A Divided Christ?

 Welby not longer recognized as Anglican Communion leader by Global South

Faith on View 

The Global South Fellowship of Anglicans has refused to recognize Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the global leader and has overturned the traditional Instruments of Communion through a seven-point plan. GSFA leaders have appealed to the Provinces to take into account the deviation of the Church of England from the faith based on the Apostles and that it has severed ties with the faithful provinces and thus has lost the qualification of being the leader of the Communion. In accepting this, Justin Welby is no longer recognized as being “first among equals” and thus it results in the overturning of the first Instrument of Communion.

                           

Christian Today reports

Change is afoot in the Anglican Communion after the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans today published a seven-point plan, overturning the traditional Instruments of Communion and ousting the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, from any position of global leadership.

The leaders of the GSFA have called Provinces to acknowledge that the Church of England has “departed from the historic faith passed down from the Apostles,” “broken communion with those province that remain faithful” and “disqualified herself from leading the Communion.”

If this is accepted, it follows that they will no longer recognise the present Archbishop of Canterbury as ‘first among equals’. And so, the first Instrument of Communion topples.

In, “forfeiting [his] leadership role of the global Communion,” the Archbishop of Canterbury no longer has the authority to call either the Primates Meetings or a future Lambeth Conference.

Instead, they intend to collaborate with other faithful Anglicans to “work out the shape and nature of [their] common life together.” Bang go the next two Instruments of Communion.

That leaves the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) as the last Instrument standing – but this is also dismissed, with the leadership of the GSFA stating firmly that they can no longer “walk together” in the way that last week’s ACC-18 meeting in Ghana proposed.

The GSFA are not interested in another decade-long talking-shop with revisionist provinces.

Having removed the Instruments of Communion from power they recognise “the responsibility falls to the remaining orthodox Primates,” to take the lead.

         Read the full article here