Jordan Hylden: The Anglicans in Egypt: A Deeper Communion

First Things
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

“Are we a global church, or are we a federation of local bodies?” At the close of last week’s meeting of the Anglican primates in Egypt, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams thus set forth the great looming question that Anglicanism has been asking itself for the last several tumultuous years. And the response of the assembled archbishops was, in essence: “A global church, but there’s a lot of work to do before we get there.”

From all reports, the Egypt meeting was a civil and gracious affair, in welcome contrast to the tension and acrimony of their last gathering two years ago in Tanzania. Much of the difference lay in a newly frank recognition of just how bad things have become. “This is a broken communion,” said one primate, and nearly everyone around the table concurred. But defying the expectations of many, they were not satisfied to agree to disagree and go their separate ways.

Just as at last summer’s Lambeth conference (the decennial meeting of the world’s Anglican bishops), there was a strongly expressed desire to grow closer together as a global communion, to become a genuine church marked by common confession and discernment, rather than a mere federation of autonomous local bodies. “God is calling us and our churches,” said the primates in their communiqué, “to deeper communion and gracious restraint.” the rest