Is generosity the right response to heresy and apostasy?

At the Lambeth Conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has asked for an "intelligent generosity" to envelope the Anglican Communion. Is it really intelligent or generous to accept and embrace heresy and apostasy? Is generosity the answer to the heresy and apostasy that pecusa and the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) have brought into the Anglican Communion?

No, it is not intelligent or generous to embrace heresy and apostasy. Heresy and apostasy destroy the body of Christ. pecusa has been in this destructive mode for over forty years and the destruction has only intensified over the last five years. With 1,000 or so Episcopalians departing their parishes each week, it is not generous to pecusa to allow the heresy and apostasy to continue.

Since the Anglican Communion through her official channels has shown herself incapable of applying any sort of discipline to those who promote and live out false teachings, GAFCON was born. What started as a conference (The Global Anglican Future Conference) has become a movement. The intelligent and generous response to heresy and apostasy is the biblical response, which is discipline. Since Rowan Williams and the Lambeth Conference are unwilling to follow through with the disciplinary determinations of the primates, the GAFCON movement has been formed.

As David Virtue reports, the GAFCON movement represents 75% of all Anglicans. It includes the Global South provinces where the majority of Anglicans live, as well as their missionary endeavors in the United States and Canada. The Anglican Mission in America (AMIA) and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) are two of these endeavors, but others exist through the offices of South American and African primates. The future of Anglicanism in North America is the AMIA, CANA and all those who are a part of the Common Cause Partnership of the Anglican Communion Network (ACN).

Although Rowan Williams and the leadership of pecusa and the ACC have sought to isolate and marginalize the AMIA, CANA, and ACN, we can clearly see where the future of North American Anglicanism resides. Bishop Robert Duncan has petitioned the GAFCON leadership to recognize the Common Cause Partnership as a legitimate province of the Anglican Communion. This partnership includes the AMIA and CANA as well as other Anglicans who are part of smaller initiatives by Global South primates and others who are part of what has been called the continuing church movement.

What any intelligent observer can see is that Lambeth 2008 is about the Anglican past because Rowan Williams and the liberal leadership of the Anglican Communion are not interested in or willing to exercise biblical discipline. Fortunately, Rowan Williams, pecusa, and the ACC are part of the shrinking minority of worldwide Anglicanism. A new and better future is being thrust upon the communion by the GAFCON movement.