Sugden on Revolution in Anglicanism

Chris Sugden, writing in a British evangelical publication uses a new metaphor as a way to view the struggles and possible breakup in the Anglican Communion thusly:

"Revolution in common parlance is an overthrow of the existing order. But when a wheel has completed one revolution, a point on its circumference has returned to its point of origin. And a revolution is a return to the beginning, a restoration.

What we are in the middle of now in the Anglican Communion is not schism or separation, but a revolution. In the last decades, the Communion has been increasingly under the dominance of leadership which is over-influenced by the assumptions of western intellectual culture through the dominant role of the Church of England and ECUSA. People are now saying publicly that this unrepresentative dominance must end.

Archbishop Orombi of Uganda has said ‘However we come to understand the current crisis in Anglicanism, this much is apparent: The younger churches of Anglican Christianity will shape what it means to be Anglican. The long season of British hegemony is over.

‘The reason there is a global Anglicanism today is that Anglicans were compelled by the Word of God to share the gospel throughout the expanding British Empire and beyond. In the absence today of such a convenient infrastructure, the future of the Anglican Communion is found in embracing the key Reformation and evangelical principles that have had such an impact in Uganda. Without a commitment to the authority of the Word of God, a confidence in a God who acts in the world, and a conviction of the necessity of repentance and of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we will be hard-pressed as a communion to revive and advance our apostolic and missionary calling as a church.’

In other words, the future is to be found in returning to the key Reformation and evangelical principles that are the strength and core of the Anglican expression of Christian faith."

Read the rest here.

Posted by Nicholas Knisely on August 31, 2007 9:14 AM | |
Comments (1)

Oh, yes, 'What is Anglicanism?' I remember reading the archbishop here a while back.

The empire strikes back.

Makes sense.

Been hearing for some time and tend to agree that a Global South-dominated Anglican Communion that's conservative and Evangelical is very possible, owing not least to the numbers involved worldwide.

Also remember that there is a strong Evangelical party in the Church of England, something nearly unknown in the US.

So if the Communion remains and still includes England I can imagine the future C of E as disestablished in a very secular society (far more so than America) and conservative theologically, Evangelical in churchmanship, more nearly monochrome that it is now - England's robust native Christian minority (along with an Eastern European-immigrant Roman Catholic church).

I'm not saying that's necessarily good - those who know my Catholicism can imagine what I think! - but simply observing.

Posted by John Beeler [TypeKey Profile Page] | September 1, 2007 9:31 PM

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