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Anderson Trane Fellow, the Rev. Ife Ojetayo, reflects on the signifcance of genuine communion and the difference between laying a foundation of faith versus a foundation of politics. This piece is especially poignant at a time when the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) just concluded its First Assembly in Cairo, Egypt, and only time will tell whether its leaders will continue their walk towards true conciliarity and communion. The ACNA is also at a crucial point in its history, the election of a new archbiship and another Provincial Assembly, where true communion and conciliarity will be of utmost importance. We are grateful to Rev. Ife for his contribution.
In the midst of disagreements and controversies, the Anglican church’s unity has been a major concern for many. Some may say the concern is more grave today than at any time, and yet the question is an ever-present one for each successive generation of Anglicans. What is the basis of our unity? Perhaps the answer to that question in the past has not served the church and, more importantly, the cause of Christ well.
On the 30th of January, 2000, Archbishop Moses Tay and Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, to give him the rationale for ordaining two missionary bishops for the churches in America. Their aim was “to provide pastoral assistance and nurture to faithful individuals and congregations”.
Yet Carey called the consecration of Bishops Murphy and Rodgers “irresponsible and irregular,” which can “only harm the unity of the Communion”. Abps. Tay and Kolini maintained that the preservation of the Anglican Communion led them toward the path they took. This unconventional but courageous action was repeated as bishops from the Global South continued consecrating bishops in North America and providing episcopal oversight to parishes that left The Episcopal Church (TEC). This providentially led to GAFCON and then to the establishment of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) as a province.
The question is, who is right between the archbishops? What is the basis upon which we must build genuine communion in the Anglican Church? Abps. Tay and Kolini sought to answer this question in their letter to George Carey:
“Any strategy that seeks to ground the unity of the Anglican Communion with its foundation in political accommodation rather than in the essentials of the Christian Faith is doomed. Only an unapologetic and firm insistence in the Faith entrusted to us will keep us together”(emphasis added)[1].
This answer has its roots in our Anglican Formularies, which emphasize the deposit of faith along Protestant lines. The faith we confess is the apostolic Word preserved in the Holy Scriptures and passed down through the ages by successive generations of faithful saints in Christ’s church. Article XIX says:
“The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.
“As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.”
The mark of a faithful congregation or parish is the same as a faithful diocese and province. Our mutual faithfulness to the Word of God, as it pertains to matters of Faith or salvation, is the grounds of our unity. What unites a parish in Syracuse, NY to another parish elsewhere in North America or further afield in the Anglican Communion is not merely our Anglican polity under the leadership of bishops. The center will not hold if we are a mere confederacy of churches held together by “political accommodation”.
Our starting point must be a common affirmation in the Gospel, that it is the “good news of salvation, liberation, and transformation” as beautifully expressed in the Jerusalem Declaration. Salvation by faith through grace is the repository from which we build and advance the work of the Church.
This is the truth that must be maintained and defended first and foremost as we seek to reset the Anglican Communion. If the Gospel of Jesus is our most treasured possession for the salvation of a lost world, then the message of salvation cannot be compromised. The tendency to settle for false unity under the guise of political accommodations is an ever-present temptation that we must remain vigilant against.
I pray for our bishops, that they will guard and defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ above all else and that the clergy and laity under their shepherding will follow their godly example.
[1] Letter from Archbishops Moses Tay (S.E. Asia) and Emmanuel Kolini (Rwanda) to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Rev. Ife Ojetayo is a member of the American Anglican Council’s Anderson Trane Fellows. He currently serves as the rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Syracuse. NY, a parish in the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word (ADLW). A graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, he was ordained to the priesthood in 2021. He is married to his beloved Lisa and they are parents to four boys.
