At first glance, the title of this post should seem oxymoronic. After all, Anglicanism is by definition the shape the Church of England took after the Reformation (and later its sister churches in the British Colonies) and the primate of the Church of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Hence, how could something even be considered “Anglican” without Canterbury? My answer to this question is that Anglicanism is not a bureaucracy, but a tradition. It had its roots in the experience of the English Church throughout history and was expressed most definitively in the period after the Reformation in the development of the Book of Common Prayer. If the current elite at Canterbury wishes to overthrow the developed tradition of the Church of England in the matter of a few decades, that does not mean Anglicanism has changed, but that they are no longer truly Anglican at all.The problem we see with Canterbury is that the Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, the current occupant of the office of Archbishop of Canterbury, does not see defending the faith once delivered to the saints as his primary function, but rather the preservation of union within the Anglican Communion. That is, it is not the beliefs of the Church that matter, but the institution. His ultimate goal is simply the preservation of unity at all costs.
It is fairly clear from his writings that ++Rowan would like to side with the revisionists but thinks their powerplay tactics are ill advised. He does not object to the apostasy of the Episcopal Church because it is wrong, but rather that it is against the will of the communion. With the will of God not being part of his decision making equation, it seems the Archbishop hopes to bide time until his views become the received view of the Communion as a whole.
From the way things are moving, he may not have long to wait. The Anglican Churches in the Global South have had far their fill of Western apostasy and now have called their own conference - the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) - shortly before the Lambeth Conference where Anglican leadership traditionally meets. Many bishops from the Global South are choosing GAFCON over Lambeth and it is likely the bishops attending will represent a far greater percentage of the communion than those attending Lambeth. Many see this not only as a rejection of the apostate teachings of Western Anglican leadership, but also of the leadership of Canterbury during the current crisis.
With such an obvious slap in the face of the Archbishop imminent, a future split in the Anglican Communion seems likely. The departure of so many churches would only leave Anglicanism with a group of dying Western apostates and others who have not the courage to take a firm stand. Eventually, the obvious decline of vitality within the remnants of the Anglican Communion would cause many fence sitters to depart as well. Canterbury would then be relegated to the leadership of apostate caretakers of architecturally interesting but increasingly empty buildings.
For the vibrant Churches of the Global South, they have little to fear. They will continue to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and continue to make converts. As they also grow in strongholds of Islam, they will also give up martyrs for the cause of Christ. It is they, and not their decadent Western peers, who are the true Anglicans and the true Christians. As the Rt. Rev. Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria (the largest church in the communion) has stated, “You do not need to go through Canterbury to get to Jesus.”
Nor do you need to go through Canterbury to be an Anglican. We have a rich tradition that expresses the Holy Scriptures through the collected wisdom of the Church through her history. This tradition certainly has always had Canterbury at its theological center, but when this center veers from the revealed Word of God we must choose Scripture over geography no matter how sentimental our feelings may be for that location.