Anglicans form 'new church' in gay clergy row
Pastor Dale Morgan
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From The Sunday Times
June 29, 2008
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Anglicans form 'new church' in gay clergy row*
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
The Anglican Church faces what is in effect a schism this weekend after
the declaration last night of conservative evangelicals to create a
“church within a church”. The new body, called the Fellowship of
Confessing Anglicans, will have its own bishops, clergy and theological
colleges.
Details of the fellowship were announced in Jerusalem last night at a
summit of conservative Anglicans, the Global Anglican Future Conference.
It follows a protracted battle within the church over gay clergy. Many
evangelicals were outraged when it was revealed this month that the
civil partnership of two gay priests had been blessed in a London church
with a traditional wedding liturgy.
The 300 bishops and archbishops in Jerusalem insist they do not want to
split from the 80m-strong Anglican communion. This is partly a
recognition that a formal schism would involve protracted legal disputes
about ownership of churches and other properties.
However, they last night declared their plans for a new “primates
council” made up of the senior bishops and archbishops at the Jerusalem
meeting. The new fellowship also represents a direct challenge to the
authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In a statement last night they challenged the role of the archbishop as
primus inter pares of the bishops of the Anglican communion. “While
acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not
accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through
recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury,” it said.
The new fellowship will return to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and the
39 articles of religion, train its own priests and insist on more
orthodox practices in its churches. Although the instigators claim they
are focused on reform from within it is said to represent the worst blow
to church unity in the West since the Protestant reformation of the 16th
century.
Central to the announcement was a “Jerusalem declaration”, which will
form the basis of the new fellowship. In the declaration the archbishops
and bishops said: “We reject the authority of those churches and leaders
who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed.” It accused the
leaders of the Episcopal Church of the United States and the Anglican
Church of Canada of proclaiming a “false gospel”. The fellowship’s first
task will be to create a new Anglican body in North America.
Jerusalem was chosen as the location to announce the fellowship because
of its precedence over Canterbury in the Christian hierarchy. A
fellowship will be seen as a partial victory for Dr Michael Nazir-Ali,
the Bishop of Rochester, who was not at last night’s meeting but who
argued for reform from within. Unity, he said, was “a very precious thing”.