The story about the Archbishop of Nigeria's purported remarks about suspending the Church of England from the ACC has raised a wide range of distressed and sometimes distressing comments.
My sense is that all the talk about the 'inevitable' split in the Anglican Communion, its falling apart or destruction, etc, and particularly about whether this is a good thing or bad, is precisely as AnglicansOnLine suggests, an extended game of RISK.
Behind the various scenarios being played out, however, are several things that seem to me to reduce the fear for an Anglican Communion future"
About defining the Anglican Communion:
The Anglican Communion is pretty much as described in the Preamble to the Constitution of the Episcopal Church:
",,,a Fellowship within the One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces, and
regional Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, upholding
and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of
Common Prayer."
Which means, as I read it, that while we may (and indeed do) debate the extent to which the Episcopal Church or other Provinces have been truly "upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer," the issue of being in communion with the See of Canterbury is for the Archbishop of Canterbury to decide. Provinces can decide NOT to be part of the Communion, but only the ABC determines that we are part of it.
So the Anglican Communion is a fellowship whose membership is determined by the Archbishop of Canterbury / Church of England, and by no other person or body. Depending on how you parse the sentence quoted from the Constitution, the reference to "upholding and propagating" is either a further description of the Episcopal Church as part of the Anglican Communion - which we contend upholds etc - or it is a description of the fellowship we call the Anglican Communion. In either read that charge to uphold and propagate is always being tested by a cloud of witnesses.
Concerning Suspending the Church of England from the ACC.
The Archbishop of Nigeria can indeed quite properly propose that the Church of England be suspended from the ACC. Give the ACC's own recent history in which it saw fit to suspend involvement of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church I see no reason why the Archbishop's reported proposal should not be considered. Suppose it were considered and passed, what then? The Church of England's official representatives would then be asked to leave or stand on the side lines. The Archbishop of Canterbury has a peculiar role as both head of communion and head of church. He (as ABC) is president of the ACC. He is NOT a representative of the Church of England. He is president of the ACC, period.
Now if the current ACC proposal to amend the constitution of the ACC were to pass all Primates would be members of the ACC. I think this is a very bad idea, not the least of which is that were it enacted the ABC would be precisely a delegate from the Church of England and it could indeed be argued that he could be suspended from participation.
The Archbishop of Nigeria's reported remarks about proceeding:
The report suggests that the Archbishop of Nigeria intends to take the matter to a meeting of the "Global South" Primates and later to the Primates meeting. The growing use of the Primates meeting as a springboard for action by the ACC is a political attempt to divorce the matter of being part of the Anglican Communion from being "in communion with the See of Canterbury." Instead, being part of the Anglican Communion will consist of bodies represented at the ACC. If things are allowed to drift in this direction without care, thought and challenge, we could discover that the Constitution of the ACC had become the Constitution of the Anglican Communion. In that case the definition of the Anglican Communion in our Constitution would no longer hold.
That would have to be re-written as follows:
"...the Anglican Communion, an Organization within the One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces, and
regional Churches who are members in good standing of the Anglican
Consultative Council, upholding and propagating the historic Faith and
Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer."
But of course by then another bad idea of the past would have been raise up again, that the Anglican Consultative Council's name be changed to become The Anglican Communion Council. Anyone interested?
Back to Basics:
We need not fear for the future of the Anglican Communion, if only we keep clear about the ecclesiastical politics of the moment.
As it stands, the Anglican Communion consists of churches in communion with the See of Canterbury. That's it. Leave it that way and let the Archbishop of Canterbury decide who he invites to table with him. I think we need to stand with that and live with the consequences. Who knows who will be invited to dinner and who will accept?
Any Province not invited by the ABC is not part of the Communion. Any Province that refused to attend because they are estranged from the Church of England or the ABC is at least temporally not part of the Communion.
Provinces are of course free to leave the Anglican Communion and restructure their fellowship with other churches in any way they wish. But the Anglican Communion remains that fellowship defined by communion with the See of Canterbury. Any effort to take the name elsewhere should be resisted.
The Episcopal Church could find itself outside the Anglican Communion if the Archbishop of Canterbury / C of E were to determine that it no longer was in communion with us, just as we could with them. I think that would a terrible loss, one to be avoided if at all possible. The very real possibility of some other Provinces breaking with Canterbury is in the making. That too would be a terrible loss. But that would be their decision, and if they were to leave we would want to relate to them with all the respect due our ecumenical partners, and we would pray for future unity.
Those who want the Anglican Communion to continue need to work hard to keep it a fellowship. To let it be taken over by the Primates, by way of the Anglican Consultative Council is unnecessary and foolish.
There is an Anglican Communion future if we want it and, if we are mindful of the times we may be part of it.
