Divisions over same-sex marriage and LGBTQ ordination in the Anglican Communion are now expanding to include new issues related to the nature of the priesthood, including women’s ordination, and deeper matters of biblical interpretation among conservative Anglicans. Writing in First Things magazine (November 6), Gerald McDermott argues that these issues stem from divisions in the Anglican Communion over the doctrine of marriage during the past 50 years and “threaten to return otherwise orthodox Anglicans to the liberal Protestant camp they have sought to escape.” In their conflicts with liberal Anglicans, conservatives have made their arguments based on the ultimate sufficiency of scripture itself to support their positions, even though there was some nod to church tradition. When Global South Anglicans declared their independence from Canterbury in 2023 over same sex-marriage, the Bible alone was declared “the rule of our lives” and the “final authority in the church.”
Source: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church | Flickr.
This view on the ultimate sufficiency of the Bible is common among conservative and evangelical Anglicans and has allowed for interpretations permitting the practice of women’s ordination in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and several Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) provinces, including having women bishops. This conflicts with the traditionalist view that the Bible cannot “interpret itself without guidance from the ancient Fathers of the Church.” In 2017 the college of bishops in the ACNA stated that the ordination of women to the priesthood was an “innovation” in the tradition and that there was “insufficient warrant” in scripture for this practice. GAFCON and the ACNA insist they still hold to the final authority of scripture. But traditionalist Anglicans such as McDermott charge that the practice of women’s ordination is a slippery slope that is now widening to include acceptance of gay rights in some surprising quarters. He cites Fulcrum, an evangelical group in the Church of England with liberal attitudes on same-sex couples (if not on gay marriage). There have also been gay-affirming congregations that once were ACNA but have joined the Episcopal Church (TEC), where their hermeneutic is more at home.
McDermott adds that in GAFCON, “the significance of sexual difference—critical to both Holy Orders and marriage—is being challenged.” In January 2024, three female African bishops issued a communiqué declaring that Christianity is “essentially a ‘women’s movement,’” and urging that the churches review “the presence of gender-related issues in liturgical celebrations.” Meanwhile, in a May 2024 Augustine Appeal, hundreds of clergy in ACNA declared: “We believe the teaching of Holy Scripture, as interpreted by the consensus of the Great Tradition, that only men may be ordained to the priesthood.” McDermott notes that the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans, with multiple provinces and an array of mission societies and theological colleges, also defers to traditional biblical interpretation. It celebrates the ministry of women in a wide range of church activities but restricts ordination to men.
(First Things, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2024/11/the-new-divide-in-global-anglicanism)
