One Family

From The Living Church:

10/28/2007

There seems to be little question that the Anglican Communion is going through an unprecedented major realignment at this time. Most leaders and commentators across the spectrum of conviction agree that this is the case. Indeed, the realignment has been in process for years.

Some reflect and publish in a considered and biblical manner, and make their case logically and humbly. Others do so with varying degrees of arrogance, stridency, fear, discouragement, lack of charity or ignorance. What the realignment will look like when it has been achieved is a matter of guesswork, and the settlement will probably take years to emerge.

The Anglican Communion consists of 38 independent provinces throughout the world, with about 75 or 80 million members. Overall the Communion is healthy and robust. The strength of the Anglican Communion is in the Third World, mostly in Africa, if one may measure by vibrancy of faith in the pew, number of converts, and strength of commitment to commonly understood biblical orthodoxy. Almost 25 percent of the Anglican Communion is found in Nigeria alone. African Anglicanism is strongly evangelical in preference. Western Anglicanism appears to be in decline. Membership and attendance in The Episcopal Church, for example, have declined a little each year for about 40 years.

The Anglican Communion came into existence almost at random. Its greatest period of expansion was in the latter half of the 19th century with the spread of the British Empire. There was no intention at that time to “centralize” the Anglican Communion or to come up with a way to make decisions on a worldwide basis. There was no need to do so. Anglicans generally have considered the independence of the provinces and a decentralized form of governing to be a strength. It has often been noted that the Archbishop of Canterbury is a “first among equals” and has no juridical authority outside his own diocese.

For the past generation or more, however, a few provinces in Anglicanism have made unilateral decisions that have had a serious negative effect on the rest of the Communion. These decisions, made mostly by The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, and the responses to these decisions from other parts of the Anglican world have brought the Anglican Communion to a crisis.

It is clear that the Anglican world has come to a point where it cannot and will not function as it did in the past. Whatever it comes to look like, the future Anglican Communion will be markedly different from what it has been.

At the risk of putting it too simply, it seems to me that there are now two views about the way Anglicans should do business. One view says that in the modern world, Anglicans need to realize that they are in fact a world community addressing world issues, and that the provinces are interdependent — not should be interdependent, but already are. Major issues that confront any given province will likely affect all the other provinces. Therefore a way must be found to define Anglicanism as a world community with a decision-making process at the world level. That means that we must “centralize” the way we make decisions in the areas that affect the whole Anglican world.

The other view asserts that that is not the way Anglicans have ever made decisions, and actually goes against one of the strengths and boasts of Anglicanism: a decentralized form of government with provincial independence. This claim is certainly accurate — historically, at least. The question is whether this way of doing business meets our current
needs.

In my opinion, the old way is clearly inadequate. Even apart from the issues that have created the crisis, to try to maintain the old way of doing things is backward thinking — basically merely saying “But we’ve never done it that way before.” It is doing business this way that has brought the Anglican Communion to its current crisis. It doesn’t work any more. It hasn’t worked for more than 30 years. I find it more than curious that most of those who claim to be “pushing the envelope forward” in the Anglican world are the “backward thinkers” in the matter of Anglican decision-making.

The first view, proposed by the majority of Anglican leaders, is indeed a way new to Anglicanism. This does not make it automatically wrong. On the contrary, in my opinion it is wise, realistic, and essential. The realignment is moving in the direction of this view — creating a worldwide Anglican identity with mutual accountability and effectively recognizing that Anglicanism has become a world family and is no longer a loose confederation.

There are currently four instruments of unity in Anglicanism that define us as a world family: the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the symbol of unity and has authority to decide who is an Anglican; the Lambeth Conference of all Anglican bishops, which began in 1867 and meets every 10 years to take counsel; the Anglican Consultative Council, a deliberative body that includes clergy and lay people from around the world [TLC, Sept. 16]; and the meeting of primates, or bishops who are leaders of the 38 Anglican provinces. The latter two instruments came into being as recently as the 1970s.

Currently an Anglican Covenant is being devised by which it appears that the provinces will be asked to agree to be a worldwide family with mutual accountability and, when necessary, make binding decisions together on matters that affect everyone. It is a situation similar to the time after the original 13 American colonies had become independent from England and then had to decide whether to form a federal government. It is a rare situation in world history, and people do not easily or gladly cede authority to a larger body.

From where I sit, it looks as though a lot of Anglican provinces see this trend as the answer to a crying need. Whatever lies ahead, Anglicanism is in the throes of change and cannot go back.❏

The Rev. Canon David M. Baumann, SSC, is the rector of Blessed Sacrament Church, Placentia, Calif.