search

The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) consists of over 70 congregations, which over the past ten years have seceded from the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC), or have begun as new plants.

The movement began with biblical-ly orthodox groups coming together as ‘Anglican Essentials’ in the 1990s, to re-state the basics of apostolic faith in a context of increasing influence of secularist and liberal thinking among the leadership of Anglican and other mainline churches.

Five bishops in the Anglican Church of Australia have asked their church lawyers whether bishops can take part in consecrating another bishop of a church which is not formally part of the Anglican Communion.

They raised objections to the consecration in May of the Rt Revd Andrew Lines of the Anglican Church in North America by the Archbishop of Sydney and bishops of Tasmania and Northwest Australia. These proceedings were set to dominate the meetings of the Church’s General Synod in September.

Anglicans claim to be part of the Reformed Western catholic tradition and one of the most visible ways that continuity over the centuries is maintained is through episcopacy, which the English evangelical reformers of the 16th century quite deliberately retained in contrast to their continental counterparts.

Was that wise? In the present-day Anglican Provinces of the West, the claim to Reformed catholicity is looking ever more dubious as apostolic substance ebbs away. Moreover, disunity and doctrinal incoherence in the Anglican Communion has been an episcopally led phenomenon.

Rwanda is a land of contradictions. Arriving at Kigale one is immediately aware that this is quintessential Africa, and yet, ‘This is not Africa as I know it!’

One of the first hints is the airport inspection for plastic bags, banned in the country for environmental reasons. This beautiful, hilly, and in parts mountainous land is spotlessly clean – almost manicured.

In February, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, a Nigerian Archbishop, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, addressed the General Synod of the Church of England; and Growth and Decline in the Anglican Communion – 1980 to the Present, edited by David Goodhew of Cranmer Hall, Durham, was launched at a conference.

Archbishop Fearon clarified that the term ‘Anglican Communion’ referred to churches which find their common roots through the CofE and its tradition to the witness and mission of the apostolic church. ‘The very word anglicana implies a living tradition of faith in the gospel as this church has received it … from Augustine of Canterbury … to renewal in the English Reformation and beyond.’ ‘They feel they owe so much of their faith, in human terms, to the faithful giving of Christians in the CofE over the centuries.’

The Mothers Union (MU) is one of the great success stories of the Anglican Communion.

Beginning in 1876 with Mary Sumner’s vision for Christian marriage and family life, the movement now numbers some 4 million members worldwide, with the largest concentration being in Africa.

Most Christians in the UK probably have only the haziest idea of what Anglicanism looks like in South America. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 inhibited Protestant and Anglican missionary work in the continent, while the English language has always been marginal, unlike most other areas of the Anglican Communion where British influence was much stronger.

This is a pity, because out of the continuing crisis in the world-wide Anglican Communion a reinvigorated and missionary church is emerging in South America, in spite of official persecution and rejection. In fact the pattern of North America is being repeated. Just as a new GAFCON-recognised Province, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), arose out of the aggressive and assertive revisionism of the American Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada, so in South America a new orthodox Province is coming into being as the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) and various TEC satellite provinces in central and northern South America follow the lead of their North American counterparts.

GAFCON has confirmed the dates for its third international conference. Between 17-22 June 2018 it will return to Jerusalem, the venue of the first Global Anglican Future Conference in 2008 (from which the movement takes its name).

The GAFCON announcement explains that ‘The city stands as a constant reminder of the birth of the gospel and the movement’s determination to remain true to the teachings of our Lord and his Word’ and so, to appreciate the significance of the 2018 conference, it is worth recalling how it all began.

The Anglican Church of the Province of Southern Africa, now known as the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA), is one of the provinces of the Anglican Communion that claims to walk the tightrope of the ‘middle path’ in the doctrinal and moral wars of the modern Communion.

ACSA believes that its hero status, from the leading role that it had in the anti-apartheid movement, gives it the new role in championing the indabas (discussions) which some see as essential to the future of Anglicanism. In reality, this means pressure from many bishops and lay leaders for ‘continuous conversations’ until sufficient minds are changed (for a Synod vote) to the new pan-sexual morality. If they can achieve this while convincing people in the pews that nothing is really changing and after all ‘this is what Jesus would want us to do’, all the better.