For a century or two a notion has been fostered by this movement and allowed to develop by much of the remainder of the Anglican church to the point of becoming the reigning theological motif of the leadership of many Anglican churches and of the leadership at the upper levels of the Anglican Communion.

This notion is that Anglicanism's hallmark is freedom and flexibility, applying to theology, liturgy, and ethics. It has allowed the likes of John A.T. Robinson (at least the JATR of 'Honest to God'), Don Cupitt, and John Spong to preach a new gospel. It has allowed the breakdown of almost any sense of 'common prayer'. It has allowed the possibility of revision of the common standard of sexual ethics (for brevity's sake I will describe this common standard as 'marriage or celibacy').

It has lauded the new, the different, the eccentric, and made it uncomfortable in various places to argue for orthodoxy, orthopraxy and for common prayer.

This freedom and flexibility pushed to the nth degree is appropriately labelled 'liberalism' though in truth, compared to the freedom won by the martyrs of the Reformation it is a form of licentiousness!

But the exponents of liberalism - the finest being found in TEC - have over-reached themselves. In doing so they have both unbalanced the church and awoken it from a form of slumber. The church is now alert to the possibility that in its overbalanced state it will come loose from its moorings in Scripture and tradition (including the tradition of its common standard on sexual ethics to which it has returned again and again though tempted often to move permanently away from it). The Anglican church is recognising that if it is to remain a true church of God it must change, and if it does not then it will become a false church, marked in the West, at least, by its virtual indistinguishability from secular humanism. Thus the church is seeking to re-balance itself, centred again on the Word of God.

Recognising that it has operated with little or no rules in the field of theology since it allowed the notion that one might sign adherence to the Thirty Nine Articles but not mean anything by that signature, our church through its Lambeth Conference, Primates' Meeting, and its Archbishop of Canterbury has begun a process of developing a covenant which will limit the potential for our theological freedom - wrought from the Babylonian captivity of the 16th century church - to be abused in the name of Anglicanism.

Thus at work in our midst is an operation of the Spirit that will not be gainsaid by dismissing Akinola as a 'fundamentalist', or wringing our hands and saying 'but, but, but ... our General Synod has not statuted this development', or repeatedly calling for 'more work to be done on hermeneutics'.

What is happening is not the work of extremists, or shadowy figures behind the scenes manipulating puppet bishops (as if!!).

My thesis is that the Anglican church is being reformed by a force greater than any one individual or any one network. A counter-movement to the liberal movement is underway. We are in the midst of a tectonic shift in theology and ethics (at least, liturgy/common prayer is not figuring much at the moment). Despite some appearances to the contrary, and some liberal rhetoric claiming otherwise, this is not a shift to the extreme 'Right', but a correctional movement back to the centre as marked out by 2000 years of reading, understanding, and applying Scripture. It is a sign of how far we have travelled from this centre that the correctional movement can be characterised as some kind of victory for conservative forces.

---Rev Dr Peter Carrell is a theologian from Nelson, New Zealand