The worldwide Anglican Church is at a critical crossroads that is coming to a crescendo this month. The Archbishop of Canterbury has requested a gathering of all the primates (the lead bishops of each “province”) to meet in Canterbury for five days beginning January 11. At stake is a basic church-defining principle: Will Christ rule our life and witness through His word, or will our life and witness be conformed to the global ambitions of a secular culture?
If your ANiC parish is anything like mine (St. George’s, Burlington), there are many members who come to your church, not necessarily because it is Anglican, but because they sense life there. The Gospel is being preached and lives are being transformed and restored – the way Church is intended to be. If you fall into this category, you may never have even considered the worldwide Anglican Communion, our involvement in it as a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), or whether its existence really matters.
A number of years ago, a small series of booklets was published by what was Anglican Essentials Canada entitled The Anglican Agenda Series with the eminent theologian, Dr J I Packer, as the editor. One of the booklets, entitled Taking the Anglian Communion Seriously, made this helpful commentary:
“each and every Anglican has a stake in the Anglican Communion”
“To most Anglicans the Anglican Communion is more of an idea than a reality in their lives; our local congregations and perhaps our dioceses provide the usual limits for our thinking about the church. Yet each and every Anglican has a stake in the Anglican Communion. It unites us to Christians who share the same heritage of beliefs, same worship patterns, same history, and same ways of expressing our faith. The Anglican Communion is our window on the world, making us aware of the struggles and joys experienced by fellow Christians in almost every part of our planet. Therefore, to play our part in the world church, the church catholic, we need to take our Communion and its future seriously.”
It is my deep desire, dear Friends, to exhort us all to pray for this upcoming gathering at Canterbury. Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, the Primate of Kenya and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, (please see note at bottom of article for info on GAFCON) has urged us all to pray and has expressed his thoughts on the urgency of the situation:
“This was the reason GAFCON was formed in 2008: to renew a Communion in crisis, drifting from biblical truth. While the presenting issue was human sexuality, this was really just one symptom of a deeper challenge, the emergence of a false gospel which rejects the core Anglican commitment to the truth and authority of the Bible.
“GAFCON works to make this fundamental issue of biblical truth clear to Anglicans everywhere so that, equipped by God’s word and empowered by His Spirit, we can live under the lordship of Christ and make him known as Lord and Saviour to a world in desperate need of Him.
“The GAFCON Primates will attend the Canterbury meeting, but they are clear that their continued presence will depend upon action by the Archbishop of Canterbury and a majority of the Primates to ensure that participation in the Anglican Communion is governed by robust commitments to biblical teaching and morality.”
As part of the attending ACNA support team, Bishop Bill Atwood is well versed in the history, the strategic importance and inner workings of the Anglican Communion. He has made this statement:
“This gathering is a very difficult one because there are two positions that cannot be reconciled”
“This gathering is a very difficult one because there are two positions that cannot be reconciled . . . What is at stake is not “bragging rights.” Orthodox leaders are well aware that what is at stake is eternal life and redemption. Those who diverge from revealed Christian truth are not just wrong; they are heading toward and leading others to Hell. There is literally no other issue that is as important. No temporal issue can hold a candle to the import of whether or not people are saved.
“For more than twenty years, there has been a huge war going on. It has come to a head. The decisive battle will be in Canterbury from January 11th to 15th. It will determine the future of the Anglican Communion. Please pray! This is not just an institutional kerfuffle. It is a spiritual war of epic proportions. Any energy devoted to praying and fasting for this meeting will be well invested.”
It is abundantly clear that the wobbly status quo will not be the result emerging from these strategic meetings. It is hard to know exactly all that the Lord wants to achieve here, but one thing we do know is that His Name will be glorified and that His kingdom will be enhanced. Sometimes it’s better to not have a clear, desired outcome in our prayers, so we can fully put our trust in God and pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Let us specifically be praying for our own primate, Archbishop Foley Beach and his small support team, which also includes our Bishop Charlie Masters, that they will have great wisdom, discernment, courage and resolute hearts to follow Jesus wherever He leads.
In a recent email, Archbishop Wabukala (pictured on the right, next to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby) added these important prayer requests:
| “In particular, please pray that all our Primates, led by myself and our deputy Chairman Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, will have:
· time for good preparation so that we are fully informed and sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit · smooth travel so that we will arrive safely and on time · unity so that we will act with one mind and heart · strength to resist manipulation and false unity. · the desire to please God and not men · provision for those Provinces where there might be fear that standing for the truth could have negative financial consequences.” |
Please join me in fervent prayer for this historic gathering during the first two weeks of January. May repentance be a real hallmark of the moving of God’s Spirit. Let’s stand with these faithful servants of God against the strategies of the enemy to bring fear, doubt, accusation, and compromise. May Almighty God rule and reign over every minute of the proceedings, and may He be the final authority over any decisions that are brought forth from these days! Amen.
“The GAFCON movement is a global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion. Our mission is to guard the unchanging, transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ and to proclaim Him to the world. We are founded on the Bible, bound together by the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration of 2008, and led by a Primates Council, which represents the majority of the world’s Anglicans.” (From the GAFCOM website: http://www.gafcon.org)
