The Days of Unity are Numbered

Dear Diary,

I read an article which I chanced upon online with shock. Just last night, the Anglican church (the world’s third largest Christian denomination) faces what would effectively be a schism. In a summit “Global Anglican Future conference” in Jerusalem last night, 300 Anglican bishops congregated without the Archbishop of Canterbury and declared the “Jerusalem declaration” whereby a new primate council will be established and named “Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans”. This grouping of conservative evangelical Anglicans will have their own bishops, clergy and theological colleges. The new primate council will no doubt challenge the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury although their official plan is to form a “church within a church”. It is effectively a schism, just without the formalities as they may be concerned with protracted legal disputes over churches and other properties. Apparently, from what I read is that the evangelical Anglicans were incensed that the Archbishop of Canterbury did not discipline the Episcopal church in America and the Anglican church in Canada for their ordination of homosexual clergy. That was further aggravated when there were news that the civil partnership of two gay priests had been blessed in a London church with a traditional wedding liturgy.

I mean… sigh… the Anglican church is embroiled in controversy a couple of times including the ordination of female clergy, the recommendation of acceptance of two major Marian doctrines (the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception) by the ARCIC team and being the first Christian denomination in history to allow contraception… the list goes on… However, this homosexual controversy is probably the worst ever in my opinion and now we may be watching a unfolding of a dramatic schism which probably will be most major since the Reformation when the Catholic Church was rocked by that historical disaster. I pray that we do not lose faith in Christ Jesus because that is ultimately the Truth that we should all hold dear in our hearts.

In my own assessment of the situation, the Anglican church in Singapore under the Archdiocese of South East Asia will probably be coming under the leadership of this new primate council and break communion with the traditional seat of Canterbury. This will probably end any lingering attempts by the Anglican church in subscribing to the Branch theory which was thought out by Cardinal John Newman during the period of the Oxford movement in the early 1800s where the Anglican church sought to link its apostolicity back to the disciples of Christ. Ironically, while Cardinal Newman tried to establish that link which would put authenticity and validity to the Anglican orders, he was converted to Roman Catholicism. Via Media probably wasn’t convincing to him.

Since the Jubilee Year 2000 when Pope John Paul II invited then-archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey and an Orthodox archbishop to open the Holy Door of the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls as a sign of unity, the Anglican communion’s relations with the Holy See was fraught with difficulties due to controversial issues within the Anglican church. Anyway, I would think that evangelical Anglicans will take this opportunity to distance themselves from Anglo-catholic tendencies within the Anglican communion. In simple terms, the splitting of the “Low church” from the “High church”.

Yesterday’s decision at the Jerusalem meeting reminds me of how they may have tried to imitate what was written in the Book of Acts where the apostles including Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem for the council which some said to be the first ever ecumenical council where some issues were ironed out… eg. Gentiles not required to be circumcised physically to be Christians. Then the council proclaimed what was an apostolic, authoritative discernment of what the Holy Spirit was saying to the church as seen in Acts 15:28 where it goes “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and ours too…” The whole thing is what is authority? And who holds the authority in interpreting in the absence of the resurrected Christ Jesus Our Lord and Saviour who is now sitting on the right hand of God the Father in heaven? The Church? Yup… in Matthew 16:18, the Church will be built on the rock (“Cephas” in Aramaic) and she will hold authority which even the gates of Hades will never prevail against. Maybe that is the authority which will ensure that Truth will be disseminated unblemished over the ages… Which church does this refer to since there are so many thousands of denominations in existence on planet Earth today? I find it hard to ignore this but in John 1:42, we realise that Jesus renamed Simon as “Cephas” (which is basically “Peter” as Matthew 16:18 puts it). Yes, this Petrine church sits in the Vatican City today.

This is entirely my own opinion with some apologetic stuff I can recall from my cerebrum and a bible sitting just beside this laptop. Verbal diarrhoea maybe… I really hope God will show us more clearly but somehow I feel that if we are hungry to know the Truth, we will eventually know it. Unless of course, you believe in the hyper-Calvinistic view of predestination which means if you are not chosen, you probably will never find the Truth no matter how you try to. This is yet another giant topic of controversy. Man has a problem with obedience all this while and the numerous denominations in existence testify to the lack of faith in accepting apostolic truths. There is always that human tendency to judge interpretations and choose as we deem fit.

Homosexuality is wrong, no doubt about that… I am just wondering how an entire senior Church hierarchy cannot see that when it is just so clear from the Word of God. Now one wrong is about to be corrected with another wrong. May God bless the Anglican Church. I am sorry to say that I am an Anglican Christian. These are difficult times.

God Bless,

Andrew