From Christian Post via TitusOneNine:
Monday, Apr. 26, 2010 Posted: 8:26:15AM HKT
Archbishops representing three-quarters of the Anglican world are rallying for firm action against two Western Churches for ‘celebrating’ homosexuality.
The decision by the top leadership of the Global South of the Anglican Communion was prompted by the recent election by The Episcopal Church (U.S.) of a partnered lesbian as a bishop.
Heads of Churches in the Anglican Global South will be persuading their representative assemblies to reconsider communion with the North American Churches. This is “until it becomes clear there is genuine repentance,” in the words of a communiqué. The ‘Fourth Trumpet’ was released Friday after an Anglican Global South summit held throughout the week at St. Andrew’s Cathedral.
To prevent repeat occurrences, the archbishops are also seeking to articulate the Anglican faith and vest the council of worldwide Church heads with disciplinary powers. They will do this by proposing amendments to a proposed Anglican Communion Covenant.
Global South archbishops have also called on the Anglican head Rowan Williams to disinvite the two Churches to the decennial Lambeth Conference. The Lambeth Conference, which gathers Anglican archbishops and bishops worldwide, is an important part of Anglican identity.
Furthermore the archbishops are calling for a review of the present Anglican Communion structure. This is attempt “to achieve an authentic expression of the current reality of our Anglican Communion.”
They singled out the ‘Instruments of Communion’ and the Anglican Communion office.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the symbolic head of Anglicanism, is the focal point of the other three ‘Instruments’. And yet the office-holders, traditionally Church of England bishops, are least representative of the Anglican world.
Anglicanism is two-thirds African, with four African Churches gathering at least five million Christians each. Leading them is the Church of Nigeria, also the largest Anglican Church, with 20 million members. The Church of the Province of Uganda has ten million members.
These African Churches show no signs of slowing. The five million-member Anglican Church of Southern Africa, for instance, has added one diocese each year.
Churches in other parts of the world like Nepal, Myanmar and North America have also recorded phenomenal growth.
This is at the same time that the Church of England has declined in weekly attendance to less than one million people, most of them older people.
The Christian Post understands that another ‘Instrument’, the Anglican Consultative Council, is Western-dominated. This is also the case with the Anglican Communion office.
For the Anglican Global South, the TEC decision demonstrates ‘total disregard’ for the worldwide Church. The Anglican Communion regards any sexual union outside the context of a lifelong heterosexual monogamous marriage as sinful. This view is derived from a traditional interpretation of Scripture.
The call for action comes in the light of eight years of frustrated attempts to get the Western Churches to repent. Then the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) started blessing same-sex unions. A year later, TEC ordained an unrepentant homosexual person as a bishop.
“In the face of this we dare not remain silent and must respond with appropriate action,” read the communiqué.
Three Anglican Churches have already taken a drastic step of cutting off all Communion-level fellowship with TEC and ACoC. Some others including the Church of the Province of South East Asia have cut formal ties with the two Churches.
At the same time, Anglican Global South archbishops are rallying for full communion with TEC-breakaway group Anglican Church in North America and two dissenting TEC bishops.
In the latest statement, the majority Anglican bloc marked a clean break from a past of ineffective meetings and resolutions.
The Anglican Global South declared the start of a ‘Decade of Mission and Networking’.
Uganda Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi had a paper presented at the summit in which he called on Anglican Churches worldwide to double their membership.
The Anglican Global South comprises 20 Churches or provinces across the southern hemisphere including Asia. Each province is led by an archbishop known as a primate, the majority of which attended the Singapore summit. Singapore Anglican bishop John Chew was elected Wednesday the head of the grouping.
At 75 million members gathered in 38 Churches, the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion in the world. In first place is the Roman Catholic Church with 1.2 billion members. The Eastern Orthodox Communion is second at 210 million members.
The Anglican Communion is the largest Protestant communion in the world.
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