FRIDAY REVIEW
GAFCON
UPDATE: Developing a Renewed Understanding of Our Identity as Anglican
Christians
“What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what
is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those
who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who
can destroy both body and soul in hell…. Whoever acknowledges me before men, I
will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me
before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”
(Matthew10:27-28, 32-22)
The Program
Committee for the Global Anglican Future Conference has published the agenda
for this historic gathering. To date over 1,000 senior leaders from seventeen
Anglican Communion provinces, representing 35 million church-going Anglicans,
have registered for the Jerusalem pilgrimage and conference (June 22-29). The
figure includes 280 bishops, clergy, laity, and spouses from around the
Communion, to include all of our American Common Cause Partnership bishops as
well as many of our clergy, laity, and spouses.
The stated goals
of GAFCON are to: 1) provide an opportunity for fellowship as well as to
continue to experience and proclaim the transforming love of Christ, 2) develop
a renewed understanding of our identity as Anglican Christians, and 3) prepare
for an Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised and Christ-centered
mission a top priority.
I would like to
say a bit about the second goal: a renewed understanding of our identity as
Anglican Christians. I’ve previously written about the new DNA that we’re
striving to attain in the new American Anglicanism. I noted last month that
“our sins of pride, competitiveness, arrogance, complacency, selfishness,
retribution, and dominance must give way to humility, mutual submission, godly
service, self-sacrifice, compassion, generosity, and a consuming passion for
taking the saving Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ into a lost and hurting
world.”
This new DNA and
the renewed understanding of our Anglican Christian identity are rooted in the
biblical call of Jesus to costly and sacrificial discipleship. David W. Bercot
titles one of the books I’ve been reading Will the Real Heretics Please
Stand Up. He has connections to Anglicanism through the Traditional
Anglican Communion and is also associated with the Anabaptists. David has
studied the writings of the early church (which he defines primarily as those
Christians living between 90 and 199 A.D.) and has edited a useful Dictionary
of Early Christian Beliefs. In his book on the “real heretics,” he posits
that the contemporary church, especially its evangelical wing, has been lax in
following the teachings of the early church, and by implication the teachings
of Jesus and the Apostles. His views are provocative and in places
controversial.
However, I find
his work helpful where he discusses how the early Christians generally managed
to succeed in inculcating a godly DNA (my term) of surrender to Jesus and His
ways in the midst of a decidedly non-Christian society whereas we often fail in
our striving to live holy lives today. He cites three primary reasons that I’ll
mention here briefly, all paraphrased from Chapter 5 of his book.
The supportive role of the Church.
Early Christians lived during a
time of periodic persecution and martyrdom. Yet, rather than relying on strict
rules and regulations, the early church relied on “sound teaching, righteous
example, and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit” to mold a church of
committed disciples. They emphasized the need for new believers to change “from
the inside out.” They did not conform to the pattern of the world around them,
but were genuinely transformed by the renewing of their minds so they might
offer themselves as “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans
12:1-2). Bishops and priests were expected to be leaders with a depth of
character and godly spirituality rather than simply knowledgeable men. These
elders led by example, with many of them suffering imprisonment and torture.
Early leaders like Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Hippolytus, Cyprian,
Methodius, and Origen ultimately sacrificed their lives for Christ. Such
committed leaders inspired the early Christians “to walk closely with God and
to avoid the pattern of the world.”
The message of the Cross.
Jesus told His disciples to take up
their crosses daily and to be prepared to lose their lives for His sake in
order to find them. Early Christians expected to suffer for Jesus. As
Lactantius (260-330 A.D.) wrote: “He who chooses to live well for eternity,
will live in discomfort for the present.” Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch and
companion of the Apostle John, told one congregation: “It is necessary,
therefore, to not only be called by the name ‘Christian’ but to actually be
a Christian…. If we are not ready to die in the same manner of His suffering,
His life in not in us.” Most of us in
The belief that obedience was a joint
venture between man and God.
Early Christians realized their need for Divine
power to live such uncompromising lives. They believed that our walk with God
is a joint project, that the Christian must have “a deep love for God and a
profound respect for His commandments.” They understood that they must
sacrifice and pour all their energy into the Christian life. As Origen (185-255
A.D.) explained, “He makes Himself known to those who, after doing all that
their powers will allow, confess that they need help from Him.” Clement of
Alexandria (15-200 A.D.) taught that a man trying to free himself from sin
under his own power achieves nothing but that one who is “eager and earnest”
attains it by the addition of the power of God. “God,” he insisted, “works
together with willing souls.” This discipline and the power of God enabled
ordinary Christians to live godly lives and even to endure torture and
death. Lactantius wrote of men, boys, and even delicate women who
silently overcame their torturers. “They could easily avoid this punishment if
they wished to [by denying Christ]. But they endure it willingly because they
put their trust in God.”
What could it be
like for us today as renewed Anglican Christians to live as citizens of another
kingdom and as people of a different culture by relying on the support of a
godly committed church, the sacrificial message of the Cross, and a passion to
work with God to let His Holy Spirit transform us into new creations in Christ?
The light of Christ would shine through us so brightly that others would be
eager to join us in worshiping and serving the Living God.
Your brother in
Jesus the
Christ,
Jim McCaslin+