Description
Stephen Noll has been both a watchman and a close-in participant, though not a decision-maker, in Anglican affairs over the past quarter century—first in the Episcopal Church USA, then in the wider Anglican Communion. What makes this highly readable anthology of his writings of the events of 1993–2018 quite remarkable is that they were done in the heat of the battle to address various situations and audiences at the time. They are gathered here to make a compelling case from the Bible, and from Reformational Anglican roots, theology and history, that we are now in a kairos moment in which a new “Global Anglican Communion” covenant is essential to keep biblically faithful Global South and Gafcon Anglicans together. In this book—commended by twenty-three global Anglican leaders—Dr. Noll commends to readers the vision of a renewed and reformed Global Anglican Communion that is building on the heritage of the Church of England and represents the emerging leadership of formerly colonial Anglican churches, with the oversight of doctrine and discipline shifted from Canterbury to the Global South.
In a time when the world-wide Anglican Communion is facing the tremendous onslaughts of secularism and pluralism, here is a refreshing examination of where we are today in defending and promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with keen analysis and powerful arguments about how to move forward without surrendering Biblical authority. Together, these essays represent a clarion call for a mere Anglicanism that acknowledges the plain and canonical sense of the Bible as the authoritative Word of God for the church’s faith and practice.
SECTION ONE identifies three essential doctrines – paving stones on the royal way – that have come under attack in the modern-postmodern era, and that have precipitated the crisis of Anglican identity:
- The doctrine of Scripture (inspiration and interpretation);
- The doctrine of human nature (anthropology), especially of sexuality and marriage; and
- The doctrine of the church (ecclesiology).
SECTION TWO describes the two historic conferences in contemporary Anglican history, being the 1998 Lambeth Conference and the 2008 Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem; and it explains the two principal documents that emerged from each conference – Lambeth Resolution I.10 on Human Sexuality and the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration.
SECTION THREE examines the after-effects of the “sea change” in the Anglican Communion:
- The reform of the Communion governance, including the role of Canterbury;
- The realignment of the Global South and Gafcon movements; and
- The call to the church to contend for the faith as she awaits Jesus’ coming in glory.