Updated
Three articles from the Anglican Communion Office:
Changing the way the Anglican Communion communicates
A look ahead at 2020 for the Anglican Communion Office
Anglican Primates gather in Jordan for “very strategic meeting” ahead of Lambeth Conference
Anglican Primates meet with King Abdullah II and Heads of Churches in Jordan
The Church Times has this report:
‘Grown-up’ Primates’ Meeting affirms Anglican links with Canterbury
Regarding the Anglican Primates’ Meeting in Jordan. I wonder whether there will be any Primates from GAFCON attending these meetings, ostensibly to discuss the future of the AC with bona fide Anglican Communion prelates whose interest is in finding ways of living together as the ACC? GAFCON has its very own ‘Primates Meeting’ after all, which exists to undermine the unity of our Anglican Church. They surely cannot claim membership of both organizations, whose ethos is based on different parameters – Inclusion and Exclusion. It would be nice of both sets of Primates were able to co-exist. However, you cannot… Read more »
Ron: See https://www.anglicannews.org/features/2020/01/anglican-primates-gather-in-jordan-for-very-strategic-meeting-ahead-of-lambeth-conference.aspx
Fr Ron, perhaps spend just 20 minutes clarifying in your mind how Gafcon includes GS Primates; GS Primates will attend the meeting in Jordan; so yes, Gafcon will have representation at the Primates Meeting.
Thanks, ACI. However, from the article above we have this sentence: “Despite the commitment to “walk together at a distance” made by the primates at their 2016 meeting, the Primates of Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda – Archbishops Nicholas Okoh, Laurent Mbanda, and Stanley Ntagali – have said that they will not take part in next week’s gathering in Jordan” So, however many of the G.S. Primates WILL be/WERE at the Jordan gathering; obviously, at least 3 of them will/are not. Frankly, with GAFCON having its own private Manifesto in its ‘Jerusalem Statement’ – which is antithetical to the Lambeth Quadrilateral,… Read more »
Ron, how exactly is the Jerusalem Statement antithetical to the Lambeth Quadrilateral? And what authority exactly does the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral have in worldwide Anglicanism? It began as a local statement in the Episcopal Church, and was not actually designed to be a summary of Anglican doctrine, but to be a bare bones minimum of what should be included in any future unification agreements between Anglican churches and other churches (‘home reunion’). It was eventually adopted by the third Lambeth Conference in 1888, but its adoption carries just as much authority as every other Lambeth resolution – which, we’re constantly being… Read more »
I believe from your remarks here and in times past, ‘Gafcon’ functions as a sort of cipher: uncooperative, small, divisive. You tend to elide the reality of the Global South as a reality: large, faithful, seeking to support an Anglican Communion in deep trouble. There are overlaps between these two groupings. The idea of something like ‘Lambeth Fathers recognizing Gafcon’ make no sense. Gafcon wants no such recognition, and who are ‘Lambeth Fathers’ positioned to do such a thing? You are otherwise correct that things need to be sorted before Lambeth 2020, but the odds of this are very small/non-existent.… Read more »
Sadly, the question posed by Fr Ron and answered by ACI illustrates a problem. Primates are asked to meet because they are Primates of Provinces and if they represent anyone they represent their provinces. When the allegiance is to another body – whether they say GAFCON or GSA – it confuses who they ‘represent’. This creates two problems. Firstly, they seek to represent Anglicans in another province. For example, some Primates have sought to represent Anglicans who affiliate with GAFCON or GSA but are in a province where they are in a minority. This means one or more Primate representing… Read more »
All very sensible in a way but the polity of the AC has always been a fragile idea. York did not believe the ABC had a role to gather primates outside his diocese. That question mark has obviously never disappeared.
So, ACI, it all does come down to the problem of trying to harmonize a group of discordant players – a synthesis that, at least in the sphere of music, cannot happen. Lovers of harmonics cannot stand discordant performances. Thus, it becomes very difficult to reconcile one instrument (GAFCON) which does not want conciliation (goes off to form its own musical clan) with the original musical instrument (LAMBETH), which – as it was the original grouping, wants to incorporate ALL of the instrumentalists (including LGBT+ people who are not discordant with the Gospel threnody). If GAFCON + ACNA + AMIE… Read more »
There is also the possibility that the sheet music is inherently flawed and that over time, this is being borne out. The Global South represents the vast preponderance of anglicanism, it is not identical with Gafcon, and it has deep problems with the progressive position re: marriage. Does the idea of the ABC as ‘conductor’ make catholic sense, or is it a vestige of colonial empire, where that existed, and is it now being severely tested? That is the question mark hovering over a worldwide communion, consisting of autonomous national entities, purporting to use the term ‘catholic’ and looking, or… Read more »