Three archbishops who participated in the recent Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem addressed hundreds of Church of England clergy July 1 about a newly formed network they assert will bring needed authority to the Anglican Communion.
 
“There are moments in the church where authority has to be taken, and this is one of those moments where the most senior people available have decided to come together to take their authority to do certain things which they have the capacity to do,” said Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney in remarks reported by the London Telegraph.
 
Archbishop Jensen, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda and Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone denied that the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans was a plan to “seize power” within the church. The purpose of the group, the three said was to “reassert the authority of the Bible.”
 
The group’s name was deliberately chosen, according to organizers not authorized to speak about the group’s objectives, in deference to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who in a meeting with traditionalist Episcopal bishops in 2003 suggested that they consider establishing some form of confessional fellowship as a way to differentiate themselves from the national church’s liberal drift.
 
Archbishop Williams issued a response to the GAFCON Jerusalem Declaration June 30 in which he praised its intentions, but also expressed concerns about the risks of setting up a new provincial structure for traditionalist Anglicans in North America. Aides to Archbishop Williams have privately criticized the Jerusalem statement for suggesting that the Anglican Communion could exist without the Archbishop of Canterbury being the one to determine who is legitimately Anglican and who is not.
 
During the press conference at All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, London, Archbishop Jensen expressed surprise that Archbishop Williams was not more supportive of the group’s efforts.
 
“I was hoping he would be very joyfully receptive to what he saw as a development of quite legitimate authority to help bring order to the chaos of the Anglican Communion within the last five years,” he said.
 
Archbishop Jensen dismissed as mythological the idea that the Archbishop of Canterbury exercised legal or juridical power over the Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s power is largely moral, he said, adding “that the last five years have seen a diminution of the moral authority that he is able to bring to this role.” The loss of moral authority was not Archbishop Williams’ fault, Archbishop Jensen said, and probably would have happened to “whoever had been the archbishop.”
 
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