As Eye See It : Is GAFCON Fizzling Out? - Chris Sugden

The answer is no, but you can read on. ed.

Posted by David Virtue at VirtueOnline on 2009/4/26 16:10:00

Is GAFCON Fizzling Out?

COMMENTARY

by Chris Sugden
Anglican Mainstream
www.anglican-mainstream.net
May 2008

Was this an April Fool's joke? " an African colleague asked me over African tea in Nairobi when I told him of the resignation of Bishop Michael Nazir Ali as Bishop of Rochester on April 1.

Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail found it extraordinary that in order to fulfil his calling to support Christians in minority and persecuted situations, Bishop Nazir Ali had to leave his position as a diocesan bishop of the Church of England.

George Pitcher of the Daily Telegraph greeted the news as a sign of frustration with the lack of progress of the GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference movement since the Jerusalem Conference of June 2008.

Is GAFCON fizzling out? It is important to see its global dimensions. I met with the Archbishop of Kenya at the beginning of April. What difference did he see that GAFCON and its Jerusalem Statement had made?

"GAFCON has had an impact in my province in that Christians were given hope that we are going to be grounded even more in the Word of God and the teaching of the bible is going to be taken seriously. It is the interpretation of scripture by which has caused a lot of problems. We are going to carry on the way we have received it and are going to hand it over to others in the same way.

The big debate here has been the union of the same sex to which the church has been saying no. GAFCON has repeated the same thing in its 14 point declaration and this has been giving the Christians here a lot of hope. When the Anglican Communion has its problems there is somewhere we can lean to and that is GAFCON.

To go to GAFCON and meet with people who come from the west and are orthodox like ourselves is a unique fellowship and shows it is not Africa and Asia who are saying we should follow the word of God the way it is, but other countries in the west are with us.

It was said that GAFCON could be meeting every five years. This will help keep the Anglican church alive and on the move. "

A senior theologian from South Africa, wrote to me the same week: "I truly thank God for GAFCON and the spirit of care and fellowship it portrays, and demonstrates how brothers in Christ remain, because of their steadfast faith in the true Christian doctrine and belief, with the compassion of Christ that has so sharply faded in the worlds of liberalism and pluralism. My deep conviction is that it is this spirit of compassion of which GAFCON carries the torch that will cause us to ultimately triumph, as Christ has said that the gates of hell will not prevail over those who love Him."

Meanwhile plenty is happening. The GAFCON primates' council is meeting in London from April 13-18. The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh in the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone and Archbishop-designate of the Anglican Church in North America, has been invited to attend as a guest, according to the Rev. Peter Frank, director of communications for the diocese.

The Anglican Consultative Council meet in Jamaica from May 1-12. The Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada will attend again as full members for the first time in six years and can be expected to make their presence and agendas felt. Both are pressing forward with authorizing same-sex blessings.

The Anglican Church in North America holds its inaugural meeting in Texas from June 22.

On July 6 a national gathering will take place at the Westminster Central Hall, London entitled "Be Faithful: Anglicans in Global and Local Mission". Speakers will include Archbishop Peter Jensen, Bishop Wallace Benn, Canon Vinay Samuel and Bishop Michael Nazir Ali. More details at www.anglican-mainstream.net. There will be regional meetings in May and meetings in churches in the London area on July 5.

The Revd Paul Perkin, vicar of St Mark's Battersea Rise, London, and Chairman of the event planning team, has said: "The fellowship is just that, a spiritual movement of brothers and sisters across the nation and the world. It is a renewal of our confessing Anglican roots and convictions, and will be forward-looking in gospel mission locally, and in solidarity globally with Anglicans throughout the world, especially those suffering through poverty or discrimination".

GAFCON fizzling out? I don't think so.


---This article first appeared in the May issue of Evangelicals Now