The Anglican church is now an African and Southern Hemisphere church. Most of the members are in Africa: as a wag said, the British Empire sent missionaries that did too good a job. And as the liberal elite has moved the Church of England and Ireland to flirting with apostasy (this first quote is from the BBC, who found the archbishop of Ireland to be bending over backwards so he is not considered homophobic by those who read the Guardian) the European church has shrunk.

Anglicans have been divided on the issue since the US Episcopal Church ordained an openly gay bishop in 2003.

Leaders said the church’s stance was a “fundamental departure” from the faith of the majority in what is the world’s third largest Christian denomination.

But Episcopal leaders said the three-year bar, which aims to prevent a formal schism, “will bring real pain”.

The decision – made at a four-day meeting of 39 Anglican primates in Canterbury – means the church will be suspended from participating in the life and work of the Anglican communion, the BBC’s religious correspondent Carol Wyatt said.

A statement from the primates at the meeting says that the church should “no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, should not be appointed or elected to an internal standing committee and that while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion, they will not take part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity”.

More than 100 senior Anglicans had urged the Church of England to repent for “discriminating” against lesbian and gay Christians in an open letter.

However, the Anglican leaders in Canterbury said the Episcopal Church’s approval of gay marriage was “a fundamental departure from the faith and teaching” of the majority of Anglicans.

The African church, however, has grown. It is not necessarily by your fruits you are known, and there is a tendency to prosperity gospel among the Anglicans (but nowhere near as much as the Pentecostals, where God is seen, by some, as a better witchdoctor).

While Christianity appears strong there its a flimsy, skin deep Christianity built on poor teaching, often from Pentecostals who promise a better witch doctor than their present one. Preaching the Gospel will still get you into trouble and I gather good and real conversions are not as common as you would think. It remains a hard mission field with locals all too ready to revert to local custom like multiple wives, light fingers along chiefly lines and blending various pagan options with Christianity. These are not new problems of course but they become especially important if Africa is the front line.

But the future of the Anglicans is a return to faith. To a more evangelical theology. The Anglo-Catholics may go Catholic: there is now an ordinate that uses most of the Book of Common Prayer (as they ought; it is one of the treasures of the English Language). And the evangelicals will find their home away from the liberals. For the Episcopalians want the church to repent of the clear teachings of Christ.

They want God to repent. Which will not happen.

Meanwhile,the Archbishop of one of those breakaway groups, The Anglican Church in North America, was at the Canterbury meeting this week and was fully involved in the discussions although he did not vote. Episcopal News Service Reports,

Archbishop Foley Beach, the leader of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), has been gathering with the primates for conversation throughout the week but not participating in any of the votes. Beach was invited by Welby in an effort to avert a boycott from conservative African archbishops such as the one that occurred at the last Primates Meeting in 2011. ACNA is composed largely of former Episcopalians who chose to break away from the Episcopal Church. Some African primates have declared their affiliation to ACNA.

ACNA is the largest of the recent Episcopal breakaway groups and they have been instrumental in making alliances with the African bishops. It would seem that they have a possibility of stepping into the vacancy that will be left when the Episcopal Church is finally rejected from the Anglican Communion three years from now.

If this were to happen, then the strong (and wealthy) Anglican Church of North America would be increasingly aligned with the African bishops providing a strong alternative to the old school Canterbury-New York alliance. If the Anglican shift to Africa therefore becomes and American-African shift, then the future of the Anglican communion looks even more interesting.

Finally, the Anglican Church of North America and GAFCON–the confederation of Anglicans who have stood up to Canterbury–are predominantly Evangelical and Protestant in their theology. This augurs a further shift away from the old liberal, establishment high church school of Oxford-Cambridge-New York-Canterbury Anglicanism.

I think the high church school is the elite at prayer. It is Nic Cave — who wishes for an interventionist God but does not believe in such. It sets the fashion of this world, with an idea that people are akin to a virus.

This is not the message of the gospel. The God who became incarnate, chose human form, and bled and died for us does not consider us as a plague, a virus, but of infinite worth. The liberal memes relate to our carnal appetites and bring death. While the Spirit of the Risen Christ brings life. As even Cave knows.

The future of the Anglican church is uncertain. But patterns exist. When mainline churches look at the liberal abyss and their impending destruction, most turn back and to the gospel. The others get cut off and die. I pray the Anglicans return to health. I pray that the Episcopalians do as well, but, as with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Uniting Church of Canada, with not much hope.