CAPE TOWN: Anglican Archbishops Declare Their Relationship Broken with the Archbishop of Canterbury
Anglican Communion beyond repair, they said
Duncan said orthodox US Episcopalians would have been exterminated without Global South intervention

By David W. Virtue in Cape Town
www.virtueonline.org
October 19, 2010

Four Anglican archbishops, including an American, have outlined the crisis in the Anglican Communion and have concluded that orthodox Anglicans worldwide can no longer accept the leadership of Dr. Rowan Williams. They drew a distinction between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the See of Hippo which goes back to St. Augustine - an African.

Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi told several hundred Lausanne Congress participants at a special meeting on issues facing Anglicans that the Anglican Communion is torn at the deepest level with no hope of ever being repaired. A realignment is now well under way and will conclude with the birth of a new [Anglican] baby. It will be difficult, but all in good time. "We will win and God will conclude it."

Citing American historian Philip Jenkins, one archbishop said there has not been an Archbishop of Canterbury worth killing since 1645.

The panel of four archbishops included: John Chew, (South East Asia); Henry Luke Orombi, (Uganda); Robert Duncan (ACNA-USA); Mouneer Anis, (Jerusalem and the Middle East); and Assisting Bishop Glenn Davies of Sydney, Australia who stood in for absent Nigerian Primate Nicholas Okoh. New England Bishop Bill Murdoch (ACNA-USA) facilitated the meeting.

After cataloging an historical timeline from Lambeth 1988 (the rejection of Resolution 1:10 in 1998 and the boycott of orthodox bishops in 2008 to the consecrations of bishops Gene Robinson and lesbian Glasspool), Orombi said the American Episcopal church and the Anglican Church of Canada have exhibited the most vocal wholesale revision of the Christian Faith that includes rejecting the divinity of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Jesus and the uniqueness of Christ. "The crisis is much deeper than homosexuality and sexual morality, but involved essential matters of faith. Homosexuality was simply a presenting issue."

This has given rise to a crisis of order since nothing has changed despite all the actions taken by the leaders of the Anglican Communion. Orombi berated Rowan Williams for failing to exercise any serious discipline saying it made reconciliation impossible.

Orombi said the Global South took the Decade of Evangelism seriously. Most African provinces grew steadily, even uncontrollably. Not so with the Global North churches. The Western world debated human sexuality. They did not grow.

At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the number of bishops from the Global South outnumbered those of the west tipping the balance of power from the north to the Global South. The Global South asserted itself upholding Biblical standards on human sexual behavior and passed Resolution 1:10. It was overwhelming passed 528 to 70. It declared that homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture.

"The liberal churches were disturbed at being outvoted. They refused to be ignored and imposed a liberal sexual ethic in their churches." It was downhill from there.

"When the Episcopal Church can embrace heresy and counsel lawsuits it is hypocritical to say Global South primates should not intervene to save orthodox parishes and dioceses. If it is all right for Primates to intervene in Africa with money why is it not right for African Primates to intervene in the US?"

Orombi said alignment is well underway. He described it as "painful" and "not a tidy process," but it is moving forward.

In response to a question about the leadership of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Orombi differentiated between Archbishop Williams and the See of Canterbury. "Anglicanism is not parallel to the Church of England," he explained, "It is clear to Archbishop Williams about where we stand with relation to what we believe. It is very interesting to know that the Communion is divided. We needed leadership, which was not provided. We are providing collective leadership for orthodox believers. Such a move is seen as difficult, but a shift has taken place. In due time delivery of a baby takes prolonged labor pains but a baby will be born healthy and well. The Archbishop of Canterbury comes and goes every several years. The Church of Christ stays."

South East Asia Archbishop John Chew was more cautious in his assessment of the Anglican Communion. While not a story of success, the Lord continues to be gracious to that one part of His body that is faithful. Chew said he is amazed that human sexuality has become a lightening rod and demurred that the issue is not about the Anglican Communion, but about how we face global changes.

"It is not easy to move an aircraft carrier. Carrying the burden of a church demands a lot of sacrifices," he said.

Presiding Bishop Mouneer Anis said that many Protestant churches have forgotten their history and the shedding of blood to sustain the faith. "The Anglicans in the Global South have grown immensely while the revisionist churches in the West have suffered terrible decline. On the other hand conservative Anglican churches in the West are growing, and they will do so because they are conservative and biblical."

Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) Archbishop Robert Duncan likened the situation in the Anglican Communion to a winnowing by God of His sheep. He cited Luke 1:46-55, "He has scattered the proud and lifted up the lowly."

He noted the precipitous decline in TEC membership to 700,000 and the Anglican Church of Canada to only 320,000. He attributed their loss and decline to theological revisionism. "Imagine deposing J.I. Packer the greatest Anglican theologian of the 20th Century."

Duncan said the confiscation of property and the sacrifice by lots of people has kept Anglicanism alive in North America. "We would have been exterminated were it not for the Global South. Anglican leaders said there will not be a spiritual genocide in North America such as Rwanda had experienced. They would not stand by and watch us go down."

Duncan said they came to a godly rescue. "We had been willing to stand, but they stood with us."

Duncan said he has learned four lessons: The first lesson is that of rescue. "Standing on God's truth raises God's allies. When you stand other Christians who are standing with you, then you have ecumenical allies. Rick Warren said if we needed to shoot a silver bullet he would provide it.

"Secondly, humility builds Gods partnership. We needed to check our egos at the door. We learned a lot about asking and expressing our needs. We built fabulous partnerships. God does lift up the lowly. Global Anglicanism is the Anglicanism of the Global South. The church today is a black (mother) woman, 20 years of age.

"Thirdly we hear from one to two church planters every day. We are the fastest growing denomination in the US.

"The fourth lesson is when folks risk a deeper level of conversion. It continues to deepen with personal sacrifice and with gospel suffering." Duncan noted that it was not necessarily an Anglican story, but the story of the church at its best.

Bishop Davies who stood in for Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh said there had been a manifest failure of the Communion's instruments to exercise discipline. "The Archbishop of Canterbury failed to have that steel in his body to exercise that discipline." Davies said that being Anglican meant being Biblical and that GAFCON was the only authentic witness to the Anglican Communion.

During a question and answer, Duncan was asked about his ambition to plant 1000 churches in five years. Duncan replied that in June 2009 they came together with 703 churches. Now, in 2010 ACNA is 916 strong and growing.

"In 2009 I called to plant 1,000 new congregations. We have 100 congregations in that category. We get one to two church planters calling every day. There is an Anglican fever abroad. God is acting sovereignly." Duncan said the tragedy is that TEC and the ACoC are bridges to the culture. His people are prepared to challenge the culture. He concluded that the Archbishop has become paralyzed in his role as leader of the Anglican Communion.

FOOTNOTE: In listening to these presentations and to the timelines offered on the inability of TEC and the ACoC to reform themselves, nothing was said about the 2008 GAFCON gathering in Jerusalem which produced the Jerusalem Declaration, a document that has become the touchstone of Anglican orthodoxy.VOL believes this was a serious oversight. Archbishop Chew alluded briefly to the Covenant, but VOL was told privately that the Covenant is now off the Global South table and has been replaced by the Jerusalem Declaration.

END