The Anglican provinces that aligned themselves as part of the GAFCON movement, now described as FOCA (Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans), are meeting in England at the moment. As part of their work, they are suggesting that the Anglican Communion be reorganized in a way that the leadership selection is done by election not by tradition.
“Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, leader of Kenya’s 13 million Anglicans, said there needed to be a ‘radical shift’ in how the church is run.
Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, the leader of 23 million Anglicans in Nigeria, said that while the historic position of the Archbishop of Canterbury would always be respected he should be seen as ‘one of’ many primates.
[…]He went on: ‘It is not something that should remain permanent that the Archbishop of Canterbury – whether he understands the dynamics in Africa or not – remains the chair and whatever he says, whether it works or not, is an order.‘No I think if we are to move forward we have to reconsider that position.’
He added: ‘At the moment it seems that the Church in England isn’t carrying along everybody in the Communion and that is why of course you can see that there is a crisis, so if we must solve the problem we must change our system.’”
More from the BBC coverage here.
Thinking Anglicans, as usual, has excellent additional coverage of the story.
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@Peter wrote, “The funny thing about the “Orthodox” Anglicans, Catholics, and everybody else is that they pick and choose just like everybody else while pretending not to.”
Yep. Invoking Micah 6:8, Archbishop Wabukala says they’re just doing what the Lord requires, humble, merciful and all that.
http://gafcon.org/news/a-global-communion-for-the-twenty-first-century/
/QUOTE/
Micah 6:8 we read:
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
And to walk humbly with your God.
What does the Lord require of you? This is the greatest question facing us this week.
/UNQUOTE
The funny thing about the “Orthodox” Anglicans, Catholics, and everybody else is that they pick and choose just like everybody else while pretending not to. So these folks will do whatever works for them with regards to the ABC, just like we do, but pretend that they are being more faithful about it than we are. I would so enjoy a whole lot more honesty.
+++Williams appears never to have recognized that appeasement would result in one outcome: Ever-greater demands that would ultimately undermine the moral authority of the ABC as primus inter pares.
My prediction is that if ++Sentamu wins the Canterbury Derby, GAFCON will change its tune. If ++Sentamu does not win, the tactic of downgrading the role of the ABC will continue.
Eric Bonetti
So they want a head of the Anglican Communion to have more authority but they just don’t want that authority to rest with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
They want to rotate the leadership but they will solve the problem of a Canadian or an American coming on board and being excessively conciliatory by making sure that Canadians and Americans (and for that matter the English, the Scots, the Welsh, and Brazilians) don’t have a seat or voice in whatever structure they think up.
The only thing that one can say good about their way of thinking is that they make the Anglican Covenant seem reasonable.
Consider the subhead on The Telegraph’s report: “THE Archbishop of Canterbury could be stripped of his role as figurehead of the worldwide Anglican Church.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9221603/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-to-lose-worldwide-Anglican-role-under-traditionalist-plans.html
Hello, T-graph, it’s Anglican Communion not Anglican Church. Communions have figureheads. Churches have popes. FOCA’s complaint has been that the (1) ABC should a pope, and (2) the ABC should be a pope that does FOCA’s bidding.
Long live the Anglican Communion.