Tony Seel+: Will the Anglican Communion Disappear?

July 13, 2010
DCNY

The title of this post is from a lecture by Archbishop Michael Ramsey that is included in his book The Anglican Spirit. In his chapter "Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism," Ramsey explores the dynamics of the relationships of Anglicanism to Rome and to Protestants. Near the end of this lecture he speaks of Anglicanism on the Indian subcontinent. In India are the united churches of South India and North India and in Pakistan is the united Church of Pakistan. In all three instances Anglicans have united with Christians from other traditions under the principles of the Lambeth Quadrilateral.

As Ramsey says, the Lambeth Quadrilateral spells out the "basic Catholic facts and principles" regarding what constitutes the fullness of the Church: the Scriptures, the sacraments of salvation (Baptism and Eucharist), the creeds, and the historic episcopate. With these four principles in place Anglicans in India and Pakistan were willing to unite with other Christians. Could this be a model for Anglicanism worldwide?

The crisis in Anglicanism that was precipitated by and continued by the divisive actions of pecusa in 2003 and this year will reverberate through the Communion for the forseeable future. I expect that pecusa will continue to walk apart from the Anglican Communion, will continue to diminish in size and influence, and her leadership will be excluded from more and more areas of Communion life. The Anglican Communion in North America will continue to grow as an orthodox alternative to pecusa and the Anglican Church in Canada and will one day be recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury as a province of the Anglican Communion. the rest