Archbishop of Canterbury hits out at breakaway Anglicans

[Hetty ter Haar]

> To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/01/anglicanism.religion1
>
> Archbishop of Canterbury hits out at breakaway Anglicans
> Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent, and Peter Walker
> Tuesday July 1 2008
> guardian.co.uk
>
>
> The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday accused rebel Anglicans who have
> launched a breakaway faction within the global communion of lacking
> legitimacy, authority and, by implication, integrity.
>
> Breaking his silence over the threat to the unity of the 77 million-strong
> communion, Dr Rowan Williams warned the leaders of the conservative
> coalition that demolishing existing structures was not the answer to their
> concerns.
>
> The Church of England faces dissent on a second front, with a group of
> clergy and bishops threatening to defect over the issue of women bishops.
>
> More than 1,300 clergy and 11 bishops have written (pdf) to Williams
> saying the prospect of female bishops had left them "thinking very hard
> about the way ahead".
>
> The issue is set to dominate a General Synod meeting beginning on Friday.
>
> "We will inevitably be asking whether we can, in conscience, continue to
> minister as bishops, priests and deacons in the Church of England which
> has been our home," the letter says.
>
> "We do not write this in a spirit of making threats or throwing down
> gauntlets.
>
> "Rather, we believe that the time has come to make our concerns plain, so
> that the possible consequences of a failure to make provision which allows
> us to flourish and to grow are clear."
>
> In a statement last night, Williams responded robustly to the creation, at
> the weekend, of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Foca), a global
> network for millions of Anglicans unhappy with liberal teaching on matters
> such as homosexuality and women priests.
>
> "If they [the teachings] are not working effectively, the challenge is to
> renew them rather than to improvise solutions that may seem to be
> effective for some in the short term but will continue to create more
> problems than they solve," the archbishop said.
>
> The announcement of the new body came at the culmination of the Global
> Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon), a rebel summit in Jerusalem that
> attracted more than 300 bishops.
>
> Williams described Gafcon's proposals as "problematic in all sorts of
> ways", saying he would "urge those who have outlined these to think very
> carefully about the risks entailed".
>
> He focused criticism on the leaders of the new primates council, which is
> tasked with recruiting existing Anglicans into the network.
>
> "A primates council which consists only of a self-selected group from
> among the primates of the [Anglican] communion will not pass the test of
> legitimacy for all," he said.
>
> "And any claim to be free to operate across provincial boundaries is
> fraught with difficulties."
>
> Church sources said there was no information on who wrote the Gafcon
> document, how many primates had signed up to it or whether it was legally
> possible to set up an alternative communion.
>
> "It is ludicrous to say you do not recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury
> or the see of Canterbury - they are the defining characteristics of
> Anglicanism," a Lambeth palace official said.
>
> "By doing away with the role and the place, these people are becoming a
> Protestant sect."
>
> Leading Gafcon figures arrived in London yesterday to woo parishes
> considering opting out of mainstream Anglicanism to join the new network.
>
> The Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, and the Archbishop of Uganda,
> Henry Luke Orombi, will be among those addressing an audience of more than
> 750 clergy and churchwardens on global Anglicanism and English orthodoxy.
>
> The Gafcon team have declared that they are ignoring historic links with
> Canterbury, deeming them to be superfluous, and are severing ties with the
> US church and the Anglican church in Canada.
>
> In a statement on Sunday, they said: "We do not accept that Anglican
> identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop
> of Canterbury."
>
> Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
>
.