A Bluffer’s Guide to the Anglican Communion

This is the full text of my article published on the Christianity magazine blog on Friday:

What has happened?

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has made a significant announcement about the time to come of the Anglican Communion. He has issued an invitation to 37 Primates of the Anglican Communion (archbishops who lead the different provinces) to a meeting in Lambeth Palace in January, at which they tin can 'look anew at our ways of working equally a Communion and specially as Primates, paying proper attention to developments in the past.' In other words, the current mode of working isn't working, and something needs to modify.

What isn't working?

One of the traditional habits of the Anglican Communion is for the bishops from all the provinces to meet once every ten years every bit the Lambeth Conference. The concluding significant meeting was in 1998, and in response to shifts in some of the (culturally) Western churches, information technology passed resolution 1.10, which both affirmed the 'traditional' position on same-sex sexual activity, whilst encouraging a listening process.

The resolution did not resolve difference—in fact, it only fabricated things worse. The Episcopal Church building in the U.s. resented being told what to practise, and continued in its moves to assert aforementioned-sex activity relations. In 2003 it appointed Factor Robinson, a partnered gay homo, as Bishop of New Hampshire.

What happened side by side?

A process was set in move in the Anglican Communion which Rowan Williams, then Archbishop of Canterbury, hoped might maintain unity and provide space for give-and-take. The Windsor Report recommended a moratorium on farther approval of same-sex relations, but did not propose any discipline for provinces which had non adhered to Lambeth ane.10. It proposed an Anglican Covenant which would, in effect, provide a new vehicle for unity in the Communion, but this has not been widely accepted.

In the concurrently, a number of primates from the global due south met as the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in 2008, calling for the church to resist secularisation and return to biblical orthodoxy. This happened a calendar month earlier the 2008 Lambeth Conference, and 200 bishops declined to nourish Lambeth. GAFCON also called for the germination of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) as an alternative, 'orthodox' Episcopal church in the United states and Canada, and this went ahead in 2009.

Why has this been so difficult?

The underlying problem is that the Anglican Communion lacks the structures that you lot might expect of a global denomination. This is partly to exercise with history and partly to do with theology. Historically, the Communion developed almost by accident, in a patchwork of arrangements as the ministry building of the Church of England was devolved to locally-led Anglican churches. The relationships with other denominations, with local culture and with the Church of England varied from place to identify. With no formal shared construction, the network developed four 'instruments of unity':

• The Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the 'focus of unity' but has no actual authority over provinces;
• The ten-yearly Lambeth Briefing, which can formulate resolutions but cannot do anything if provinces don't abide by those resolutions;
• The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) which, as its name suggests, is 'consultative';
• The Primates' Meetings, first convened past Donald Coggan in 1979 every bit a place for 'leisurely thought, prayer and deep consultation.'

Theologically, the different churches take been on different journeys in relation to their origins. The Church of England nonetheless officially abides by the 1662 Book of Mutual Prayer (BCP) and the 39 Articles of Faith. Any new liturgy has been strictly 'alternative' to this and does not supervene upon it. In other parts of the Communion, some churches nevertheless actively employ the BCP whilst others accept replaced information technology with modernised or indigenised prayer books. And so, in upshot, merely about the merely thing that the churches in the Communion have in common is a liturgical approach to worship and leadership past bishops. As Justin Welby comments: 'We have no Anglican Pope. Our authority as a church building is dispersed, and is ultimately plant in Scripture, properly interpreted.'

What has Justin Welby done?

Rowan Williams was criticised (fairly or not) for allowing the processes to drift without offering any decisive leadership. He only visited provinces when invited, and was not pro-active in building relationships. By contrast, Justin Welby fabricated visiting all provinces in the Communion a priority. He appointed a moderate conservative, Josiah Idowu-Fearon from Nigeria, as secretary to the ACC, and Graham Kings as Mission Theologian to the Anglican Communion.

Just this latest motility appears to betoken Welby's belief that the previous piece of work at maintaining or creating unity through structures is a waste of fourth dimension and effort. A Lambeth Palace source said the Archbishop felt the disputes meant the Church was "spending vast amounts of time trying to keep people in the gunkhole and never actually rowing it anywhere".

Why is this controversial?

For several reasons. For one thing, some see this equally the end of the Anglican Communion, and therefore an abandoning of a meaning do in Christian unity. Others, however, have a very different view, and see this as an astute movement which volition allow new energy to be put into relationships inside the Communion. You simply have to wait at the range of headlines to see the different interpretations, from 'Welby breathes new life into the Communion' to 'Welby abandons the idea of global consensus.'

Only in that location are other points of controversy. Welby has invited Foley Beach, archbishop of ACNA, to attend every bit well. This has been interpreted equally an approving of conservatives in the U.s. who are nor formally 'in communion' with the Church building of England. And Welby'due south language about Scripture has been seized on past some equally beingness 'unAnglican', equally it does not explicitly mention tradition and reason.

Some early commentators are besides trying to interpret what is going on in terms of the balance of power in Anglican relations. Is Welby making an attempt to retain power and influence, by abandoning previous mechanisms for the Communion's work?

I have an culling proffer: let'south really accept his words at face value.

'Information technology must also exist a manner frontwards, guided by the absolute imperative for the church building to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, to brand disciples and to worship and alive in holiness, and recognising that the way in which proclamation happens and the pressures on us vary profoundly between Provinces. Nosotros each live in a different context.'

I call back Justin is recognising the reality of the situation we are in; he does not want to put any more than effort into meetings and proposals which are not actually going to deal with the controversial issues at hand; and he wants to focus on the more important issues of missional date and discipleship.

What will be the impact for the Church building of England?

Andrew Chocolate-brown in the Guardian slightly mischievously suggests that, if different parts of the Anglican Communion drift apart, different parts of the Church of England will follow suit, looking to various dissimilar directions globally equally they exercise so. Simply this overestimates the importance of global Anglicanism on the domestic church building. The C of East has previously been perfectly capable of making upwards its ain mind on important issues, and it will go on to practise so.

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