GKC,
I’m interested to hear your thoughts: what happens when and if (and it looks like a matter of when rather than if at this point, a la GAFCON) the ‘orthodox’ Anglicans reform their own communion without including Canterbury? Will true Anglicanism still be focused upon the throne of St Augustine? Do you think a remnant Global North AC centered at Canterbury with TEC, Canada, South Africa, and a few other provinces survive or thrive? Will the Global South communion elect a rival Archbishop of Canterbury, or an equivalent in another geographic location?
There’s so much in flux right now, I don’t imagine anyone is going to be a Nostradamus about the fate of global Anglicanism, but I’d love to hear what you envision!
I’m honored that you ask. But my crystal ball is not high-def, either.
I would guess that the official Anglican Communion centered on the historic See of Cantaur, will continue, mainly comprised of Global North jurisdictions. Its doctrinal relationship to traditional Anglicanism, of any stripe ( from evangelical to Anglo-Catholic) will be increasingly tenuous and vanishing. Any claim that it is a part of the Catholic faith will be long gone (as it has been for 30 yers or more). Whether the 3rd world global South primates will officially separate and formally select an uber- Primate to take +Cantaur’s place, for them, I can’t say. I would expect that perhaps 3-4 other Episcopal dioceses will follow San Joaquin into the Southern orbit: Fort Worth, Pittsburg, Quincy. Individual parishes from across the country will continue to do likewise.
Canterbury will be come an historical reference point for the Global South. Since it’s a toothless, honorary headship, it won’t be missed. Of course, any who separate from +Cantaur won’t get invited to Lambeth every 10 years, and will miss out on some fine port.
Doctrinally, ECUSA, and much of the Global North will continue to move from traditional Anglicanism, past the borders of Mere Christianity, and into the fever swamps of apostasy. Whether ECUSA will continue as the official rep of this brand of Church of What’s Happening Now, locally, the ball is cloudy. Perhaps they might be replaced by some other grouping, as ACNA or AMIA, under Canterbury. I don’t move much in those circles.
True Anglicanism, in the sense history demonstrates it, will flicker and die in the Global North and perhaps live on in the South, but not in its Anglo-Catholic mode. +Akinola, for all his good points, lays hands on hairspray.
The last remnants of true Anglicanism, esp. in its Anglo-Catholic mode, will survive as long as the Continuing Anglican movement does. I have no great expectations as to how long that will be, or when we all will devolve into the ultimate form of unlimited jurisdictions comprising a bishop, 2 little old ladies and a cat. But as long as the Continuing Anglican movement, fissiparous as it is, survives, Classical Anglicanism, part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, with seven sacraments, conveying grace, most specifically to include valid orders and the Eucharist, of Our Lord’s very Body and Blood, etc (Trent, Session XIII, Canon 1) will continue. Yes, I know. Believe me, I know.
Thanks for asking. Truth is, I haven’t a clue. But if some of this happened, I wouldn’t be surprised.
GKC
posterus traditus Anglicanus, Anglicanus Catholicus