Battles over the Anglican Communion

Jun 30, 2018 by Jill

by Andrew Carey, CEN:

The Anglican Communion is dead, long live the Anglican Communion.

It has long been my view that the Anglican Communion has been a busted flush since the problems that erupted over the consecration of the Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, who was a divorced man in a homosexual relationship.

The Primates themselves said that the ordination of Robinson represented a ‘tear in the fabric’ of the Communion. It meant that increasingly uncertainty was introduced to the ministry of the Communion and the interchangeability of orders.

It also damaged the so-called ‘instruments’ of the communion including the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Communion Office and the Lambeth Conference. Sure enough, the 2008 Lambeth Conference was rendered ‘harmless’ by stripping it of its deliberative, decision-making function. And there was no surprise that a full one-third of the Bishops, representing the most populous Churches, refused to attend.

Justin Welby faces the same problem now with regard to his own invitations to the 2020 Lambeth Conference. It is expected that he will reintroduce the full business of the Lambeth Conference, though no doubt he will find new ways of controlling the agenda and preventing any surprises.

But he will face the problem that many Bishops will refuse to attend. Last week’s Gafcon meeting in Jerusalem acclaimed a resolution that urged provinces not to attend the Lambeth Conference unless Welby invites the newer Anglican churches formed in North America and Brazil and disinvites liberal Anglican Churches in America, Canada, Scotland and New Zealand.

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