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CHARLESTON, SC: Bishop Nazir-Ali Calls for Conciliar Council to Resolve Anglican Rift
By David W. Virtue in Charleston
www.virtueonline.org
January 22, 2011
WANTED: A Conciliar gathering. The former Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali told participants at Mere Anglican, a conference dedicated to a reformed, renewed orthodox Anglicanism within North America, that a church council of orthodox Anglican primates should be called to resolve the deep theological and ecclesiological tensions in the Communion.
Whatever is concluded should be binding on the Anglican Church, said the Pakistani-born convert from Islam, who is increasingly outspoken on a wide range of issues ranging from Islam, the decline of Christianity in England to the Culture Wars.
"In resolution of some of these matters, Anglicans need to bring to bear the Word of God on the issues and to be the guardian and interpreter for the church. We should have a healthy perspective on a proper conciliarity that Anglicans have evaded for 150 years. The Reformers would have resolved similar difficulties with a church council. What is wanted now, today, is a conciliar gathering.
"Up until the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Anglicans could affect matters. The 2008 Lambeth Conference was another story. The whole host of the Anglican Communion was one of evasion. The price is now being paid.
"What might be the features of an authentic conciliar position? There must be the possibility of gathering all primates. 2008 was not able to gather a third of the bishops.
"The primates will gather next week, but it will represent a fundamental failure of fellowship among Anglicans. The gathering must be for the sake of prayer, walking in the same way of the gospel and decision making that sticks. How are things to be made to stick? The Communion cannot evade common decision-making or evade a question of discipline.
"We have become a conversational church and no longer a confessional one," Said Nazir-Ali."
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