move out, this is my house

Move out, this is my house
 
This is what GAFCON, a network of conservative evangelical Churches who are wont to loosely describe themselves as “bible-believing” Christians, is telling me and Anglicans like me, who adhere to the truths and life-giving grace we have found in the Anglican  Church.

I am a Christ-believing Christian, not a Bible-believing Christian. This is where 80+ years of life on earth and a lifetime reading the bible has taken me.  Why make this statement? Because knowing the rock upon which you stand is important. Why make the statement now? Because following the announcement that Dame Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London, is to be the new Archbishop of Canterbury, GAFCON, has announced itself not just in opposition to the legitimate Anglican Communion historically linked to Canterbury, but to have replaced it and now claim to b the true Anglican Communion not liked to Canterbury. This claim is deeply troubling not only because a judgment is made that I and others like me are no longer orthodox Anglicans, let alone Christian, but even more troubling, because I believe the boot is on the other foot, these folk have diminished the gospel of Christ and are guilty of biblical idolatry.

This needs a lot of unpacking, so please stay with me.

GAFCON is a network of conservative evangelical Churches, inspired initially by the Diocese of Sydney Australia, which claims Churches or Dioceses such as the ones over which I have had oversight, have abandoned the faith by embracing women in all positions of leadership, and by supporting or at the very least not opposing the union of homosexual people. Many outside the Church on hearing this, might respond “are you serious, surely, they would pick on a serious matter like the Church’s attitude to disadvantage and poverty”. I will come back to that, but in passing let me point out the current lead bishop of GAFCON is the Archbishop of Rwanda.  I visited Rwanda and the then Archbishop in the years immediately following the genocide, a genocide in which the Church had been implicated and bishops removed from office. At that time, the then Archbishop had already linked the province to the initiative of the Diocese of Sydney. I said to the then Archbishop, surely you have a generation of work ahead of you to address the shocking reality that Anglican Christians had been involved with genocide, a reality which should then and now take every fiber of attention. Focusing on homosexuality in that context is an indulgent distraction.

Let me deal first with homosexuality.  There is no evidence the bible addresses homosexuality, as an orientation, at all.  In many places, Old and New Testament, it deals with practices, which are seen to be both disgusting and abusive, almost exclusively by men.  There is an underlying assumption that all males have the same sexual orientation, and therefore these practices degrade that orientation, degrade themselves, and abuse others. Understanding that a certain percentage of both genders find intimacy with the other gender impossible, has more recently been properly understood while the same understanding  is refused by those who hold the GAFCON position.  (Not dissimilar to the Church’s initial response to Galileo’s proposition that the earth rotates around the sun, not the other way around).

Here is the rub.  Biblical teaching is clear: “it is not good for man (human) to live alone”.  It is unchristian to deny intimacy and the fulfilment that life-long commitment brings to any human being.  Indeed, there is ample evidence to show that security flowing from such intimacy has enabled many to live outstanding lives that would not otherwise have been possible.  (I was present at an annual national bishops’ conference in Perth when Justice Michael Kirby was disgracefully defamed under parliamentary privilege by a senior member of the then coalition government.  I sought to gain a public statement of support from the conference for the judge. This was disallowed by the conservative evangelical bishops present at the meeting).

There is no excusing any sexual abuse, heterosexual or homosexual, however there is plenty of evidence that refusal to allow or enable such relationships has itself been a cause of abusive behaviour.  Over the years I have dealt with clergy who entered a heterosexual marriage because it seemed the only way the ordained could be accepted. Dealing with the consequential breakdown, disfunction, and pain was very tragic.  

Leadership by women. 
The fundamental biblical position is that all are equal “in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female” (Gal. 3: 28). In a heterosexual relationship both male and female are fulfilled in and though one another. Neither are the possession of the other.

The implications of this injunction have taken the Church a great deal of time to understand and correct.  The New Testament appears to tacitly accept slavery.  But the principle of equality in Christ for those in slavery was not finally dealt with until 1833 after decades of struggle by William Wilberforce, and shortly before his death.  Males must face the truth that patriarchy has not yet submitted itself to the demands of Christ.

In a poll taken a few years ago it was found that abuse of women in marriage (emotional, financial, sexual, physical) was not less in families founded on conservative evangelical beliefs, but higher.  I grew up in a conservative evangelical family. I am aware of the impact that patriarchal views of headship have, not least because differences of view are not tolerated. Headship, as in sovereignty and control, is eschewed by the human face of God revealed in Jesus and should be similarly repudiated by his followers.

Female leadership in the Church has been crucial from the very beginning, starting with Mary, the first witness to the resurrection upon which our faith is built and whose testimony is never doubted.

I have long believed that the loss experienced by the Celtic Church led by Abbess Hilda at the synod of Whitby in 664 AD has led to a Millenia of patriarchal leadership in the UK Church, and in Churches worldwide that have grown from British colonization. This still waits to be fully addressed. (When I began my ministry 60 years ago all members of Parish Council and all members of synod were men!)
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The appointment of Bishop Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury is prophetic.  Prophecy is the capacity to point to that which has been hidden or unseen, but lays in plain sight. She has a proven track record through her career in nursing, ministry and public service as a person of compassion for the marginalised and courage to speak the truth. What a blessing for the Anglican Communion. Gafcon are on the wrong side of not only history but the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She has the same capacity that we saw in Bishop Mariann Budde of Washington who spoke at Donald Trump’s inauguration of mercy as a Gospel imperative. For speaking this Gospel imperative, she was castigated by leadership of the US Conservative Christian Right.  Sarah Mullally will experience no less and both needs and deserves our prayers.

Now let me return to where I began: “I am a Christ believing Christian, not a bible believing Christian”.
Taking my lead from the traditional Christmas Gospel reading John 1: 1 – 14, I believe the eternal word, or perhaps wisdom, of God from whom all things owe their existence became incarnate in Jesus.  Thus, the whole created order speaks of and to the God present in Jesus, as does the bible.  The one must speak to the other.  This is abundantly clear in any reading of the psalms which are at the very foundation of Anglican liturgy.

GAFCON adherents focus on the cross as a flagpole for personal salvation, rather than focusing on the brokenness of the whole created order - of which personal brokenness is part. Let me illustrate from the Gafcon statement that followed the service marking the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk. “We give thanks to God for the clear proclamation of salvation and forgiveness in Jesus Christ at the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service held this week in Arizona, USA and broadcast globally. The gospel was preached with boldness, and many were stirred to think deeply, ask questions, and respond to the good news.”

I commend to you an excellent article printed in Pearls and Iritations by Keith Mascord, a former Sydney based priest now ministering in another diocese

The reality is that the glorious expanse of the gospel was not preached at this service.   It was a service that celebrated personal salvation and blessing with little or any reference to the biblical injunction that blessing is in constant movement of being received that it might be given away.  The service and everything surrounding it was an affirmation of an agenda which has seen aid for those in need being reduced, the judicial system hijacked to defend power, and the environment trashed to enable wealth for a few.
In 1967 Lynn White wrote an article in the periodical Science entitled “the historical roots of our ecological crisis” in which he lays blame squarely at the feet of Christianity. He does this by arguing that the plethora of denominations that flourished post the reformation competed for membership by arguing that devotion to their brand would bring blessing in terms of wealth – hence prosperity gospel.  Whilst I think White’s argument is grossly overstated, there is nevertheless more than an element of truth as demonstrated in the Trump administration’s obsession with wealth linked with Christian adherence.
The biblical Abraham was blessed in that he and his descendants were to be a blessing to all humankind. A point totally ignored by Zionist Israel. In Christ we are similarly blessed that we might be a blessing.
Richard Hooker, a founding father of Anglicanism at the Reformation, was clear that the Church in and of itself is unimportant, its importance lies in its capacity to be an agent of transformation in the communities of which it is part.
Don’t ask me if I am saved, ask me in what way, through Christ, I am an agent of grace and redemption in the lives of others, including the whole created order.