“Gentlemen,” he said holding a pigskin, “This is a football.” (Vince Lombardi’s opening comments to the 1959 Green Bay Packers as they returned for Spring Training following their loss in the last seconds of the Championship. They won next year, 1960, 37-0.)
A “fundamental” is something that is a foundation, without which an entire system or complex whole would collapse (see Merriam Webster Dictionary). The Fundamental Declarations and the Covenantal Structures of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA Cairo Covenant) are exactly such a foundation for Global Anglicans to come together as a genuine Communion of Anglican Churches based on a common faith, shared mission in disciple-making, and a shared discipline against unbiblical teaching. It has been the privilege of a lifetime to help carry this Covenant over the finish line and to ratification at the GSFA Inaugural Global Assembly in Egypt this past June. The “football” now lies in the hands of the GSFA Primates and, God willing, their partnership with the GAFCON Primates. Thank you one and all for supporting the American Anglican Council in this great work!
Now it is time to turn our eyes home to the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). On the eve of our Provincial Council and Assembly 2024 and the election of a new Archbishop, Warren Cole Smith published an analysis of the state of the ACNA, “Why the Anglican Church Faces Existential Challenges,” (June 21, Religion Unplugged) For those of you not familiar with him, Warren Cole Smith is a writer, editor, and publisher of the Evangelical Press News Service. He wrote more than a thousand articles for a wide range of print and online publications, including WORLD Magazine, The Dallas Morning News, and BeliefNet.org. He is also President of Ministry Watch, which advocates for the renewed credibility of Christian Ministries and before that was the VP-Mission Advancement for the Colson Center. He is also an ACNA Anglican!
In his article, Smith points to four “Existential Challenges” threatening our unity and mission, two fundamentals of our province:
1. Women’s Ordination: Currently the ACNA observes “local option.” Our constitution allows dioceses to decide whether or not they will ordain women to Holy Orders. There is profound disagreement on the status quo. “A growing number of conservative clergy want to resolve the question definitively. They recently issued a statement that ‘the unresolved issue of women’s ordination to the priesthood imperils the mission of our Province.’” With such profound biblical, theological, and ecclesiological difference on this issue, how can we hold together?
2. Church Discipline and Canon Law: Over the past few years, the ACNA was under scrutiny for the manner in which it handled cases of misconduct and abuse at the highest levels of the Church. “The process has been tentative and clunky at almost every level,” writes Smith, and the silence of the canons on some matters “created dozens of ad hoc approaches.” Smith wrote this before the helpful amendments that were passed at Provincial Council and Assembly clarifying the minimum requirements of dioceses in responding to accusations and caring pastorally for all in the process. I will have more to say about this next week.
3. Theological Education: As a denomination, the ACNA lacks a coherent, overarching clergy education strategy. Many of our clergy, perhaps a growing majority of newer candidates, come from traditions other than Anglican. “A lot of Anglicans are not…well…truly formed in the Anglican faith. They have retained the spiritual formation of the tradition from which they came—everything from Calvary Chapel and Vineyard to high church Episcopalians and Catholics.” How can the Province address this need for more standardized formation in Anglicanism?
4. Luminous Church: Smith refers here to an ACNA church in Franklin, TN that is part of the “Church for the Sake of Others” (C4SO) diocese. The problem is that one of its clergy publicly affirmed an LGBTQ pride event in Franklin. Not only that but the church’s website “played fast and loose” with some essentials of Anglican theology and practice, such as baptism. “One might argue that Luminous Church is an anomaly, a ‘one-off’,” writes Smith, “except that it’s not.” He then goes on to note two other C4SO congregations that recently and publicly disaffiliated with the ACNA and joined The Episcopal Church. How could this happen in the ACNA, when such issues were among the precipitating events that led to its formation? This signals “a serious deficiency in polity, structure and accountability.” Smith also notes that all three churches come from the same diocese, C4SO. What does this say about the polity, structure, theological formation, and accountability within C4SO? How can the Province address these issues?
Smith concludes with what he wrote elsewhere: that Anglicanism has the potential to “breathe new life” into the evangelical churches and movements in North America…But ACNA faces an existential crisis,” he writes, “and before Anglicanism can save evangelicalism, it must first save itself.” You can read the whole article here.
In addition to unity and mission, a key “fundamental” of our faith is leadership. Because God himself cares deeply about the leadership of his people, we often quote God’s praise for David: “And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.” (Psalm 78:72)
We quote this often in our Daniel Leadership Institute, because this verse illustrates God’s priority in raising up leaders, that he values the heart of the leader before the skills of the leader. Under Archbishop Foley Beach, the ACNA and GAFCON experienced a leader whose heart was always calling us higher– “Forward, always forward!” in Christ Jesus and for the sake of proclaiming Him faithfully to all nations. As Smith well notes, under Archbishop Beach’s leadership the ACNA was one of the success stories in recent American church history. While most denominations declined over the last 15 years, the ACNA grew to more than 1,000 congregations and a membership of 120,000, experiencing a rebound in church growth and membership even from the Covid years.
We now have a new Archbishop, the Most Rev. Stephen D. Wood. May I encourage you to get to know him (if you have not already) by viewing the conversation at Provincial Assembly with Archbishop Steve and his wife Jacqueline here and his sermon at the closing Eucharist before the transfer of authority here. He not only talks about his vision as a leader of the province but the personal struggles he and his family endured on the journey of leadership. From early growth in ministry, to the fire that burned down his beloved church, to his near-death bout with COVID, Archbishop Wood witnessed the truth behind Isaiah’s prophecy: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Isaiah 43:6 NIV)
The Most Rev. Steve Wood certainly has the leadership skills and “hands” (Ps. 78:72) we all need for our Province to continue to grow in evangelism, discipleship, mission, and unity. He was in ordained leadership as a deacon, priest, and bishop since 1991. In the conversation, he humbly acknowledged building on the foundations of other great leaders, including Archbishop Beach, but what he did not mention is that he has helped lead a new church plant. He was Chief of Staff at St Luke’s in Akron Ohio, one of the leaders of the Charismatic renewal that helped shape the beginnings of the ACNA. He also grew his current congregation, St Andrews, Mt Pleasant, SC into a “church planting” congregation of over 3,200. This was described by the Charleston Post & Courier as “one of the Lowcountry’s biggest church success stories.”
This is also true of his skills as a diocesan bishop. I was privileged to work with the Archbishop in the formation of the Diocese of the Carolinas canonical structures. I know firsthand the skill and effort he brought to the table fifteen years ago, when there were only three or four churches that even had places to worship. Since then the diocese grew from four to 44 congregations—most of them church plants, a stunning testimony to the Carolinas commitment to church planting. He is also my bishop, and he and all of the bishops of the Carolinas, the Kardia Church Planting commission, and the diocese were a great blessing to our new church plant on St Simons Island, GA.
Good leaders have the ability to articulate and paint a clear vision and its priorities. Archbishop Wood is no exception. In his sermon he stated that vision plainly: “We will rehearse the fundamentals of the faith again and again.” Ad Fontes. Back to the basics. As a bishop-theologian, he drew upon the Rev. Dr. Ashley Null’s writings and lectures on Cranmer’s Comfortable Words: “Come unto me all ye that travail and are heavy laden and I will refresh you.” (Matthew 11:28) Our Anderson-Trane Fellows were also privileged to hear these same teachings in person with Dr. Null in Wittenberg Germany recently on the fundamental emphasis of Reformational Anglicanism on God’s love rather than his wrath as the beginning of the Gospel! God reveals himself first in those comforting words as the one who meets us at the longing of our hearts, to be relieved of our “travail,” and not just with propositional truth. “The consequences of the Gospel are inexhaustible,” says Archbishop Wood, “and they enable us to see others as people of infinite dignity and value.” Could the four Comfortable Words of Thomas Cranmer’s liturgy be the replacement of the “Four Spiritual Laws” of evangelism? Could they be our unique Anglican contribution to the rescue of American evangelicalism that Warren Cole Smith and others long for?
Our new archbishop, who has literally passed through fire and flood, has been proven faithful as an illustration of the courageous and resilient leadership our province needs, in addition to the unity and mission required for the sake of the Gospel. With this kind of focus among our leaders and our church communities, and faith in God’s loving care, we will withstand all the challenges before us and preserve the faith once delivered for generations to come.
