The Christian axis has shifted

Jun 25, 2018 by

by Gerald McDermott, Patheos:

Last week the global axis of Christianity tilted even further toward the Global South.  Anglicanism is the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Catholics and Orthodox.  The Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) met in Jerusalem and elected the Archbishop of Jos, Nigeria, its new general secretary.  This means that Archbishop Ben Kwashi is the most powerful man in the Anglican world.

Of course his predecessor Nicholas Okoh was also a Nigerian Archbishop, and the Archbishop of Canterbury also has considerable power–institutional and financial.  But the GAFCON meetings last week, with 2000 delegates from all over the world (most of them non-white), declared that it no longer considers Canterbury’s approval to be necessary for legitimate Anglicanism.  After Canterbury suggested that GAFCON was departing from traditional Anglican ways, its leaders proclaimed in their Friday communique, “We are not leaving the Anglican Communion; we are the majority of the Anglican Communion seeking to remain faithful to our Anglican heritage.”

The orthodox have moved to the Global South.  The Anglicans among them are grateful for what their predecessors have given them—the riches of liturgy and sacrament in the orthodox gospel of Jesus Christ—but they have rejected the heresies of Canterbury and New York (the Episcipal Church).

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