World Tour: Redrawing the Communion

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: an Anglican divide, and the way forward.

A group of conservative Anglicans gathered last week in Abuja, Nigeria. They took another step toward what they call the reordering of the Anglican Communion.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: WORLD’s Africa reporter Onize Oduah attended the conference, and brings us details on the group’s decisions and how they may affect churches across continents.

ONIZE ODUAH: Last week, more than 400 Anglican clergy and lay people gathered at GAFCON in Abuja, Nigeria, to sing, pray, and discuss issues in the denomination.

SOUND: [Choir Singing]

At the end of the event, Rev. Laurent Mbanda reiterated its theme. He’s the archbishop of the church of Rwanda.

LAURENT MBANDA: Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

GAFCON claims to represent the majority of the world’s approximately 90 million Anglicans, most of them across Africa and Asia.

These Christians say they have remained true to the Anglican Communion, while the Church of England has strayed from Biblical teaching.

The conference theme of choosing whom to serve signals the group’s effort to reorganize Anglican leadership apart from the authority of Canterbury.

Some observers of the disagreement had expected the group to appoint its own replacement for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Instead, the group set up a council led by a top bishop. The council also includes other clergy and lay members … who all have equal voting rights.

SOUND: [Applause]

The group selected Mbanda as chairman. He will serve as the primary spokesperson in both ecumenical and international contexts.

MBANDA: And so it’s more of a conciliar structure. It is a shared leadership. It is not just a one-man show.

The group said the unexpected change in direction for its leadership followed prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Rev. Paul Donison is the group’s general secretary.

PAUL DONISON: The Global Anglican Council has discerned that if we are to move past old structures, we must leave behind old titles as well.

Donison told WORLD he sees the meeting in Abuja as the most important since the group was first founded in 2008. 

At that first meeting, attendees signed the Jerusalem Declaration, which all incoming members of the Global Anglican Communion must now sign. It lists out 14 affirmations, with points including Biblical inerrancy and God’s design for marriage and sexuality.

Since then, the group has increasingly called out the Church of England for changing its stance on several doctrinal issues. The latest objections emerged after the Church of England confirmed the first female archbishop of Canterbury.

Donison insisted the group isn’t leaving the Communion but is rejecting the Church of England–led “Instruments of Communion” —the traditional leadership structures of global Anglicanism.

DONISON: For a time, maybe they did their job, but they certainly, in the last 50 years, haven't done their job well. And structures come and go. I mean, the word of our God stands forever, but the structures, just like the grass of the field, fades and withers.

The new structuring will also forbid its leaders from attending the Anglican Communion’s traditional gatherings, including the Lambeth Conference and Primates’ Meetings. They can’t approve any financial contributions to the Church of England and must eventually remove any reference to communion with Canterbury from their constitutions.

A spokesperson from the Anglican Communion acknowledged the division among the groups but insisted that Christ calls them to be one.

Donison says he and others in the Global Anglican Communion expect the changes to come with challenges.

DONISON: The truth is, you cannot reform anything without there being pushback. And so we are always prepared for it.

Some attendees found the week of prayers and conversations encouraging in light of the coming changes. Bishop Yassir Eric is originally from Sudan.

ERIC: There’s a narrative that developed, or a theology in the West, where it is, our ideas are starting to guide the gospel and the Bible, and it’s actually totally wrong. So our ideas and whatever we think, should submit to the word of God and never be above the word of God.

The Global Anglican Communion isn’t the only conservative group disillusioned with the Church of England. The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches has also said it is open to hearing plans for reform.

Donison says some may see last week’s decisions as radical, but people have to make a choice on where they stand.

DONISON: Everyone's got to work through this at their own speed. But my posture is, friendship with the world is enmity with God. And I don't say that with a lack of compassion, I mean that we're here to seek the world, but friendship with the world over friendship with God is enmity.

That’s this week’s World Tour. I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

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