Brief Thoughts on GAFCON| Part Two

It would appear that my colleague +N.T.Wright beat me to the punch for my second thought on GAFCON.

Article 13 of the Jerusalem Declaration:

We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord.

The fifth section of the GAFCON final statement read as such, again, emphasis my own

Primates’ Council

We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, do hereby acknowledge the participating Primates of GAFCON who have called us together, and encourage them to form the initial Council of the GAFCON movement. We look forward to the enlargement of the Council and entreat the Primates to organise and expand the fellowship of confessing Anglicans.

We urge the Primates’ Council to authenticate and recognise confessing Anglican jurisdictions, clergy and congregations and to encourage all Anglicans to promote the gospel and defend the faith.

We recognise the desirability of territorial jurisdiction for provinces and dioceses of the Anglican Communion, except in those areas where churches and leaders are denying the orthodox faith or are preventing its spread,and in a few areas for which overlapping jurisdictions are beneficial for historical or cultural reasons.

We thank God for the courageous actions of those Primates and provinces who have offered orthodox oversight to churches under false leadership, especially in North and South America. The actions of these Primates have been a positive response to pastoral necessities and mission opportunities. We believe that such actions will continue to be necessary and we support them in offering help around the world.

We believe this is a critical moment when the Primates’ Council will need to put in place structures to lead and support the church. In particular, we believe the time is now ripe for the formation of a province in North America for the federation currently known as Common Cause Partnership to be recognised by the Primates’ Council.

I have a few concerns about the bolded areas.

The first is in regards to this Primate’s Council. I, along with many other observers, would like to know what powers this council will vest itself with, and who will ‘make the cut’ to join the council.

The second is like it, what will the New North American Province look like? They mention the Common Cause Partnership, which is a confederation of Nine Different Anglican groups, each with a different orientation, goal, system of oversight, ect… Will these groups unite and become “The Church of of the Province in the New World” (Yes, that is my suggested title), or will Orthodox Anglicanism turn into something like the Orthodox Churches with a myriad of jurisdictions, all in inter communion?

My big beef is, however, with this exclusionary tone in the passages above. It sounds like this Council has given itself the right to determine what “Orthodox Anglicanism” is. I do not think anyone will pretend that some highly suspect Bishops exist within the Episcopal Church, but I don’t think all of them are, although many maybe more liberal than the GAFCON primates would like. Would these Bishops be heretics? What is the litmus test for abandoning the faith? And who gets to set it?

On a whole, Im happy that over a thousand people came together and reaffirmed their Christian belief, but I would like to see more clarity in some of their proposals before I can say that Im on Board.

+Alex Resurgent
Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle