In a plea for unity, the Archbishop of Canterbury has told conservative Anglicans establishing a separate fellowship within the Anglican Communion to “think very carefully about the risks entailed”.
Conservative Anglicans wrapped up the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem on Sunday with a statement affirming their desire to remain within the Anglican Communion but within the structure of a new fellowship headed by a council of bishops. Anglicanism was not, the statement added, “determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury”.
In a statement issued in response on Monday, Dr Rowan Williams said that the final statement from GAFCON leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday contained “much that is positive and encouraging” about their priorities and that the vast majority of Anglicans shared their ‘tenets of orthodoxy’.
He also addressed concerns over the uniqueness of Christ and the “absolute imperative” of evangelism, stating they were “not in dispute in the common life of the Communion”.
Dr Williams warned, however, that GAFCON’s proposals were “problematic in all sorts of ways”.
“A ‘Primates’ Council’ which consists only of a self-selected group from among the Primates of the Communion will not pass the test of legitimacy for all in the Communion,” he stated. “And any claim to be free to operate across provincial boundaries is fraught with difficulties, both theological and practical.”
Dr Williams warned that exercising episcopal or primatial authority over huge geographical and cultural divides would result in an “obvious strain".
He added, “…how is effective discipline to be maintained in a situation of overlapping and competing jurisdictions?”
GAFCON leaders said on Sunday that they would continue to offer alternative pastoral oversight to conservative congregations within the Communion’s liberal member Churches.
Whilst Dr Williams urged fellow Anglicans not to “impute selfish or malicious motives” to those seeking alternative oversight, he said that the issue of discerning genuine theological grievances was “becoming very serious”.
“How is a bishop or primate in another continent able to discriminate effectively between a genuine crisis of pastoral relationship and theological integrity, and a situation where there are underlying non-theological motivations at work?” he asked. He pointed to interventions in dioceses with “unquestionably orthodox” leadership not because of theological differences but personal or administrative disagreements.
Dr Williams said the solution to the challenges was “not to dismiss the existing structures of the Communion”.
“If they are not working effectively, the challenge is to renew them rather than to improvise solutions that may seem to be effective for some in the short term but will continue to create more problems than they solve,” he said.
Dr Williams said that structural renewal and restoring confidence in Anglican identity would be “one of the most significant focuses” at the forthcoming Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade meeting of Anglican bishops in Kent from 16 July to 3 August.
Church
Archbishop sees ‘risks’ in conservative Anglican proposals
By: Jennifer Gold
Posted: Wednesday, 2 July 2008, 6:06 (EST)
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