Anglican Communion II... I don't know why we bother. (Corrected)

The GAFCON/ FCA Primates Council have just met in Bermuda and have published a communique. It can be read HERE. The Primates Council is now billed as "The Primates Council of GAFCON / FCA." But it is the same self appointed righteous remnant of the past, claiming to be Global South Anglicans but not including Brazil, IARCA and Mexico. I have been corrected in not calling the GAFCON / FCA Primates Council the Global South Primates Steering Committee. Indeed, the GAFCON /FCA Primates Council is a larger group, with two of its members -Akinola and Kolini - also part of the Global South Steering Committee. However, just for the record, I believe the two are intimately related.

Here is the list of those Primates who attended.


The Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
The Most Rev’d Justice Akrofi, Archbishop, Anglican Province of West Africa
The Most Rev’d Robert Duncan, Archbishop, Anglican Church in North America
The Most Rev’d Emmanuel Kolini, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Rwanda
The Most Rev’d Valentino Mokiwa, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Tanzania
The Most Rev’d Gregory Venables, Presiding Bishop, Province of the Southern Cone
The Most Rev’d Eliud Wabukala, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Kenya
The Most Rev’d Nicholas Okoh, Archbishop, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
The Most Rev’d Henry L. Orombi, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Uganda, represented by Bishop Nathan Kyamanywa
The Most Rev’d Peter Jensen, Archbishop, Diocese of Sydney

There are two notable quirks in this list: (i) Henry Orombi did not attend, some one else attended for him. This is of note because Archbishop Orombi is often absent from various Primates gatherings. (ii) The Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), Robert Duncan, is listed as present with no qualifying remarks at all.

This second quirk is telling. Duncan is included in the list as a Primate. Period. And indeed he is. ACNA of course is not one bit "Global South," but it is only and precisely there that ACNA and its Archbishop is recognized as the Anglican presence in North America. So Duncan's presence tells us something rather useful - as far as GAFCON / FCA is concerned, it is ACNA that is the Province in North America and the Global South GAFCON / FCA Primates have indeed begun a new world wide Church endeavor.

The upcoming Global South Encounter will no doubt keep up the pretense of being part of the Anglican Communion as we know it. But it in reality will be making a clear break, and establishing a different sort of Anglican Communion, let's call it ACII, with a Primates Meeting with teeth, a leader elected from among those Primates (not automatically the ABC), with a very different style of operation, and a total excommunication of TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada. Contrary to the GSE4 statement supporting the Covenant, the Covenant as it stands will not make the cut. There will be proposed revisions and contention about its value. I believe that GSE4 will not finally be of one mind on the Covenant.

The cooperation with the Anglican Communion as it is currently constructed is coming to a close. That's the way I see it. I don't know why we bother thinking that these Primates and their churches are part of the Anglican Communion at all. We all knew that "the Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church" would lead to division precisely because of the various needs of peoples and nations. So it is.