The Archbishop of Canterbury, whom I believe to be a good and sincere man, recently addressed a gathering of Anglicans in Nairobi just before the launch of GAFCON II. GAFCON, of course, is the gathering of conservative Anglicans, and the Archbishop originally had not planned on attending as he had a minor obligation involving the Christening of a certain Prince George. However, after the recent acts of terror in Nairobi, His Grace agreed to come to the city to be with those afflicted, and conveniently would be able to meet with the GAFCON delegates prior to their conference.
The Archbishop is attempting to unite an increasingly divided Church. His trip to Nairobi in response to the terror attacks allowed him to extend an olive branch to the conservative wing without offending the liberals. Indeed, the sermon he delivered focused largely on how the church is to handle disputes amongst its members.
The Archbishop declared that “It is not right to neglect that without which the church drifts apart – namely the Bible.” He continued, “The Bible must be the heart of our Christian walk with Jesus. We must read as a whole communion and pray for a common vision. We must read scripture together to hear what God is saying. Scripture has a common vision to be applied differently in each place.”
If the Bible itself will not unite us, what will? But surely the Archbishop realizes he is preaching to the choir at GAFCON. If he wants to bring unity based on the scriptures to the Anglican Communion, I’m sure no one there will object. However, the Scriptures will not bring unity to the Anglican Communion because there are quite simply many Anglicans who do not believe in the Word. Another writer has accurately pointed out that the term Anglican now encompasses everyone from Fundamentalists in Africa to Pantheists in San Francisco.
Any proposed model for settling disputes among Christians assumes that all parties involved are Christians. Unfortunately, in the Anglican Communion, this is not the case. I sincerely doubt Gene Robinson can rally to everything St. Paul has to say, and I furthermore doubt that there are those who are willing to take St. Paul’s advice regarding members like Mr. Robinson.
The Archbishop concluded by calling us to be,
“A church that will flourish is a people who will find God is faithful; base themselves in the bible and in holiness of lifestyle. It has never been easy. We will all fail at times. We struggle in all these areas in England along with everyone else.
We want to be a church of love and generosity, faithful and holy. But we sin. We are not the only ones.
Let us recapture the vision we find in Acts of a church that is bible centered, practically loving, holy in areas of power, sex and money. A church that cries out to God for justice.”
Let us all keep and practice the habit of repentance, and recognize our constant failures. But repentance is no good if we will not recognize a measure other than ourselves. There is a measure in the Bible, and the Archbishop is right that we center all our doings around it. Let us pray he takes that message to the entire Anglican Communion.
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