Monday, September 1, 2008

GAFCON Right, But Wrong on Women's Ordination

The Jerusalem conferees were of course predominantly Evangelical, and those “of a more Catholic Anglican persuasion may legitimately worry if they have been left out of GAFCON’s vision of orthodoxy,” asserted Jordan Hylden in First Things. But the Jerusalem meeting included a plucky minority of Anglo-Catholics and extramural Anglicans who seem to see a way forward in GAFCON.

The GAFCON statement’s support for a new province, with CCP as its foundation, drew particular welcome from Forward in Faith, North America, which was the first organization to begin calling from within TEC – 11 years ago – for the formation of a separate, orthodox Anglican province in North America.

Interestingly, FIF-NA thought GAFCON somewhat reminiscent of its 1989 synod in Fort Worth, “which also involved an international presence and a call for lead bishops to establish a structure that could further the cause,” said a statement by Quincy Bishop Keith Ackerman, FIF-NA President, and six other members of the organization who were in Jerusalem. What was different with GAFCON, they said, was that “several of the primates…have already acted, and the great energy and urgency apparent in both the conference as a whole and in its leadership…We met to talk about something that is already happening, and to plan its direction for the future.”

The FIF-NA delegation also noted that, while not all Continuing bodies – orthodox Anglican churches not recognized by Canterbury – “are interested in a relationship with the Communion, GAFCON is the first on-the-ground effort within the Communion to reintegrate those which do. About two-thirds of Continuers were represented” in Jerusalem.

One leader among them proffering a generally good review of GAFCON was Bishop Paul Hewett of the Diocese of the Holy Cross, who is Moderator of the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas. FACA is a CCP member comprised of faithful U.S. bodies outside of TEC, some of which are Continuing Churches (because they strive to continue on the path their provinces followed before innovations 1970s and later). FACA, which joins FIF-NA (and most of the Christian world) in upholding an all-male priesthood, was represented at GAFCON by bishops, clergy and laity from Hewett’s jurisdiction and three other FACA members: the AMiA, Reformed Episcopal Church, and the Episcopal Missionary Church. Other FACA members include the Anglican Church in America, and the Anglican Province of America.

Hewett said he thought that GAFCON “got it about right with the amount of structure being put into place. We can go slowly on structures now, until we begin to sort out the issues we face. This will help us to steer clear of some of the division” that followed the 1977 St. Louis Congress, the springboard for most of the Continuing Church. While FIF-NA saw parallels between GAFCON and its 1989 Synod, Hewett thought the Jerusalem meeting “resembled St. Louis on a global scale. One senses from both events that from now on, nothing will ever be the same. What makes GAFCON different is the preponderance of Global South leadership and membership, which will drive our faithful Communion for generations to come.”

Still, he saw a commitment to “the consensus of the undivided Church of the first millennium” as vital to overcoming differences among prospective constituents of the new province.

In particular, he said that FACA, and FIF-NA, “will not compromise the ministry as our Lord instituted it and the apostles continued it. We are not, and can never be, in communion with anyone who ordains women. If those who do so continue the practice, we will remain in our federated relationships, entirely independent in our own synods and structures,” Hewett said.

Read it all here.

For more on women's ordination to the priesthood, go here.

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