GAFCON has spoken. Their concluding communique is available here. The Archbishop of Canterbury has responded. So, too has the Presiding Bishop. One should probably see this as another volley in a long-term struggle over Anglicanism. From the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement, it is clear that he has grave theological and ecclesiological reservations about the communique and about the path the leaders of GAFCON are taking.

If you want to understand something of the theological background of the conflict, GAFCON appeals to the 39 Articles and to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The 39 Articles have been relegated to the “historical documents” section of our BCP. You should read them some time. The traditionalists bring together several streams of Anglicanism. One is Reformed, Calvinistic, which emphasizes human sinfulness. Another is Anglo-Catholicism, which draws on the rich theological, spiritual, and liturgical traditions of Catholicism. These two strands are mutually incompatible and are allied only because they have a common enemy–everyone else.

The 1662 prayer book has been mentioned before as one of the marks of Anglicanism. I’m not sure why contemporaries appeal to it. In fact, there is a strong tradition of alternatives to it, beginning with the Scottish Book of Common Prayer, with which the first American prayer book of 1789 was closely allied.

Most disturbing perhaps is the discussion by GAFCON of a “primates council” made up only of like-minded primates, self-selected. What this points to is an alarming trend, not just among conservatives, but throughout the Communion, of appealing to some central, hierarchical authority, independent of any lay involvement. The church, to thrive, needs to hear the voices of lay people at every level of government. It may be messy, but the alternative is authoritarianism.