GAFCON’s Commitment to Tradition and Sola Scriptura Rightly Understood
by James Clark, The North American Anglican:
Hans Boersma, Gerald McDermott, and Greg Peters have expressed concern at First Things that, because the Kigali Commitment “repeatedly appeals to the authority of the Bible alone and fails to mention either the authority of the Church or the role of tradition,” GAFCON is committing itself to a “strict ‘Bible alone’ viewpoint” that is “a departure from the approach of the English Reformers.” Moreover, they suggest that the Commitment’s affirmation of “leadership roles of GAFCON women in family, Church and society” is evidence that the GAFCON bishops have already “opened the door to the use of Scripture for liberal ends,” as “this statement implicitly ratifies women’s ordination to the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopacy.”
There are two objections here: first, that the absence of tradition in the Kigali Commitment suggests a larger indifference to tradition, and second, that the Commitment’s affirmation of “leadership roles of GAFCON women in family, Church and society” is a manifestation of this indifference.
Beginning with the first objection, while it is true that the Kigali Commitment contains no references to tradition, it seems reasonable to read the Commitment in light of GAFCON’s already established principles as found on its website. On the page where GAFCON elaborates on its self-understanding as “Bible Based,” the following excerpt appears:
As well as the Bible, God has given humans reason and the historical witness of the church to discern matters of faith but GAFCON believe that Scripture is the higher authority. It is the final court of appeal for doctrine because it is His revealed will. All the foundational documents of Anglicanism, the Thirty-Nine Articles, The Book of Common Prayer and the Homilies all insist on this supreme authority.
While “Scripture is the higher authority” (as the authors of the First Things piece also recognize), the church’s historical witness is nonetheless acknowledged by GAFCON as an important resource for understanding Scripture. This relationship between Scripture and tradition, where tradition informs Scripture without taking priority over it, can also be found in Article 2 of the Jerusalem Declaration, which reads as follows:
(Hat Tip: Anglican Ink)
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