COMMENTARY
By David W. Virtue DD
December 31, 2024
They have healed the wound of my people lightly - Jer. 8:11
Globally, evangelicals in the Anglican communion have taken a huge beating. They have been scorned and derided as lacking diversity and inclusion. Progressives charge them with using Scripture to “gay-bash” while steadfastly refusing to believe that God has changed his mind to “widen His mercy” to include “committed” same-sex relationships which now meet His approval.
God has finally flipped the bird to straight white and black marriages and installed a new sexual sheriff with more inclusive views.
Evangelicals get bad press from the MSM because of their stand, whether it’s a Christian baker who refuses to bake a cake for two queers who want to get married, or African archbishops who believe the Bible, brought to them by Anglican missionaries a century ago, definitively repudiates both homosexuality and polygamy.
Before he fell from grace, Archbishop Justin Welby was well known for phoning African primates when he thought their nations were showing a jaundiced eye to sodomy, only to discover that in many cases their culture had no known word for “homosexuality.” All the while the West was buying African leaders’ acquiescence on the issue.
The Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) leaders note two things in their response to the IASCUFO Nairobi-Cairo proposals. The first was the anachronism of colonial era structures for the Anglican Communion when the vast majority of active members are now found in the Global South; and secondly the broken and impaired relationships of communion which have arisen due to doctrinal differences, especially having to do with biblical anthropology and marriage.
The unspoken aspect to all this (though it was blurted out by the late Bishop of Newark John Shelby Spong at Lambeth ‘98,) is that Africans have a primitive form of religion that is superstitious, defying both science and modern scholarship.
The EFAC leaders noted that while the issue has been in contention for several decades it has heightened since the Bishops and General Synod of the Church of England opened the way for the blessing of same sex relationships in 2023.
All this makes clear that earlier attempts to reform the Instruments by seeking moratoria, repentance, and renewed covenantal affirmations and commitments have not succeeded.
The American Episcopal Church paved the way for this rebellion against the moral order resulting in a split in that church and the formation of the Anglican Church in North America, with some 30 dioceses having their own archbishop, whom Justin Welby steadfastly refused to recognize.
Recognizing the tragic failure in theology and discipline, the EFAC leaders say they welcome the work of GSFA and GAFCON to reset the Communion and create structures which can enable full communion to continue between churches and faithful Anglicans based on Catholic and Apostolic faith and order.
A new twist will only heighten tensions. The Church’s evangelicals are seeking their own archbishops over a “de facto parallel province” to prevent a split over the blessing of same-sex partnerships. That may be the only way to preserve the fig-leaf of community.
The Rev Canon John Dunnett, director of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), an influential conservative group, is among those calling for a “de facto parallel province” to be created within the church, grouping together parishes that oppose last year’s move to allow priests to bless the unions of gay couples.
If it were legally enshrined as an official province, it “would have to have an archbishop” to oversee it, Dunnett said.
This would be in addition to the archbishoprics of Canterbury and York, whose provinces cover southern and northern England.
Divisions over gay rights extend to the highest levels of the church. Twelve dissenting bishops went public last year to declare they were “unable to support the collective decision” made by the House of Bishops to approve blessing gay couples who are married or are in civil partnerships.
The CEEC forms part of a conservative umbrella group called the Alliance, which counts 2,000 priests as supporters.
The Alliance, consisting of 2,000 priests as supporters issued a warning that if there is “further departure from the church’s doctrine” on sex and marriage, they “will have no choice but rapidly to establish what would in effect be a new
de facto ‘parallel province’ within the Church of England”, which would require “oversight from bishops who remain faithful to orthodox teaching on marriage and sexuality”.
As EFAC leaders bishops Stephen Hale and Keith Sinclair noted; “it is vital that in ongoing reflection on our calling as the Church, the state of the Communion, and the report’s proposals to find a new way forward, that we are not found to come
under the Lord’s judgment through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘they have healed the wound of my people lightly’ (8:11).
END
These are the truths that could save our crumbling culture.
11 New Year’s Predictions that Will Endure
(Bible Version)
Collected by Bruce Atkinson
1. The Bible will still have the answers to the most important questions.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:6b,8, 1 Peter 1:24-25)
Jesus: “… My words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35)
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
2. God will still love you.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal…