2015 ANGLICAN CHURCH Communiqué

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2015 ANGLICAN CHURCH Communiqué

In their communiqué, the archbishops present: Burundi, Central Africa, Indian Ocean, Southern Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Middle East and South East Asia, endorsed the position of the Global South coalition, which differs from Gafcon only in its appreciation of the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury. After speaking of the misunderstanding that had arisen with those who had not attended, the communiqué backed the Gafcon position on human sexuality, but stated they still wanted to give the Archbishop of Canterbury an opportunity to try to resolve the crisis within the Communion.

The key paragraphs stated: 7- We are deeply concerned about the divisions within our beloved Anglican Communion. These divisions emerged when some Churches in the west allowed the worldly cultures, to reshape the message of church to the society especially in the area of marriage and human sexuality. These issues not only contradict the traditional teaching of the scripture but also impede our witness to the Gospel, which is the reason of our presence in this world. We believe that the church is entrusted with the message of Gospel in order to transform the culture not the other way around. We do accept diversity but not diversity on the expense of the truth. Therefore we call upon these churches to refrain from making unilateral decisions which will further the divisions between the provinces of the Anglican Communion. 8-We, by God’s Grace, continue to uphold the traditional biblical teaching in regard to human sexuality and marriage and affirm Lambeth Resolution 1:10 in its entirety. We believe that this is the only way to safeguard the life of the Christian families and we should resist the pressures of the secular western cultures to alter God’s purpose in creating Man and woman.

John Kissinger [04/06/2015 2:16 PM]
Eric Muckel This is the topic we started a week ago about the Anglican church, but it never became clear if it’s clearly a gay issue Alan N Carla Smith Joel Roman

Eric Muckel [04/06/2015 3:16 PM]
Got it! Here’s my take. I think the issue of same-sex marriage, and the ordination of openly gay bishops is part of it. However, I think the root issue is the western provinces acting on their own and getting out of step with the Anglican Communion as a whole. When they decided do do these things they did so on there own. The other provinces, particularly the global south took issue with this, but did not separate from the communion. It seems that this most recent issue is a continuation. From the letter it appears that a few bishops went to the us and met with the episcopal church USA, and it appears that they were “moving forward in friendship” but not speaking for the bishops of Africa. The bishops of Africa then sent a letter of rebuke. They seem to be concerned that the bishops from Africa who met with the Episcopal Church USA are making this a secondary issue, and they want to make it clear that moving forward with these actions are not agreeable to them. By continuing in this path, changing liturgies and all that it would entail, they are widening the split. Worse yet, since the western provinces acted alone, if the rest of the communion now endorses it, they are in a sense, blessing the decision to act on there own which goes against the whole idea of the communion in the first place. It seems like the African bishops are giving the Archbishop of Canterbury a chance to intervene before they make their not move. But if the communion votes to allow for the marriages and ordinations latter this year, I believe a split is possible. So I would say the issue has both to do with the sexual issues, and procedure, but I think the root issue is that the western provinces decided to move forward how they saw fit, and this fractured the heart of the communion. Disclaimer: I am not part of the Anglican Church, and this is just my take based on reading the different communications. I may be wrong, and I’m open to hearing differing perspectives or corrections 🙂

John Kissinger [04/06/2015 3:26 PM]
Trying to be as sensitive as possible, we should pray for more gay churches to start changing their view on gay issues and come back to God…

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