Response to Bp. Tom Wright

July 15th, 2009

By Steven Noll, From Stand Firm's website

I want to join others in appreciating the strong statement by Bp. Tom Wright
on the actions of GC09. It is not time to quibble about the past. He clearly
sees the road taken by TEC and defends out the biblical basis for marriage
and against homosexual practice which goes back to Lambeth 1.10. Bravo!
As for his concern about ACNA, I am sure, knowing Rowan Williams and others
in the Anglican Communion hierarchy, that there will be no rush to
enfranchise ACNA or disenfranchise the Communion Partners. Is it too much to
ask the ABC to reaffirm the Dar prohibition on lawsuits for all orthodox in
TEC and ACNA on threat of immediately withdrawing his recognition?

The big question for the days ahead is whether the two streams of the
orthodox movement - which had coalesced in the Anglican Communion Network
and the Global South coalition - will begin to come together again. I
believe their reunion, not at first political but spiritual, is devoutly to
be wished.

Let me point out two positive indicators.

First from the side of the FCA, there has always been an openness to the
wider Communion. Note the following words in the GAFCON Statement from a
year ago.

We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, are a
fellowship of confessing Anglicans for the benefit of the Church and the
furtherance of its mission. We are a fellowship of people united in the
communion (koinonia) of the one Spirit and committed to work and pray
together in the common mission of Christ. It is a confessing fellowship in
that its members confess the faith of Christ crucified, stand firm for the
gospel in the global and Anglican context, and affirm a contemporary rule,
the Jerusalem Declaration, to guide the movement for the future. We are a
fellowship of Anglicans, including provinces, dioceses, churches, missionary
jurisdictions, para-church organisations and individual Anglican Christians
whose goal is to reform, heal and revitalise the Anglican Communion and
expand its mission to the world.

Jerusalem Declaration, clause 11.

We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to
building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognise the orders and
jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and
we encourage them to join us in this declaration.

and again:

.we shall seek to expand participation in this fellowship beyond those who
have come to Jerusalem, including cooperation with the Global South and the
Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa.

I see no reason to think that ACNA and the GAFCON churches desire to rush to
exclude the remnant in TEC from recognition by Canterbury and the wider
Communion, even if they had that power, which clearly they do not. I would
think that the GAFCON Provinces, like Uganda, will continue to consider
itself in communion with all those who stand against the heretics in TEC.
Secondly, I find it significant that Bp. Wright is concerned that the
faithful remnant of TEC be able to adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant. I
agree. Therefore it must be clear to the ABC and his consulting group that
section 4.1.5 remain untampered with in any final draft. It reads as
follows:

(4.1.5) It shall be open to other Churches to adopt the Covenant. Adoption
of this Covenant does not bring any right of recognition by, or membership
of, the Instruments of Communion. Such recognition and membership are
dependent on the satisfaction of those conditions set out by each of the
Instruments. However, adoption of the Covenant by a Church may be
accompanied by a formal request to the Instruments for recognition and
membership to be acted upon according to each Instrument's procedures.
This clause in particular is the reason that section 4 of the Covenant was
torpedoed in Jamaica - torpedoed by the very folks who have passed D025 et
al. If it were to happen that the ABC and his advisors were to weaken
section 4.1.5, I hope Bishop Wright would be the first to denounce such an
action, and I hope the rest of the churches would ignore the amendments and
adopt the original Ridley Cambridge Text. Section 4.1.5 offers hope both to
the orthodox in TEC and to the ACNA that there will be an ultimate
reconciliation of believers within the Anglican Communion. Noli hoc tangere.
Don't touch!