Global Anglicans challenge Canada to keep the faith
TORONTO, ON—Visiting Anglican bishops at a Toronto conference this spring had strong words for the Canadian church. "You know what the Anglican Church of Canada needs to do?" asked Bishop Josiah Idowu Fearon of Kaduna, Nigeria. "Take the Great Commission very seriously, live the gospel and take the gospel" to others.
The setting at Wycliffe College was a conference to discuss the Anglican Covenant, an attempt to keep the member churches of the Anglican Communion together despite differences in approach to Scripture and morality. The Canadian and American churches have not yet signed the covenant, while Britain has declined.
Bishop Azad Marshall of Iran, whose church is constantly under threat, spoke of the importance of being part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. "We are the people of hope," he said of Christians in the Middle East, "people who have seen the faithfulness of God in the past."
In the Middle East the Church always faces persecution. "In your part of the world, the price is more alarming," said Marshall. "It's the spiritual cost to the Body of Christ."
The conference was called "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence: Covenant, Communion, and the Future of Global Anglicanism." The visiting bishops, including a third bishop from Burundi, Martin Nyaboho, were responding to a talk by Paul Avis, a theological consultant to the Anglican Communion office in London. Avis explained that the covenant proposal came about as a way for member churches to commit to each other and to exercise restraint in contentious issues, such as same-sex blessings.
Some churches are nervous about signing because they feel they are giving up their autonomy. Others, including some members of the Global South churches, don't feel the covenant is strong enough.
While he recognizes the covenant is "not perfect," Avis said it is nevertheless a signal that the Anglican churches throughout the world will remain together. A breakdown of the Communion "would indicate a serious weakening of Christianity and its witness on the world stage."
Participants in a panel on the covenant spoke in favour of signing it. Bishop Stephen Andrews of Algoma said the covenant "offers us the best opportunity to stay at the table as we work out our disagreements." And in bringing greetings from the Diocese of Toronto, Archbishop Colin Johnson stated that "in spite of our differences...there is something deep that binds us together."
Idowu Fearon, who walks a delicate balance between the conservative Anglican Church of Nigeria and the more liberal parts of the Communion, and who participated in drafting the covenant, criticized the churches of the Global North for wanting too much independence. He spoke of the Communion as a family, where "the interest of the individual is subsumed in the interest of the family."
Idowu Fearon described preaching in a conflict-ridden city in northern Nigeria just two weeks earlier. "I said I have no choice but to love my enemies." Four hours later, as he was travelling back to his home city, he received a text from one of the priests where he had come from, telling him of a massacre in that same city.
"That's my world," he said. "That's why some of us are passionate about this covenant. We need this covenant. Africans need this Communion."
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