“Gafcon leaders are unrepresentative”: CEN 11.28.08 p 6. November 29, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, GAFCON.trackback
The hard-line views of the Archbishops of Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Southern Cone, Tanzania, Uganda and West Africa are unrepresentative of the views of many Anglicans in the developing world, Archbishop Fred Hiltz of Canada has claimed.
In a Nov 17 interview the Canadian primate denounced plans for a third province in North America as being un-Anglican, and argued it was a “huge assumption” to claim that the Gafcon primates’ support for a traditionalist province for North America was universally shared by their brethren.
A third province in North America was a non-starter, Archbishop Hiltz said, arguing “the creation of provinces, as I have always understood it, is based on mission. It is based on a commitment to embrace and give flesh to an expression of the gospel in a particular context. There is a geography associated with that context, there is a set of cultural needs, a set of social needs.”
While the ideal of provincial formation expressed by Archbishop Hiltz is shared by a number of Anglican leaders, no rules exist governing the formation of provinces within the Anglican Communion, save that they must be approved by a two-thirds vote by the primates.
His rejection of the third province movement came two days after the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), the breakaway group overseen by the Province of the Southern Cone, held its first synod in Burlington, Ontario. ANiC adopted an interim constitution, endorsed the Jerusalem Declaration of the Gafcon meeting, and asked Archbishop Gregory Venables to appoint up to three suffragan bishops to assist the growing traditionalist movement.
Archbishop Hiltz said ANiC and Archbishop Venables’ actions violated the call for a season of “gracious restraint” suggested by the 2008 Lambeth Conference, and were bent on destabilizing the Anglican Church of Canada. “It has become more and more clear that those associated with GAFCON are not so committed to building bridges and keeping in conversation but rather to separation,” he said.
He also questioned the depth of support the Gafcon primates enjoyed among their own churches. “The experience that I had at Lambeth and that lots of other Canadians had at Lambeth was that the primates speak, but they don’t necessarily represent the views of all the people,” Archbishop Hiltz told the Anglican Journal. “And they don’t in every case represent the views of their bishops.”
Questioned by The Church of England Newspaper on Nov 11, Archbishops Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya and Justice Akrofi of West Africa stated the Gafcon movement had the full backing of their provinces.
