Back to Work: Reflections on the aftermath of Lambeth 98,

and why there can be no rest.

By Mark Harris

From the standpoint of the local church community, it will be hard to convince anyone to pay much attention to Lambeth 98. Mostly there will a temptation to tout what we liked of its resolutions and ignore what we didn’t. But in the unknown forest of the years to come, nurtured in their infancy by resolutions of Lambeth, strange beasts will come forth. The beasts that have hurt immediately on their birth we have met already. They have wounded deeply. The seemingly helpful if dull resolutions concerning structure and doctrine have gone almost unnoticed beyond the borders of the Conference. But they present new dangers for any possible progressive sensibilities in Anglicanism. For in the call for structural and theological "unity" the issue of control has finally come to the fore.

An enduring and substantive effect of Lambeth can be seen quite clearly in the many resolutions concerning how our churches are to be bundled together in the future in ways that maintain unity and keep the Communion from flying apart. Long after Lambeth 98 it will be seen that its efforts concerned ecclesiastical control. What will become clear with the passing of time is (i) the extent to which the bundling together will be control by subtle community coercion, or just straight out control by exclusion and, (ii) by whom and to what end this control will be exercised. We have already had a beginning taste of things to come in the Resolution on Sexuality.

The issue of control will be played out one way or another. I believe that the effort to tighten up the theology and structure of the churches of the Anglican Communion will be mounted under the banner of a new Anglican fundamentalism. This banner reads, "traditional Anglican Orthodoxy."

The Archbishop of Canterbury used that phrase when he said, "I stand wholeheartedly with traditional Anglican Orthodoxy." Since he said this in remarks concerning the Resolution on Sexuality, we can only assume that he believes the exclusionary spirit of that resolution to be what "traditional Anglican Orthodoxy" requires. I believe the slogan is just that, a partisan slogan and that at Lambeth 98 the depth of party strife concerning the vocation of Anglicanism surfaced as a reality.

Where next will this party strife be played out? In, of all things, issues of Church order. The legacy of Lambeth 98 is its strengthening of what it calls "instruments of unity"(The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council – now the Anglican Communion Council), and its recommending certain "monitoring" devices (for example the Kuala Lumpur Statement) and affirming in specific language support for Scripture as the sole ground for belief and practice. The elements of governance for a World Wide Church are in place. If they are taken up, the Anglican Communion could cease to be a fellowship (which is what our Constitution claims it to be), and become a kingdom like other religious kingdoms.

One indication of this shift is in renaming "The Anglican Consultative Council" as "The Anglican Communion Council." This change of title accomplishes two things: (i) it makes the Council no longer ‘consultative’ by definition and title, and (ii) it makes the Council something that is an organ of something else called the "Anglican Communion." No longer will it be a body of Anglicans gathering from various Provinces in council to consult with one another. It will become a subsidiary of a larger entity. This change is a change on the way to kingdom building and where there is a kingdom there are taxes gathered, armies mounted, censorship, control and coercion. It will make no difference if there is a Patriarch of Canterbury, or a Council of Primates at the apex of the pyramid. It will matter not if conservative or liberal parties exercise this central power. It will be a mess. Let the buyer beware.

It is difficult to get excited about all this ecclesiastical stuff. But we have work to do - ‘we’ Anglicans who follow Jesus Christ and his Good News and believe it is not exhausted by the directives any instruments of unity or "orthodox" interpretations of Scripture. This work involves taking the Lambeth governance and unity resolutions seriously and paying attention to them. Rest assured there are others who are paying close attention indeed.

I believe that in the hands of the "traditional Anglican Orthodox" proponents the development of a controlling patriarchal model of church and narrow weaving of a Scripture based loyalty test can become profound impediments to seeking the Truth that shall make us free. These can become serious obstacles for those of us who hope that this Church will have a vocation to meet Christ in the future beyond modernity.

I stand by what I wrote. But I must add this: If we become yet another world Church making exclusive claims on Truth on the basis of ‘biblical values’ to which we assert more or less infallible access, then we will join Rome and Constantinople and Geneva and even our beloved Church of England (in its heyday of Establishment) and start burning those on whom we can not force compliance or can not control. And that matters very much, for the fires are always local and the flames personal.

There is work to be done while there is still daylight left.