Calvin Robinson: The mother church is disqualified

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, March 24th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. We’re a week away from our listener feedback segment for March … just a quick reminder in case you have any suggestions or corrections to send our way. You can record your thoughts with your phone and send those along to us at editor@wng.org.

BROWN: We wrap up this week by welcoming another new commentator from our digital platform, WORLD Opinions.

Calvin Robinson is a British broadcaster, political adviser, and commentator.

He’s also a deacon in the Free Church of England.

EICHER: This past February, the state sanctioned Church of England voted to allow the blessing of same-sex relationships. While many in the U.K. cheered, the response around the world wasn’t so positive. Here’s Calvin Robinson.

CALVIN ROBINSON, COMMENTATOR: The Church of England seems to be having somewhat of an identity crisis. The governing body of the church voted to allow the blessing of same-sex relationships. This has caused tidal waves in the wider Anglican Communion, the vast majority of which maintains the traditional Christian view that marriage is between one man and one woman and that sex outside of marriage is sinful.

The wider Anglican Communion has now renounced the Church of England or CofE as having broken communion with orthodox provinces by teaching a false gospel, thus becoming apostate.

The question now arises, what is Anglicanism without the Church of England?

Anglicanism, as the name would suggest, is an English expression of the Christian faith. When the English spread Christianity around the world, we shared the Anglican tradition post-Reformation. After Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox, Anglicanism is the third largest communion in the world.

A group of Anglican church leaders called primates met in 2008 at the Global Anglican Future Conference (or GAFCON) over concerns of what they called a rising “false gospel.” They were concerned that the Episcopal Church in the United States was departing from biblical teaching.

Today, GAFCON represents over 35 million active Anglicans around the world. For perspective, there are only 13 million Anglicans in the United Kingdom.

Why is any of this important? Well, provinces of the Anglican Communion in what is known as the Global South, including Africa, South America, and most of Asia, attend GAFCON. Those Global South provinces represent around 75 percent of the Anglican Communion, and they are both orthodox in doctrine and quite concerned about changes in the Church of England.

In a statement released immediately after the announcement regarding same-sex blessings in the CofE, the Global South said it would be attending GAFCON this year and that the “Church of England has now joined those Provinces with which communion is impaired.”

Further still, in a February 20 announcement, Global South primates said the Church of England has “disqualified herself from leading the Communion as the historic ‘Mother’ Church” because of these same-sex blessings, which they politely call “innovations.”

The Global South insists the CofE has “chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic biblical faith,” meaning it is not the Global South leaving the CofE, but the CofE leaving the Anglican Communion.

Stunningly, this judgment is extended to Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, leader of the Anglican Communion. Global South primates said they could no longer recognize Welby as the “‘first among equals’ Leader of the global Communion.”

The Global South and the rest of GAFCON will meet in April to further discuss the future of the Anglican Communion. Praise God, the Holy Spirit is working throughout the communion, and the orthodox primates have cast aside the growing heresy of false gospels in the West.

Here's hoping that Anglican leaders in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the United States repent and return to “the historic faith passed down from the Apostles.” We must pray that the Church of England will once again be faithful to “the historic biblical faith expressed in the Anglican formularies.” Otherwise, it will follow the other liberal churches into the dustbin of history.

I’m Calvin Robinson.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.