25 February 2005
For immediate release.

Primates - a step in the right direction.

We note the most recent response by the Primates of the Anglican Communion to the rupturing of the Communion by the endorsement and promotion of unbiblical and immoral practices within the Anglican Churches in the United States and Canada.

We thank God for those Primates, primarily from the growing churches of the global south, who have sought to uphold biblical teaching and to respond in a measured yet firm way to error in the Communion. We are well aware of the personal costs they bear in this ministry and of the opposition they have faced. We assure them of our prayers.

We recognise that the present proposals do mark a step forward in the process of protecting the Communion from error and upholding the honour of Christ's name in the face of the ungodly agenda of the revisionists. We also welcome the reluctance, evident in the statement, of vesting too much authority in either the Primates themselves or any other global Anglican body.

We are alarmed that the Primates meeting has again stopped far short of what is required at this time. Reflecting on their previous statement of October 2003 we believe that most of the criticisms we voiced then still apply (see the points below).

We would look for and encourage the Primates to do the following:

a) Set out a clear statement asserting that the actions of ECUSA and the Anglican Church in Canada (and of those who support them) are beyond the bounds of Christian orthodoxy.
b) Exclude from their meetings the Primates of the two provinces until such time as those provinces have repented of and reversed their actions.
c) Persuade their own provinces to refuse to accept as part of the Communion those who have adopted and supported these unbiblical practices.
d) Since ECUSA and Canada have excluded themselves from the Anglican Communion the Primates must take steps to welcome into the Communion those alternative bodies of the theologically orthodox in North America.

Out of concern for the true unity of the Christian church our prayer is that those who are promoting error will come to their senses, repent and change in order that they may be welcomed back into the fellowship of Anglican Churches.

Division in the Communion