Apostasy is a nuclear bomb word.  For those who are not conversant with the ecclesiastical language of the Christian faith, it describes a wholesale and fundamental departure from the faith, so egregious that it places the offenders beyond the boundaries of what defines a Christian. 

In other words, it is a person, group, or church that once was Christian but now no longer is.  For several days in January, the Primates of the Anglican Church gathered in Canterbury, England, and apostasy was the topic of the day. 

The Anglican Communion encompasses some 80-85 million Christians in 165 countries around the world.  The diversity is such that its members speak 1000 languages.  While the word “Anglican” means “England” and the Church of England remains the source and center of this huge body, the far greater weight of its membership lies below the equator.  The churches in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda alone compose forty percent of all the Anglicans around the world.  Until now, Anglicans have been nominally united by their common statement of faith, the Thirty-Nine Articles, which dates from the Reformation.  It is the Global South which most consistently holds to the historic and Biblical faith.

The crisis that propelled the Primates to gather was created by the Episcopal Church in the United States (TEC), and to a lesser extent, the Anglican Church in Canada.  For decades the Episcopal Church has tolerated liberal heretics who have notoriously denied some of the most fundamental doctrines of Christianity.  Then in 2004 it consecrated an openly practicing homosexual, V. Eugene Robinson, as Bishop of New Hampshire.  Lastly, in July 2015, TEC formally changed its Canon rules concerning marriage, to permit and approve same sex marriages. 

After the change, the Episcopal marriage service now begins, “Dearly beloved: We have come together in the presence of God to witness and bless the joining together of [Name] and [Name] in Holy Matrimony. The joining of two people in a life of mutual fidelity signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and his Church, and so it is worthy of being honored among all people.” (Emphasis ours)  “Two people,” no longer exclusively a man and a woman.

The change has serious theological implications.  First, the Bible clearly defines marriage as a lifetime union between one man and one woman: “For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, Ephesians 5:31)  But second, the apostle says marriage between a man and a woman is a symbol of the relationship between “Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:32) 

There is no way that a “marriage” between two persons of the same sex can be a symbol of anything, and certainly not this holy union between Christ and the people for whom he died.  In a “marriage” between two persons of the same gender, which is the bride?  Which is the bridegroom? They are the same. 

The Word of God pictures Christ as the bridegroom and the church as his bride.  Male and female.  Same sex marriage is a monstrous perversion of what God has declared to be holy.  Not least is the declaration in Scripture that practicing homosexuals are cast in that group who will not be permitted to enter heaven. (I Corinthians 6:9-10)  To declare otherwise is to call what God has said to be a lie.   That is serious business.

And so the Anglican Churches of the Global South have demanded that the Anglican Communion sever its ties with what they consider to be the apostate church in America.  Indeed, TEC’s endorsement of same sex marriage has already resulted in the withdrawal of large numbers of its congregations and dioceses in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and across the country.  They have formed independent Anglican congregations or dioceses, many with ties to the churches in Africa.  (The Presbyterian Church (USA) which likewise gave approval to same sex marriages in 2015, has also seen hundreds of congregations withdraw from its communion.)

So at the summons of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the Primates gathered.  For days they discussed and prayed together over what to do.  The archbishop of Uganda gave up in frustration on the second day and returned home.  But on January 14, in an apparent answer to the fervent prayers of thousands across the world, the Primates issued their decision.  It amounts to a suspension of the Episcopal Church.  The Primates declared that TEC’s actions endorsing same sex marriage represent “a fundamental departure from the faith and teaching held by the majority of our Provinces on the doctrine of marriage.”  TEC’s action has created a “significant distance between us and places huge strains on the functioning of the Instruments of Communion and the ways in which we express our historic and ongoing relationships.”  Consequently, for three years the Episcopal Church in the United States will be suspended from representing the Anglican Communion and voting or participating in matters of “doctrine or polity.”

In other words, the Primates view the position of the Episcopal Church on marriage as heresy, without specifically calling it that.   They maintain a heart-felt desire to preserve the unity of the Anglican Communion, but they have sent a strong warning that the bonds of unity have a limit.  As I read the Primates’ declaration, they are providing the Episcopal Church with a period to reconsider, repent, and reverse their action.  It remains to be seen if the Episcopal Church will pull back from the brink, and if they do not, whether the Anglican Communion will take the step of declaring the Episcopal Church apostate.  There ought to be no question, but for church bodies, these things take time.

The issue is of the gravest importance to the church of Christ worldwide.  Ninety years ago Presbyterian theologian, J. Gresham Machen, put the matter clearly: “Liberalism not only is a different religion from Christianity but belongs in a totally different class of religions.”  That in reality is where the Episcopal Church has wandered.  Will they come back?  Speculation is that they intend simply to sit out the three years and expect the Anglican Communion will be the one to back down.  But we must wait to see.

For the sake of the worldwide church’s witness to Christ, let us all pray that God will provoke a spirit of true repentance within the Episcopal Church and draw them back into the fold of the Christian faith.  And let us thank God for the unswerving commitment of the African Anglicans to the gospel of Christ.

Dr. Rick Perrin is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and Chairman of the Board of World Reformed Fellowship..  He writes a weekly blog called ReTHINK which may be accessed at www.rethinkingnews.wordpress.com. He may be contacted directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..