Schism deepened

A GAFCON too far

The headline was:

GAFCON Communiqué issued - ACNA recognized

Which begs the obvious question: by what authority?

On the GAFCON site a communiqué has been issued which, amongst other things, declares

The GAFCON Primates’ Council has the responsibility of recognizing and authenticating orthodox Anglicans especially those who are alienated by their original Provinces.

Strictly, of course, the sentence should add, after the word 'has' - accorded itself ...

The 6 men who comprise this Council, as self-appointed guardians of orthodoxy, are a fine group telling one another how righteous they are and therefore how heterodox and unrighteous are all the rest of the Anglican world. That they may do to their hearts content. It's annoying but it's harmless.

But to claim the right to determine orthodoxy, and to claim the capacity to 'recognize' another body, is simply schismatic. It is taking themselves outside the rules and structures of the Anglican Communion. In the word of the St Andrew's Draft Covenant they have excluded themselves from communion.

This is what the ACC should be dealing with. Of course we have been shuffling one foot after another to this point since Rwanda and South East Asia first consecrated Anglican 'missionaries' to intrude into the jurisdiction of TEC. But this is a qualitatively different step howsoever small it seems - it changes the whole politics of Anglicanism.

The reason this hasn't been obvious to date has been Archbishop Rowan's mistaken tactics. By siding consistently with the conservatives against TEC (I believe on ecclesiological grounds rather than those of sexual politics) he has permitted, glossed over and covered up the schismatic actions of the conservatives (presumably in direct contradiction of those same ecclesiological principles).

So I, in my small corner, say: enough is enough. Let them recognize who they like. Let them recognize and state openly that they have excluded themselves from the Anglican Communion in doing so.