What Does the Episcopalian Suspension Mean?

4. The reverberations will be felt in the Catholic Church. Synod watchers will remember the tensions last year between the African cardinals and the progressive cardinals of Europe and the USA. The same North South divide exists in Catholicism and the same power struggles will occur in the Catholic Church, and just as the Anglican Africans have asserted themselves in the fight for historic Christianity, so the Catholic bishops will do the same in the ongoing struggle with the forces of modernism and cultural relativism that beset the European and American churches.

5. Both Catholic and Anglican Christians who wish to adhere to the historic Christian faith will increasingly look South for their leadership. Disenchanted by leaders who they perceive to be ambiguous on moral matters, weak on theology and spineless in defense of the faith, those who wish to stand up for historic Christianity will see their champions as bishops from the developing world. Not only are these bishops in the front line against moral decay, but many of them are also staunch and realistic warriors in the increasingly fraught conflict with militant Islam. This reorientation will mean that the African bishops–both Catholic and Anglican–may well find they have unexpected supporters in prayer and finance from those in the North who will be shifting their commitment and enthusiasm to the South.

Tomorrow I will write on the choices that may unfold for the Episcopalians and other American Anglicans as they come face to face with expulsion from the Anglican Communion.