MIDDLE EAST:CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICALS representing half of the world's Anglicans yesterday challenged the authority of the Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, and vowed to rescue people from the forces of "militant secularism and pluralism" created by a "spiritual decline" in the developed world.
The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Foca) will sever ties with the main churches in the US and Canada, whose leaders they accuse of betraying biblical teaching.
Foca leaders will tomorrow go to the conservative evangelical church of All Souls in central London to discuss global Anglicanism and English orthodoxy.
Great swaths of Anglican provinces, including Africa, South America and Asia, are furious with their counterparts in the northern hemisphere, accusing them of being in thrall to contemporary culture, with the ordination and consecration of gay New Hampshire bishop Gene Robinson acting as a turning point. The creation of Foca is a schism in all but name.
The fellowship will be guided by a primates' council, comprising senior bishops and archbishops who attended the Jerusalem summit, the Global Anglican Future Conference, that led to its foundation.
At a press conference, Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, said they would bring "order to a situation of turmoil" and help to deal with "the chaos caused in the Anglican church through revisionist activities".
Archbishop Peter Aikona of Nigeria said the group would develop a protocol to "spell out the process of how to become a member". Yesterday's declaration, he said, would strengthen the church in the eyes of the Muslim community in Africa. "Before now, Muslims and Christians have been wondering what sort of church this was."
The 300 bishops and archbishops who attended the Jerusalem conference deny wanting to split from the 80 million-strong Anglican communion.
A formal schism would involve tortuous legal procedures over the ownership of churches and other properties.
However, in a statement, they said: "While acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury."
Details of Foca were finalised yesterday morning and the reading of the statement was greeted with standing ovations, spontaneous singing, hugging and tears of joy. One of those present said he thought the skies were about to open so the delegates could ascend to heaven.
The existence of another communion will have a profound impact on Anglican churches all over the world by providing disillusioned conservatives with a powerful network of allies overseas.
Of the 300 bishops and archbishops who attended the Jerusalem conference, about 200 are boycotting this summer's Lambeth conference, the once-a-decade gathering of the Anglican world's 880 bishops, in a snub to Archbishop Williams's leadership. - (Guardian service)