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Understanding the CAPA Primates Communique

Understanding the CAPA Primates Communique

By Bishop Bill Atwood
https://americananglican.org/
March 31, 2015

Recently, the Primates of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa met in Cape Town. At first glance, the Communique may not seem to be much more than "another 'nice' communication," but it is, in fact, very significant. First of all, here is the text of the Communique:
The Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA)

Primates Meeting Communique

9th &10th of March, Claremont, South Africa

1- By God's Grace we the Primates of CAPA representing the Provinces of Burundi, Central Africa, Indian Ocean, Southern Africa, Sudan, Tanzania and the Diocese of Egypt, met on the 9th & 10th of March at Bishopscourt, Claremont, South Africa.

2- We very much appreciated the abundant hospitality provided by the Most Rev. Dr. Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Southern Africa, Mrs Makgoba and the entire Church of Southern Africa. We were touched by the warm welcome we received from the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, H.E. Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and the Premier of the Western Cape, Ms Hellen Zille. We are also grateful to the Staff of Hope Africa, the Staff of the St George Cathedral and the congregations of St Oswalds Church Milnerton and Church of the Resurrection Bontehewel. We were particularly touched that the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu found time to be with us. We had a great opportunity to deepen our fellowship with our brothers and sisters from the Province of Southern Africa. Our time was also enriched by the presence Archbishop Bolly Lapok of South East Asia.

3- We thank God for the time we spent in prayers, fellowship and sharing of our thoughts, joys and challenges. We sought the guidance of the Holy Spirit in every issue we discussed. We also appreciated the gracious spirit of the Chairman of CAPA The Most Rev. Bernard Ntahoturi.

4- We were sad to miss a number of our brother Primates who did not join the meeting either due to visa problems or because of misunderstandings especially in regard to the different ways of governance of our provinces. We, therefore, are convinced that direct communication is important to avoid such misunderstandings and we commit our selves to this in the future. It is important to be "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:3

5- We received with thanks the report of CAPA Standing Committee And we gave thanks to God for what has been done during last year especially the theological consultation which made a number of strategic recommendations.

6- We discussed our priorities in view of the challenges the church faces in our continent. These are : Evanglism, Discipleship, Mission, Theological Education, safeguarding the family institution, Economic Empowerment, Peace Building and Interfaith relations. Four different commissions are going to be formed in order to work out our priorities.

7- We are deeply concerned about the divisions within our beloved Anglican Communion. These divisions emerged when some Churches in the west allowed the worldly cultures, to reshape the message of church to the society especially in the area of marriage and human sexuality. These issues not only contradict the traditional teaching of the scripture but also impede our witness to the Gospel which is the reason of our presence in this world. We believe that the church is entrusted with the message of Gospel in order to transform the culture not the other way around. We do accept diversity but not diversity on the expense of the truth. Therefore we call upon these churches to refrain from making unilateral decisions which will further the divisions between the provinces of the Anglican Communion.

8- We, by God's Grace, continue to uphold the traditional biblical teaching in regard to human sexuality and marriage and affirm Lambeth Resolution 1:10 in its entirety. We believe that this is the only way to safeguard the life of the Christian families and we should resist the pressures of the secular western cultures to alter God's purpose in creating Man and woman.

9- We extend our support for the Archbishop of Canterbury in His efforts to bring restoration to our Communion. We affirm the necessity of the Primates meeting, however we emphasize the importance of following through the recommendations of the previous Primates meetings.

10- We pray so that God may keep us faithful to Him and His Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. We also pray for the unity of His church in this broken world.

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

What this Communique means...

First of all, it is interesting to note who was not there. Usually, CAPA meetings would include the "big three," Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya. That the Communique came out so clearly in support of a Biblical view of sexuality is a good thing. For it to be articulated with a number of the strongest voices absent is an even better thing. What this means is that the theological tone across Africa is not what The Episcopal Church (TEC) and some other Western liberal provinces would like to spin. Absent spin-masters from TEC and Canada, you can readily see that African spirituality is both Biblical and family oriented. I can't even imagine anything like this document emerging from TEC, the Anglican Church of Canada or their surrogates (places like Brazil or the Philippines).

This is not to say that there are no problems in Southern Africa. Some of the leaders there are a liberal as anything you will find in the West, but it is still significant that the Archbishop of Southern Africa signed on to this for several reasons.

One "miss" in the letter is paragraph 4. That was written to try to minimize the damage that was done to relationships by some of the Primates signing an agreement of "Friendship" with The Episcopal Church. Understandably a significant number of the Archbishops were very distressed by that. They saw the "Friendship" document for what it is, namely, a mechanism to further export their same-sex agenda.

A miss...

In African diplomatic speak, paragraph 4 tries to explain away some of the tensions that were created by the TEC conference and the Communique on Friendship. Euphemistically, they tried to minimize conflicts by saying, "We were sad to miss a number of our brother Primates who did not join the meeting either due to visa problems or because of misunderstandings especially in regard to the different ways of governance of our provinces." I know at least one Archbishop that was not there because he was on a sabbatical. Of some of the others who had been most upset about the "Friendship Initiative" promoting TEC and its agenda, their absence was not because they "misunderstand governance" of other Provinces. My suspicion is that that was an attempt for the Archbishop of Burundi to deflect criticism that came from the GAFCON Primates who wrote to him. I'm sure that he would say that he was not functioning as the Chairman of CAPA when he signed the TEC document. Nor would he say that he was signing that document for the Province of Burundi, but rather as an individual. The problem with that reasoning is that everyone knows he is the Chairman of CAPA. The other Bishops in Burundi also know where they stand on the issues that TEC promotes. The clarity of the bishops of Burundi was sufficient for an invitation to Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori to be cancelled. She was dis-invited from a plan to visit their province to preach, and celebrate.

The issue was not misunderstanding of governance. The issue was that the GAFCON Primates were not willing to accept an initiative to bring TEC's agenda through a conference supposedly on friendship.

What was strong...

Paragraph 7 is particularly significant. There are a whole series of things that nuke the liberal agenda. First, they rightly said that the divisions in the Communion emerged when "some Churches in the west allowed the worldly cultures to reshape the message of church to the society especially in the area of marriage and human sexuality." That is a massive departure from the normal way that institutional voices in the Communion speak. They recognized that Churches in the west reshaped the message of the Church by adopting the priorities of the world. Second, they point out that these new teachings not only contradict Scripture, they also impede the Church's witness to the Gospel. They rightly nailed the situation pointing out that the origins of Western liberalism are outside Scripture. They also point out that they are damaging. Third, they point out that unilateralism is a destructive pattern. Lastly, they warn that any new unilateral actions will result in "further division." That is a sobering warning to the Church of England that sits on the brink of blessing same-sex unions. Their unilateral action to go that direction will result in further division. It will also result in dozens of signs with an arrow pointing to Canterbury saying, "only xyz miles to Canterbury" being torn down only to be used for firewood.

Paragraph 8's explicit re-affirmation of Lambeth Resolution 1.10 is particularly powerful in that it is set in the midst of the greater authority of Scripture. That paragraph must have been received in New York with about the same joy that the Wicked Witch of the West received the bucket of water from Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. One can almost hear cries of "I'm meeellllting!" coming out of the TEC headquarters at 815 Second avenue in New York.

Couched in an affirmation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby's efforts to gather people, there is another devastating commitment of these Primates to press for the decisions made by Primates previously (especially at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) to be implemented. If you remember, it was the failure to implement the hard fought decisions from the Primates Meeting that has caused so many Primates to stay away from meetings. It is wonderful to see such starch from the Archbishops, especially when some of the strongest GAFCON leaders were not there. It is proof positive that the attempts to take over Africa have not worked.

A great serendipity is the delightful situation that all the effort to impose the liberal agenda through the utterly corrupt vehicle of "Indaba" has failed. Goodness knows how many thousands of hours have been invested and untold fortunes of money have been spent to gather people in manipulated meetings where only the joys of "diversity" are presented, hoping to undermine orthodoxy. At the very least, the system has been completely designed to integrate the liberal agenda into every aspect of Communion life. Not once has there ever been a meeting on "level ground" for a fair examination of the same-sex agenda from a Scriptural point of view. Everything has always been anecdotal stories of winsome people in same-sex relationships with never a concern for either the spiritual impact of the practices or the impact on mortality from same sex intimacy. Even with all of the years, money, and manpower (oops, "people-power") that has been wasted pushing Indaba, here we see writ large from Cape Town, Biblical faith still stands in Africa. Of course it doesn't mean that there are no challenges. There are plenty of them. But it is also a good time to rejoice when good decisions are made, and a structure (i.e., CAPA) is pulled back from the brink of self-destruction.

END

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