Archbishop Georges Titre Ande, primate of the Anglican Church of Congo, has change into the primary member of the GAFCON Primates’ Council to affirm his church’s intention to stay a part of the Anglican Communion.
The assertion, launched October 30, doesn’t point out the communique issued by GAFCON on October 16, which calls on its members of its motion to decisively break their ties with the Devices of Communion and the See of Canterbury and to enter a ‘World Anglican Communion.’ But it surely straight repudiates the summons.
“The Anglican Church of Congo has no intention to go away the Anglican Communion, somewhat to maintain working with brothers and sisters of the GSFA [Global South Fellowship of Anglicans] to perform our widespread purpose: to reform, heal and revitalize the Anglican Communion with out leaving it. We stay dedicated to our fellowship in Christ with all orthodox/evangelical brothers and sisters within the Anglican Communion. They’re our companions in mission.”
“Any disengagement of the Anglican Church of Congo from the Anglican Communion wants, not solely to be made collegially via respectful debate, however crucially can solely be determined by our Provincial Synod,” Titre Ande mentioned.
The Congolese assertion affirms the founding imaginative and prescient of each GAFCON and GSFA as teams which “stand for biblical gospel mission” in response to “ethical compromise, doctrinal error and the collapse of biblical witness in components of the Anglican Communion,” a reference to modified instructing and observe about human sexuality and marriage, in addition to universalism.
It additionally celebrates the church’s continued position in each teams. Titre Ande is considered one of six World South primates to serve on each the GAFCON Primate’s Council and the GSFA Primates’ Steering Committee.
However Titre Ande’s emphasis on GSFA because the group chargeable for working “to reform, heal, and revitalize the Anglican Communion” is important. It references a division of labor inside the Anglican realignment agreed upon by the leaders each GAFCON and GSFA in a joint assembly at Kigali, Rwanda in April 2023.
The Kigali Dedication, issued on the shut of the assembly described the 2 our bodies as having “complementary roles,” particularly noting that:
Gafcon is a motion centered on evangelism and mission, church planting and offering help and a house for devoted Anglicans who’re pressured by or alienated from revisionist dioceses and provinces. GSFA, then again, is concentrated on establishing doctrinally based mostly constructions inside the Communion.
The Congolese assertion acknowledges that forming “doctrinally based mostly constructions,” just like the proposed ‘World Anglican Communion’ would correctly be GSFA’s position, not GAFCON’s. But a senior GSFA chief informed The Residing Church final week that GAFCON had not consulted with them earlier than issuing the communique.
Titre Ande’s assertion that any determination about leaving the Anglican Communion would must be made “collegially via respectful debate,” and that it “crucially can solely be determined by our Provincial Synod,” echo emphases from the assertion issued by main GSFA chief Titus Chung, primate of the Province of the Anglican Church of South East Asia, on October 28.
Chung’s assertion described GAFCON’s communique as elevating “important existential, structural, and ecclesiological questions” which require “cautious examine and prayerful discernment,” a sign that hasty motion to satisfy GAFCON’s deadline of early March for a call on becoming a member of the World Anglican Communion is unrealistic.
Chung’s assertion additionally notes that the Devices of Communion are themselves within the means of reform, a reference to the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals, which search to decenter the Archbishop of Canterbury’s position within the Communion to deescalate tensions ensuing from the Church of England’s steps towards allowing same-sex blessings. Chung and Titre Ande each serve on the Inter-Anglican Standing Fee on Unity, Religion, and Order, which has ready the proposals, that are to be thought of for adoption by the Anglican Consultative Council subsequent summer time in Northern Eire.
The Congolese assertion additionally notably quotes from Article 12 of the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration, Anglican realignment’s foundational textual content, noting that “The Anglican Church of Congo, as different orthodox Christians in these two teams, acknowledges the God-given range amongst us which enriches our world fellowship, and acknowledges freedom in secondary issues. It has at all times pledged to work collectively to hunt the thoughts of Christ on points that divide us.”
The assertion suggests unease with the GAFCON communique’s declaration that necessary issues like communion with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England, participation within the Devices of Communion, and forswearing donations from Communion-aligned church buildings—all of them beforehand secondary issues on which GAFCON members had been free to disagree– have been elevated to problems with major significance.
This determination, notably, was made by a naked quorum of seven of GAFCON’s twelve primates in a late-night on-line assembly that lasted lower than an hour.
The Anglican Church of Congo, formally Province de l’Église anglicane du Congo, is a predominantly Francophone church of 14 dioceses and about 500,000 members within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo (also called Congo-Brazzaville). The church turned autonomous in 1992, when the Province of Rwanda, Burundi, and Zaire was divided into three. Titre Ande turned its fifth primate in 2021.
The Residing Church reached out to GAFCON’s Secretariat for remark concerning the assertion. That they had not responded by press time, however the story shall be up to date if a response is obtained.
Message from the Anglican Church of Congo
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Residing Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported extensively on world Anglicanism, and in addition writes about church historical past, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
