By Mallory Mankin, Guest Contributor
A common phrase in the Anglican Church is “via media,” Latin for “middle ground,” and that is exactly what the denomination aims to be — a bridge between Catholicism and other Protestant denominations. Yet, a group of conservative Anglican leaders met at the Global Anglican Future Conference to quit the Anglican Communion and form their own branch of Anglicanism. This group insists that “we have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion.”
The letter announcing the decision was published after decades of disputes over issues of sexuality and less than three weeks after the appointment of Sarah Mullally as the new Archbishop of Canterbury: “Our Gafcon Primates gathered this hour to fulfil our mandate to reform the Anglican Communion.” Many Anglicans are grappling with this letter’s implications.
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) was initially held in Jerusalem in 2008 to address theological and doctrinal disagreements in pursuit of reconciliation.
Following a meeting this October, a GAFCON primates’ letter was published as a summary and response. The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, also referred to as GAFCON, is considered a conservative group within the Anglican Church aligned with the Conference mission and has existed in parishes ever since.
The letter claims that the fellowship was formed “to prayerfully respond to the abandonment of the Scriptures by some of the most senior leaders of the Anglican Communion, and to seek their repentance.” At the end of the letter, the GAFCON Anglicans have “resolved to reorder the Anglican Communion” in eight doctrinal statements.
In recent years, the church has experienced tension among congregations within the denomination, particularly regarding LGBTQ+ acceptance and involvement in the church, as well as the appointment of Sarah Mullally as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. The role entails serving as the senior bishop and primary leader of the Anglican Church.
As the global Anglican Church has wrestled with the conference, letter and decision, so have the students and faculty of Wheaton College.
Adam Wood, professor of philosophy, is a Junior Warden of the Vestry at All Souls Anglican Church. As a Junior Warden, he is considered the “people’s warden,” in which he assists the rector and oversees matters related to the building and grounds. Wood’s parish is part of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), which no longer has ties to the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Episcopal Church. Wood has followed GAFCON closely over the years.
He said he was initially trying to decipher whether the denomination he grew up in would be the one he continued to invest in. Wood ultimately concluded that divisions among provinces would not affect his commitment to Anglicanism. He acknowledged that the 500 years of Anglican Church history have “been a bumpy road, and I think it will continue to be.”
At the same time, he says, “I still think that there’s a lot to love.” Wood affirmed that the Holy Spirit is the one who has led, is leading and will continue to lead the church. Wood has “a lot of faith” that the Holy Spirit is preserving the middle way for the church through GAFCON.
First-year Wheaton College student Leif Olsen attends Christ Our Advocate, which is also denominationally affiliated with the ACNA. Olsen, when asked about the primate letter, remarked that “it seems to me that the beef is more so with Archbishop Sarah’s stance on sexuality and abortion than it is with the fact that she’s a woman.”
Olsen said that the letter would not have much effect on his local parish or personal life. However, the implications of the letter and its ramifications for the global church remain unclear to him. Regardless of the ambiguity, Olsen adheres to “middle way” teachings.
“Division in the church is always worth lamenting,” Olsen said. “Unity within the body of the church is always something we should be pursuing.”
Bram Rawlings, a fourth-year undergraduate student and parishioner at All Souls Anglican Church, believes that Mullally’s appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury was the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” due to her views on homosexuality. She was a key player in the Church’s decision to provide prayers of blessing to same-sex couples. Rawlings saw the Church of England’s actions as “inviting a split like this.”
Rawlings remarked that since the Archbishop of Canterbury is supposed to be the visual representation of unity in the church, Mullally’s appointment suggests “no interest in visible unity with the Anglican Church of the Global South.”
Although Rawlings’ parish is associated with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and not the Archbishop of Canterbury, he cares about the health of the Global Anglican Church. Similar to Olsen, Rawlings’ parting thoughts were to lament division,
“ Schism is a scandal,” he said, “It really is, and to break off from the Church of England is not the kind of choice that should be made lightly by any means.”
