Thursday 14 August 2008

View from Uganda on the future of the Anglican Church

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It would seem that today the division of the American church between the fundamentalist and liberal churches is playing itself out in full force over the Anglican communion at large. The fundamentalists believe in the literal interpretation of the bible while the liberals accept a cultural contextualisation of the scriptures.

In this maze the problem which faces the believer in the ‘third world’ is that when he chooses the fundamentalist approach, he will be seen as imposing an intolerant Christian world view on others based on his personal understanding of the scriptures while if he adopts the liberal approach he will be regarded by some as a condoner of sinful behaviour. The future of Anglicanism lies in a resolution of this chasm which its leaders have created for their followers.

Lastly, we should remember that the Anglican communion is not the same thing as the Anglican church. The communion is a mere fellowship of the leaders of the Anglican provinces and dioceses. If the communion were to have a centralised authority with an elected leader like the papacy, then the rationale behind the break-up of the Anglicans from the church in Rome will disappear.

This means that there is a third direction in this controversy open to believers apart from Jerusalem and Canterbury—the direction leading to Rome. Read more
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