Reformation and Renewal: The Future of the Anglican Communion

Written by the Reverend Alan Burnett

Alan has also written "Remaining Faithful in the Ruins" which is a call to remain as faithful witnesses and as part of God's redemption of the church.

As an Anglican Church, we sit within a rich and complex web of relationships that stretch across our region, our nation, and our world. We belong to the Diocese of Waiapu, itself part of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia — one of forty-two autonomous provinces that make up the global Anglican Communion. Each province governs itself, yet we are bound together through a shared faith, a common heritage of worship, and a historic connection to the See of Canterbury, from which our Anglican identity has traditionally flowed.

For centuries, this has been our hallmark: a communion built not upon uniformity, but upon communion — a living fellowship of churches shaped by common prayer, biblical faith, and a generous vision of unity in diversity.

On the Feast of the English Reformers and Martyrs, that pattern of communion shifted. The movement known as GAFCON — the Global Anglican Futures Conference — announced its decision to form what it calls the Global Anglican Communion, effectively establishing a new centre of gravity within world Anglicanism. Rooted in the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008, this new structure seeks to uphold what GAFCON describes as orthodox, biblical Anglican faith — a reordering of relationships that no longer finds its unity through Canterbury, but through shared theological conviction.

At the heart of this realignment are long-standing questions about orthodoxy, scriptural authority, and the moral vision of the Church. The presenting issue is sexuality — particularly the blessing or ordination of those in same-sex relationships — but beneath that lies a deeper unease about how the Scriptures are interpreted and whether the Church’s teaching remains accountable to the historic creeds. For many within GAFCON, the Western provinces have ceased to be trustworthy partners in faith and mission.

There is deep pain in this. Promises have been made and broken; theological differences have hardened into distrust. Yet the life of the Church has always been marked by rupture and renewal. From the first councils of the early Church to the Reformation itself, God has continually used seasons of upheaval to call His people back to faithfulness — not merely in structure or doctrine, but in heart and spirit.

The English Reformation was born not out of ambition, but out of the conviction that the Church must be re-formed by the Word of God. The same pattern has appeared again and again in history: when faith grows weary or compromised, the Spirit stirs among the faithful — often in local communities, small parishes, and humble gatherings — to seed renewal. The life of God does not depend on our perfection, but on His faithfulness working through the obedience of ordinary believers.

That is where our hope lies today. For even amidst unfaithfulness and error, God is not absent from His Church. He is redeeming it still. The reforming work of the Spirit is not only a global drama; it unfolds in local soil — in parishes like ours, where prayer is offered, bread is broken, and lives are restored.

The temptation, when the wider Church seems divided or compromised, is to walk away — to seek purity by separation. But the witness of the gospel calls us to remain, to pray, to be agents of reconciliation and healing. To remain is not to condone, but to hope: to believe that the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is able to bring renewal even to the most fractured body.

The Anglican story — and indeed the story of the whole Church — has always been one of death and resurrection, of failure and reform, of God bringing life where we had sown decay. Each new generation is called to rediscover what it means to be the Church: a community gathered around Word and Sacrament, shaped by grace, and sent into the world for the sake of Christ’s kingdom.

So, in this season of division, our calling as the Parish of Taradale remains unchanged. We will continue to worship faithfully, to proclaim the gospel, and to pray for the unity of Christ’s body. We will hold fast to the Scriptures, honour our Anglican heritage, and trust that God’s Spirit will not abandon His Church.

For in every age, God has raised up faithful local communities — Anglican and otherwise — as seedbeds of renewal. It is in these humble places of faithfulness that the Spirit of Christ brings healing, both to the Church and to the human heart. Our task is not to preserve an institution, but to participate in the redemption of all things.

And so we remain — not in resignation, but in faith — believing that even now, God is at work restoring His Church and renewing the face of the earth.