Notes on the Anglican Communion

I have been meaning to write up my notes from when Lord George Carey, the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury from 1990-2002, came to speak at Duke Divinity School last year. The title of his talk was "The Anglican Communion: Past Blessings, Present Challenges, Future Hopes." I found his perspective very interesting, especially as he deliniated the many reasons why the worldwide Anglican Communion could not support the American election of Bishop Robinson. Here are my notes from the day.

The Anglican Communion: Past Blessings, Present Challenges, Future Hopes
Lord George Carey

Past Blessings

The Lambeth Conference of 1867 was gathered to deal with a crisis in the church over the uneasy growth of the Church of England. It was called by the colonies, and it eventually led to reformation in the Church of England. There were 76 bishops present with only one black bishop, and the Bishops of London and York were abstaining. The 16th century church was profoundly broken by the break with Rome, and the 17th century had seen excessive violence. By the 19th century, the church was debating theology. By the 1920 conference, women were included on the platform.

Present Challenges

The juridicial structure has been resisted, leading to the increasing independence of the various communions which had only to follow the Book of Common Prayer. The Bishops meet together for various functions such as overseeing liturgical development, but there are many strong leaders and indiginous pastors now which have often abandoned the Book of Common Prayer and a common ministry.

There are serious threats to the unity of the Communion. The move to ordain women was so gradual and so discussed that schism was avoided. The Church of England still does not recognize women bishops in England, for example, and there is still great discussion over the ordination of women versus the ordination of women as bishops; however, the church still remains in communion.

Fast footwork and close communion are needed to prevent schism in the current emergency, the debate over homosexuality. This debate has been quick. The debate has been going on since before 1990 when Lord Carey became Archbishop, and he was a controversial figure in the debate. At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Resolution 110 clarified the position of the Anglican Communion stating that practicing homosexuality was incompatible with Holy Scripture. Five years later, the United States' decision to accept an openly gay priest threw the church into debate (August 2003). There have been many meetings in the Anglican Communion for discussions with homosexuals, but unfortunately, the discussion with the General Synod in the U.S. was "dead in the water."

The debate over homosexuality is an emergency and causing division because it is a bigger issue than just the acceptance of homosexual priests. There are five major theological and ecclesial reasons why the Anglican Communion could not agree with the U.S.'s decision. 1)The acceptance of homosexuals was a departure from the ordinal and theological teaching of ministry that priests have to be either celibate or married. 2)It was a departure from the orthodox interpretation of the Bible which is universal in its condemnation of homosexuality. Every group, even those supporting homosexual ordination, with which the Anglican Communion has been in communication agrees that Scripture speaks against homosexuality. 3)It was a departure from the Anglican understanding of the sacramentality of marriage. 4)It was a departure from the understanding of unity. By choosing to forsake the discussions and accept an openly homosexual priest, the United States was proclaiming that they had no need of the rest of the Anglican Communion. 5)It was a departure from the Anglican understanding of authority because the United States church ignored the Communion's decisions.

Hope for the Future

Pray for resolution that does not involve schism. The leaders and parishioners need to engage with the conflict and with the problems of the world to avoid the worst possibility, that the minority leaves. Once churches divide, union is rare, and the split between the Church of England and the Methodists is an example. Hope can be sustained if groups stop threatening to leave and realize that the conservative voice is not always heeded and that some behavior done in disagreement is un-Christian.

Unfortunately, increasing schism seems to be the reality, so Lord Carey's fears about division in the Anglican Communion are more and more real. He is correct that once churches divide, they tend to remain divided, even when the churches eventually come to align closely in their theology. Issues such as the validity of ordination and leadership tend to keep them separated. While the Wesleyan Methodists, Free Methodists, and Nazarenes divided from the Methodist Episcopal (current United Methodist Church) for different reasons, none of them have united with each other or reunited with the UMC. Attempts at reconciliation between the Wesleyans and Free Methodists were hindered by different positions on the ordination of women. Attempts at reconciliation between the Free Methodists and United Methodists would be greatly hindered by the pluralism and hesitancy to follow Biblical discipline by some leaders in the United Methodist Church as well as the historic theological "conservativism" (for lack of a better term) by the Free Methodists. While I do not fault the founders of Free Methodism for their actions following the removal of their ordination credentials by the Methodist Episcopal Church when the Free Methodists spoke out against slavery and discrimination against Blacks and the poor, our division is still a hindrance to our witness to the Kingdom of God and to a Savior who has come to reconcile us with God and one another. All of our prayers should be with the Anglican Communion and for reconciliation within our divided churches.