CONSERVATIVE Anglican leaders have challenged the authority of the Primates’ Meeting in Rome last week, arguing that it is no longer representative of the worldwide Communion.

Since its formation in 2008, the Gafcon grouping (Global Anglican Future Conference) has argued against the liberalising of attitudes towards sexuality. This week, however, it argued about something more basic: numbers.

At a press conference on Thursday at the end of the Primates’ four-day meeting, the Archbishop of Canterbury reported that 32 Provinces were represented at the meeting and nine were absent. At least two of the absentees sent letters in support, and personal reasons were given for absence. He admitted, though, that others had declined to attend out of conscience, which he described as “very, very grievous” (News, 2 May).

The final communiqué, issued shortly afterwards, expressed regret: “We could not help but feel keenly the absence of friends and colleagues who were unable to be with us, for a variety of reasons, at this Primates’ Meeting. We seek their contributions to our continuing discernments about the faith and order of the Communion.”

The chair of the Gafcon Primates’ Council, the Primate of Rwanda, the Most Revd Laurent Mbanda, issued a statement on Monday night in response. “As the communiqué itself acknowledges,” he wrote, “multiple Anglican Primates did not attend the gathering. To be specific, 12 primates did not attend this meeting in Rome, which means that those who did attend represented 30 of the 42 recognized provinces of the Anglican Communion.

“Such numbers are misleading, however, since the Primates of the three largest Anglican provinces (Nigeria, Uganda, and South Sudan) were among those absent. Those Primates who did attend represent a minority, perhaps 30 per cent, of active Anglicans worldwide. The Communiqué makes no mention of how unrepresentative a gathering this meeting was, nor does it explain the reason that multiple Primates declined the invitation to participate.”

Asked to clarify the attendance figures, a spokeswoman for the Anglican Communion Office (ACO) said on Tuesday that 32 Primates were present at the Primates’ Meeting. Three of the Provinces — the Episcopal Church in the United States, North India, and Hong Kong — had sent representatives due to personal circumstances such as ill health or family reasons.

She continued: “Of the Provinces not represented, some were unable to attend due to personal circumstances or responsibilities in their Provinces. Two wrote letters of encouragement to the meeting. Of all the provinces invited to the meeting, only four did not formally respond to the invitation. All Primates have received papers being discussed at the meeting and have been invited to input to discussions through the Office of the Secretary-General at the Anglican Communion Office.”

Archbishop Mbanda, wrote, however: “Our absence was not accidental, but intentional. Though we do pray for the unity and health of the Anglican Community, we chose not to attend because, as last year’s Kigali Statement made clear [News, 28 April 2023], the current divisions within the Anglican Communion are neither minimal nor new.

“These divisions have arisen from more than 25 years of ‘repeated departures from the authority of God’s Word’ that, despite the persistent warnings given by the majority of Anglican Primates, have continued unabated.”

In the press conference on Thursday, Archbishop Welby had acknowledged that “The presenting issue remains the decision of the Church of England to explore further the degree to which it will support the blessings of couples in same-sex relationships where those relationships have already been formally established through a civil registration ceremony.”

Also on the panel at the press conference was the Archbishop of Central Africa, the Most Revd Albert Chama, who had earlier described the absences of certain Primates as “quite sad”.

He said: “We feel strongly that as a Church, we are family, and we need to carry one another. . . We hope to encourage our brothers, those who are absent for whatever reason, that next time they need to come to sit, talk as a family. . . That great commission is not only to certain type of people but all of us who profess the faith in Christ Jesus as our Lord.”

Archbishop Mbanda said, however, that while Anglican unity was desired, “such unity is not simply a matter of institutional belonging or cultivating attitudes of ‘mutual respect’.” He quoted J. C. Ryle: “If people separate themselves from teaching which is positively false and unscriptural, they ought to be praised rather than reproved.”

And he concluded: “The proposals made by the Anglican Primates at the Rome meeting, which consist of minor revisions to the description of the Anglican Communion and modifications to its existing structures, will do nothing to mend the torn fabric of our Communion. Nothing apart from a return to the Lord through deep repentance and renunciation of false teaching by erring provinces will suffice.”

Read more on this story in this week’s Leader comment