South and North: a divided Church? – Anglicans from the Global South and the Worldwide Anglican Communion

Anglicans from the Global South and the Worldwide Anglican Communion
by William De Artega, Ph.D. July 6, 2018

Roger E. Olson, “Something Interesting Is Happening in the Worldwide Anglican Communion (And Why It Matters to Non-Anglicans)” (June 28, 2018).

Canterbury Cathedral
Image: Peter K. Burian / Wikimedia Commons

The article by professor Roger Olson is both informative and insightful. As an Anglican priest I especially appreciate how Olson, a Baptist, has grasped the essence of what has transpired in the now splintered Anglican churches. I would go further than Olson’s analysis and say that the Anglican churches are now divided into two irreconcilable denominations. The Western or Northern Anglican churches, versus the Anglican churches of the Global South. The latter group was planted by English missionaries who truly believed the Bible and were orthodox in doctrine. The more liberal clergy stayed at home to ruin their churches with unbelief.  My denomination, the Anglican Church of North America, has cast its lot with the churches of the Global South.

As an Episcopal lay person thirty years ago I saw the rampant apostasy in many Episcopal churches, and most of its clergy. Many of us put up a “good fight” for orthodoxy, but left to form orthodox (and often charismatic) congregations when it was obvious that the fight was lost.

Reviewed by William De Arteaga