Responding to the unwelcome news that the Primates (leaders) of the churches that contain 85 per cent of Anglicans have rejected the structures of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office says that the bodies he influences and convenes must determine any change.
“The Kigali Commitment”, issued at the end of the Global Anglican Futures conference, states that the world’s conservative Anglicans regard the Archbishop of Canterbury’s leadership as “entirely indefensible.”
The rejection of Canterbury’s leadership is based on the Church of England’s plans to have prayers of blessings for people in same-gendered relationships. The Gafcon calls for progressives to repent, “We consider that those who refuse to repent have abdicated their right to leadership within the Anglican Communion, and we commit ourselves to working with orthodox Primates and other leaders to reset the Communion on its biblical foundations.”
But it was not triumphalist. “This is not a moment to celebrate,” said Michael Stead, the bishop of South Sydney and the chair of the group that drafted the statement rejecting Canterbury’s authority. “It is with broken hearts that we declare these things. It’s not that there’s a defiance in our voice; it’s actually in the bitterness of tears that we have to say this. And I think that was reflected in the mood [of the Gafcon gathering.]
The current structures of the Anglican Communion, sometimes known as the four instruments of union, need reworking, said Chilean Primate Hector Tito Zavala on the Heart of Gafcon podcast.
“I think now the Lambeth [conference] of bishops] should disappear. We need a new way of being together. In my opinion, the four instruments of unity must be changed, must be, reshaped…
“The Archbishop of Canterbury has six or seven different roles, and one of them, one out of six or seven, is concerning the Anglican communion. I want to separate [roles] whichever [person is Canterbury should be the primate of all England. Then, the Anglican communion must have another head or primate to lead the communion.”
From London, the response was that while change might come, it needs to be run by the existing “instruments” of Communion, which give the Archbishop a significant role; for example, he summons the Lambeth Conference of bishops.
“We note that the GAFCON IV communiqué makes many of the same points that have previously been made about the structures of the Anglican Communion. As the Archbishop of Canterbury has previously said, those structures are always able to change with the times — and have done so in the past. The Archbishop said at the recent Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Ghana (ACC-18) that no changes to the formal structures of the Anglican Communion can be made unless they are agreed upon by the Instruments of Communion.”
This echoes Justin Welby’s comments from Februaru in Ghana, that he might be willing to stand aside, but he wants the debate to be held in by the “instruments of unity,” which In he has great influence over. However to involve the Lambeth Conference, for example. would stretch things out for another nine years. The Global South and Gafcon are not going to wait for that.
One needs only to look at the last Lambeth Conference to see that Welby’s proposal is foolishness. When a large number of bishops stay home and another large group refuses to take Communion, you cannot call it a communion. Two groups are walking in opposite directions and he does not want to discuss it, then all the instruments of communion which he controls are all useless. His comment in Ghana is another case of him using doublespeak. And there is no guarantee that another Archbishop of Canterbury will be any different.