Why did it take you so long?

The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) meeting this past April in Rwanda was really quite an amazing gathering.  Unlike the silence that emanated from the halls of Anglicanism over the gross and obvious heresies of bishops great and small, this meeting actually called out someone.  It is too little too late for most of us.  The errors are nothing new and the winks and shrugs that have allowed what was officially opposed in doctrine to become ordinary practice have now been legitimized, to be sure.  But who ever thought that the Archbishop of Canterbury was agitating for the preservation of orthodox biblical teaching?  

The gathering of bishops whose claim is to represent some 85 percent of Anglicans worldwide or some 75 million Christians, has finally decided to give public voice to what has been private opinion for ages.  They announced that they no longer have confidence in the archbishop of Canterbury to preserve orthodox biblical teaching.  Duh.  Anglicanism has long been captive to the cache of compromise.  A little here and a little there.  To government and culture.  It has left this once noble communion with a compass that no longer points north or, really, in any direction.  So the good ship of Anglicanism has been blown on the sea of change by the wind of whim, preference, and culture.  It has surely proven very adept at saying little or nothing and has mastered the art of wiggle words which allow everyone to hear them through the lens of their own biases.  But as a vehicle to preserve orthodox Christian, creedal, and biblical teaching, well, it has not done so well.

Unfortunately, the other weakness in Anglicanism is symbolism.  The Archbishop of Canterbury remains at least symbolically the leader of global Anglicans and for now that is enough for Rev. Welby and the Church of England and the Episcopalians in the US and Canada.  But it not enough to save Anglicanism.  At some point in time, it will have to be more about who can preserve an authentic biblical Christianity and who confesses it.  Anglicanism is long on tolerating -- even willing to tolerate conservatives so long as they don't rock the boat.  But tolerating orthodox Christianity is not the same as advocating it.  Here is one more example of Richard John Neuhaus old adage at work.  "Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.”