Don’t let tensions win

The current tensions in the Anglican Communion, which have reached a peak with the Jerusalem Declaration released on June 29th following a meeting of Anglican church leaders from certain parts of the Anglican Communion, have been slowly building over the past 5 years. The tensions centre around both moral and ecclesiological questions. The Anglican provinces in North America have increasingly shown signs of a change in teaching concerning human sexuality and marriage, with the election of a bishop in a same-sex union and the movement in various dioceses towards a rite of blessing for same-sex couples. The nearly 300 bishops who were among those gathered last week in Jerusalem for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) are leading the opposition to this development within the Anglican Communion, stating that those positions move away from traditional teaching on marriage and human sexuality and are contrary to the Gospel. They indicated that many of their Anglican provinces in the Global South are no longer in communion with bishops and churches who have moved away from this traditional teaching, and expressed their disappointment that the instruments meant to safeguard unity and right teaching within the Anglican Communion have been ignored or failed “to exercise discipline in the face of overt heterodoxy”. The most far-reaching of the proposals of the Jerusalem Declaration calls for the establishment of a ‘Primates’ Council’, headed by those primates of Anglican provinces who participated in the Jerusalem meeting, which was mandated to “organise and expand the fellowship of confessing Anglicans”. This move to create an authoritative ecclesial structure apart from the Archbishop of Canterbury and other Anglican instruments of unity calls into question the bonds which hold Anglicans together. Clearly the tensions over moral teachings are also linked to ecclesiological questions, as the bishops of the Anglican Communion are no longer fully in communion with each other, and as the instruments of unity within Anglicanism are called into question. Furthermore, within the Church of England, a motion will be discussed at the forthcoming General Synod (July 4-8) concerning the ordination of women to the episcopate. Four provinces within the Anglican Communion currently have women bishops, and several others have passed legislation making it possible for a woman to be elected as bishop. This too has created a good deal of internal tension, as a significant number of Church of England priests and parishes have indicated that they would not be willing to be accept the authority of women bishops. These internal divisions, along with the stances towards a change in understanding of marriage and human sexuality, and the move of an increasing number of Anglican provinces towards the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate, also create serious difficulties for the Catholic Church in its relations with the Anglican Communion. The Lambeth Conference, which every 10 years brings together Anglican bishops throughout the world, is scheduled to begin on July 19th in Canterbury. While many of the bishops who attended the Jerusalem gathering are not attending Lambeth, it is expected that about 70% of the Anglican bishops worldwide will gather under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Perhaps the key proposal to be discussed concerns the most recent draft of a covenant which would articulate in greater detail the bonds of communion within Anglicanism, possibly including measures to maintain the unity of the Anglican Communion in the midst of internal disputes. The Catholic Church will send observers to the Lambeth Conference, and accompanies the Conference with its prayers, that the current tensions within the Anglican Communion will soon be resolved and that Anglican teaching will be strengthened in the apostolic faith which we share.