American Bishops Join in Shaping Communion Renewal Movement

From The Living Church:

Posted on: June 26, 2008

Participants’ responses to seven questions posed by organizers of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) are expected to form the basis of a communiqué that will set the agenda for the conservative wing of the Anglican Communion for coming years.

Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney said he hoped it would be the “beginning of a movement within the Anglican Communion” for reform and renewal.

Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, the moderator of the Common Cause Partnership, is not in Jerusalem. Family obligations limited his attendance to the pre-conference meeting in Jordan. Other Episcopal Church bishops present at the conference include:
- Keith Ackerman, Quincy
- James Adams, Western Kansas
- Peter Beckwith, Springfield
- Jack Iker, Fort Worth
- Mark Lawrence, South Carolina
- Bruce MacPherson, Western Louisiana
- Henry Scriven, Suffragan of Pittsburgh

The Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, formerly Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin and now the Anglican Bishop of San Joaquin, is also in attendance.

GAFCON is the first pan-Anglican congress that is African-led and internationally funded, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria told participants earlier this week.

Archbishop Akinola said that $5 million to cover the costs of the June 22-29 conference had been raised in five months, with $2.4 million coming from the Church of Nigeria. Two individuals contributed the bulk of the Nigerian funding, he said, providing enough to pay the costs of the American bishops of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary outreach of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, to attend the gathering.

Bishop-elect AkinTunde Popoola, the Church of Nigeria’s press spokesman, told The Living Church the Nigerian donations were given anonymously, but he confirmed that the donors are Nigerian nationals resident in the country, and were not American supporters of CANA.

“Nigeria has been self-supporting” in its obligations within the Anglican Communion, Bishop-elect Popoola said. He noted that CANA had been granted a dispensation from Nigerian canon law requiring dioceses to contribute to the support of the national church. “CANA does not pay a dime to Nigeria,” he said.

The final costs of the conference will be released on Friday, conference treasurer Hugh Pratt said. He said that GAFCON appeared on track to be a financial success. Given the short time to prepare for the conference, Mr. Pratt said, the financial stability of the gathering was evidence of God’s hand at work.

The 1,072 conference registrants—303 of them bishops—paid approximately $1,600 per person, $1,200 for spouses, to cover the costs of meals, lodging, local transportation, and conference costs. National delegations have contributed to the costs of CANA, with the American Anglican Council and other members of the Common Cause Partnership undertaking fundraising campaigns to help cover costs and, along with other donors, provided scholarship support for some individuals. Including volunteers, the total number of conference participants tops 1,200.

Mr. Pratt dismissed speculation that wealthy American conservatives were footing the bill for the gathering. California businessman Howard Ahmanson is a delegate to GAFCON but was not its paymaster, a conference spokesman said.

Attendees are staying in eight West Jerusalem hotels, with the plenary sessions held at the Renaissance Hotel. Their time is divided among plenary sessions, workshops and 85 small groups that discuss the day’s agenda. Pilgrims have also taken half-day trips to the TempleMount and the Mount of Olives, and are scheduled to spend Saturday in Galilee.

The logistical challenges of coordinating a conference of this size in Jerusalem have been formidable at times. A state visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy snarled traffic on Monday, and a gay pride march is scheduled for today.

(The Rev.) George Conger in Jerusalem, with additional reporting by Steve Waring