The Anglicans Have Reached Critical Mass

Per Catholic World News

Conservative Anglican prelates, meeting in Israel next week in an alternative to the Lambeth Conference, will announce that they can no longer remain in communion with the Church of England, the London Daily Telegraph reports.

The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), convened by African Anglican bishops, will essentially announce a schism in the Anglican communion, according to the Telegraph story. The conservative bishops will say that there is no realistic prospect for retaining unity among the world's Anglican leaders because of grave disagreements on doctrine and practice.

The GAFCON meeting was called by Anglican prelates who are at odds with their liberal colleagues over the ordination of an openly homosexual American bishop, Gene Robinson. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has struggled to maintain unity despite these severe disagreements. But Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, the most prominent leader of the conservative wing, sees that struggle as doomed. In a statement prepared for the GAFCON meeting, the African prelate says flatly: "There is no longer any hope, therefore, for a unified communion."

May God have mercy on the faithful caught up in all this. Bad enough to be in a heretical/schismatic sect. Worse to have it descend into even more doctrinal madness. The Vatican should be all over this and making arrangements for educating their clergy and laity in the event they want to make a profession of faith.