First Things [
article here] and Rod Dreher [
article here] have written penetrating analyses of why the blessings of same-sex unions, even if only civil partnerships, will not stand in the way of relentless social and political pressure upon the Church of England to depart from biblical teaching on essentials, including the doctrine of creation. This opens the question for biblically-faithful Anglicans to ask what the Anglican Communion will look like if it is no longer led by the ABC and no longer driven by the internal politics of the Church of England.
The headlines from the Church of England should not dismay or preoccupy. God is not surprised. This is a developing story, and we will have much more to say about this in the weeks ahead.
— Canon Phil Ashey
