The Jerusalem Declaration is admittedly problematic on many levels, including the apparent elevation of the XXXIX Articles above the Prayer Book and Apostolic Tradition* and the subtle refusal to accept the male character of Holy Orders, and essentially leaves the GAFCON/Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans group in formal communion with Churches that have abandoned the Catholic Faith in either or both the Sacraments of Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony. The ecclesiola in ecclesiae formed by GAFCON within the Anglican Communion is an almost entirely evangelical protestant entity which may very well be devoid of meaningful or substantial theological space for or apprehension of the Catholic Movement in Anglicanism. Have lasting solutions been created, or only deferences and delays of the inevitable practical dissolution of the Lambeth Communion structure? Does GAFCON possess any direct ecclesiology or sacramental theology of communio or koinonia? The discerning Catholic will most probably be compelled to answer these questions in the negative. FOCA is essentially a body of protestant ethos bearing an Anglican historical link. Many, if not most, Anglican Catholics will likely not in conscience be able to adhere to it for the long-term.
This analysis may seem overly pessimistic or cynical, but it is how I have observed the proceedings and read the documents up to this point. Let us pray a greater future lies ahead for Catholics and evangelicals alike in the new sub-church now in generation.
*For example, the Articles of Religion are not a Creed, nor have they ever heretofore functioned as a protestant Confession like that of Augsburg or Westminster: they are Articles of peace and of theological boundaries for a national Church, conditioned historically by the times in which and the controversies for which they were written, and were never intended to be a sweeping or comprehensive dogmatic statement of Anglican theology. Better yet, they are in fact Catholic Articles in protestant language, rightly interpreted by the Book of Common Prayer, and never intended to supplant the Prayer Book or Apostolic Tradition as a doctrinal magisterium.
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Fr. Chad:
You earlier cited the infamous Ruth Gledhill's article, in which she states: "I also took the chance to ask Archbishop of Sydney Dr Peter Jensen, who is part of the Gafcon leadership team, if he hoped that one day the entire Anglican Communion would adopt lay presidency, or lay administration as he prefers to call it. He said the issue was not comparable to that of homosexuality because the question of administering communion is never addressed in the Bible, while homosexuality is. 'It [lay administration] is a subject we have been talking about in our diocese for 30 years,' he said. But he was aware there was 'considerable disagreement' about it around the Communion, and to date his diocese had held back from engaging with it formally." Talking about the camel pushing, his nose, toes and his rump into the tent!
gms+
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