Pictured: Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cramner who stood for God’s Word at the heart of the church then. His impact is still strong today.
Blog 1/6 by Bishop Glenn Davies
Dear brothers and sisters of our shared faith,
We are delighted to share with you the first in a series of blogs from one talk given by Bishop of the Diocese of the Southern Cross, Glenn Davies at the recent G26 conference.
The topic was Canonical Alignment and Differentiation, and the focus of the session was what it means to be Walking Together in Faithfulness.
What will the series of blogs be covering?
- (This blog) Introduction and first point, ‘Good order in the Church: Why constitutions matter.’
- His second point, ‘The growing independence of the colonial churches (including in Australia).’
- Third point, ‘When institutions fail.’
- Fourth, ‘Why you can reject the Instruments of Communion and still be authentically Anglican.’
- Fifth, ‘Why separating from Canterbury matters.’
- Conclusion, ‘The Way Ahead: Guarding authentic Anglicanism.’
We encourage you to review these at your own pace.
Over to you, Glenn.
“This next session is titled Canonical Alignment and Differentiation. What on earth does that mean?, you say, as your eyes roll over – or worse, you pick up your phone to check your emails! I can see you from here and the cameras are everywhere!
I hope to make this simple, so that when you return to your provinces, you’ll know how the structure of the Global Anglican Communion will affect your own particular province or diocese – or to put it the other way around, how your own constitutional situation can be aligned with the Global Anglican Communion.
If the disorderly Corinthians heeded the apostle’s exhortation: ‘Let everything be done decently and in order’ (1 Cor 14:40), then we who are Anglicans should aim for nothing less!
We are unpacking item 6 from the Martyrs’ Day Statement:
“Provinces, which have yet to do so, are encouraged to amend their constitution to remove any reference to being in communion with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England.“
The early Church soon discovered that rules and regulations, known as canons, were needed to order the Church, guard the gospel and combat the emergence of heresy. The Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 is the first recorded Council which addressed the threat to the unity of the church regarding Gentile inclusion. In the post-apostolic age, Ecumenical Councils were called to address issues that were a threat to biblical truth and to the unity of the Church.
By the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the Church of Rome had become so corrupt in faith and practice that the Church of England needed a re-set. This was largely the work of Thomas Cranmer, who led the Reformation in England, by re-forming the Church of England, introducing the first English Prayer Book and composing a summary of the faith of the Church in what later became the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. Cranmer had also planned to develop canons for the Church, but the untimely death of Edward VI, saw Cranmer deposed by Queen Mary and later burned alive at the stake.
All of us here today are indebted to Cranmer’s courage, conviction and capability. He championed the supremacy of Scripture, God’s word written, over every area of life. It is his legacy that has bound us together as Global Anglicans. What Cranmer was not able to complete was finally completed in 1604 when the Constitution and Canons of the Church of England were approved by the Convocations of Canterbury and York.
In the seventeenth century, the expansion of the British Empire saw chaplains accompanying the colonists and establishing the Church of England around the globe. The Church of England was the Mother Church, and the colonial churches adopted the Reformation Formularies of the Thirty-nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer as the basis of their faith and liturgy. Moreover, the Canons of 1604 were recognised as largely applicable wherever the Church of England was planted.”
Please continue reading at your own pace the remainder of this talk, broken up over five short blogs.