{"id":1272,"date":"2008-06-30T11:46:03","date_gmt":"2008-06-30T11:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/?p=1272"},"modified":"2008-06-30T11:46:03","modified_gmt":"2008-06-30T11:46:03","slug":"the_charge_of_colonial_structu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/?p=1272","title":{"rendered":"The charge of “colonial structures”"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing to consider concerning the African Anglican provinces and their conceptualization of the expression of the Christian faith beyond their creation by Anglican-Evangelical missionary societies is this: perhaps the greatest growth in numbers of Christians of both indigenous and foreign denominations in Africa is among the very American \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Prosperity Gospel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d organizations. Within the South American context, American Pentecostals and Charismatic denominations and organizations predominate. American missionary endeavors have been very, very successful, even in influencing non-Evangelical or non-Pentecostal\/Charismatic churches. These dynamic and explosive movements cannot help but influence Anglicanism within African and South American provinces, particularly when many Africans see themselves as being in competition with Islam. This seems as culturally bound on their own part as is their accusation that Northern Hemisphere or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Western\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Anglicans have capitulated to the same culture concerning homosexuality.
\nI think we can see the influence in the very Evangelical leanings of the GAFCON statement, particularly in its denial of the centrality of the See of Canterbury as being essential to true Anglican identity. In their formulation of Anglicanism, it ceases being a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Church Catholic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and becomes just another \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Protestant denomination\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that follows Anglican liturgical norms. This new denomination will be predominately Charismatic and American-Evangelical and if Anglo-Catholics are tolerated, it will be only a shallow toleration.
\nTheir insistence on following the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 (very Protestant) and especially the Thirty-Nine Articles (not only quite Protestant, but quite Calvinist\/Reformed) make this move even more apparent.
\nSomeone commented on the posting of the Jerusalem Declaration by Ruth Gledhill of the TimesOnline (UK)<\/a> that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is the Oxford Movement in reverse\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 which wanted to get back to the 1549 [BCP].\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are so many holes in this document, and so much self deception\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it is hard to believe that this forms a credible basis for unity and orthodoxy. It avoids key areas…and is a mockery of the 39 articles, when it includes bishops who openly repudiate the injunctions in the articles.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/em>
\nThe titled of Gledhill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s piece is: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A very \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAnglican\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 schism.<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see traditionalist Anglo-Catholics lining up to follow this new denomination-in-the-making, despite their agreement on many things moral and Scriptural. But, when groups have a common enemy and scapegoat upon which to focus, it often breeds strange bed-fellows.
\nDan Martin<\/a> writes good stuff about all this.
\nFinally, this one line from the Gafcon final statement kind of amazes me: <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We can only come to the devastating conclusion that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwe are a global Communion with a colonial structure.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153colonial\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing just doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hold water. It is a politically-correct statement (ironically used by conservatives) as an attempt at justifying a rejection of the See of Canterbury as the center of Anglicanism. The reason they stress this, IMHO, is only because the ABC has not done what they have demanded him to do. If he had (or would) he would be heralded as a great Archbishop, upholder of the true faith, and all this talk of rejecting the See of Canterbury would never be heard.
\nAside from that, in my mind \u00e2\u20ac\u0153colonialism\u00e2\u20ac\u009d necessitates forced acceptance of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stuff\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the colonizing entity upon the indigenous society. This has absolutely not happened! If it had, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Western\u00e2\u20ac\u009d provinces would be insisting that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Global South\u00e2\u20ac\u009d provinces accept our culture, our standards, and the stand taken by a majority of Anglican members in these provinces that homosexuals may well be brought into the structures of the Church without violating a more correct understand of the Scriptures. No one or no province has done this. Within the historical structures of Anglicanism, no one could. This is the difference between the old, historical Anglican Communion and the new \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Anglican\u00e2\u20ac\u009d organization that is developing. The new organization will impose itself upon all the provinces under it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s domain. It may truly be a world denomination, but it will be one more akin to the Church of Rome than the Anglican Communion.
\nText of the Final Gafcon Statement<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing to consider concerning the African Anglican provinces and their conceptualization of the expression of the Christian faith beyond their creation by Anglican-Evangelical missionary societies is this: perhaps the greatest growth in numbers of Christians of both indigenous and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}