For this reason, it is impossible to embrace pluriform truth as the Archbishop of Canterbury did at the recent Lambeth Conference 2022. He was made a Canon after five years, aged 28; and became an archdeacon just three years later. Appropriate pastoral care includes affirming all those who seek to live a life of faithfulness to Gods Word in the face of all forms of sexual temptation. In other words, appropriate pastoral care is always an expression of authentic biblical discipleship within the fellowship of the local church: We pledge ourselves afresh to support and care for one another in a loving and pastorally sensitive way as members of Christs body, building one another up in the Word and in the Spirit, and encouraging each other to experience Gods transforming power as we walk by faith in the path of repentance and obedience that leads to fullness of life.. He converted to Anglicanism and studied at the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, in Pittsburgh, United States. 2000 years ago, there were various movements for the renewal of Gods people which appeared in the Holy Land and caused quite a storm. The largest gathering of Anglicans since GAFCON III in Jerusalem five years ago had to grapple with the fallout from the [] Although many in the Communion have resisted this, leading to an unfolding realignment in North America, the Instruments of Communion have failed to act and new relationships have developed apart from them. from the Church of England) were not at all representative even of orthodox Anglicans in their provinces. The answers the fellowship develops to the practical questions raised above in relation to the how? question are vital. Gafcon Secretariat, Unit 42/43, Kingspark Business Centre, 152-178 Kingston Road, Surrey, KT3 3ST, United Kingdom, GAFCON is incorporated in the UK as 'The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans' (company number 07759253) Gafcon is a movement focused on evangelism and mission, church planting and providing support and a home for faithful Anglicans who are pressured by or alienated from revisionist dioceses and provinces. Key points of the conference were a response to the Church of England General Synod decision in February to bless those in same-sex unions, a call for the centrality of Gods Word as the final authority, and GAFCONs identity as a missional movement. It does so in the section on Appropriate Pastoral Care. It affirms that every person is loved by God and we are determined to love as God loves. It says, As Resolution I.10 affirms, we oppose the vilification or demeaning of any person including those who do not follow Gods ways, since all human beings are created in the image of God. In the current context of sexual and gender confusion made worse by its export across the world, rooting human identity in Gods good creation, in his image, is essential! This includes matters such as human sexuality and marriage, the uniqueness and divinity of Christ, his bodily resurrection, his promised return, the summons to faith and repentance and the final judgment.. Together, these Primates represent the overwhelming majority (estimated at 85%) of Anglicans worldwide. (Emphasis added). In relation to the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the key issue is the significance of the word necessarily in this crucial sentence of the statement. Davies said Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby urged the provinces to keep walking together. But then, in October, Queen Elizabeth II appointed (and Archbishop Welby commended) a man in a same-sex relationship to be the dean of Canterbury Cathedral the mother diocese of the mother church of the Anglican Communion, Davies said. Archbishop Kwashi (Nigeria) will continue as General Secretary. Gafcon is led by a Council of Primates, set up in 2008 by the first Global Anglican Future Conference at its meeting in Jerusalem. The GAFCON official noted that each group has a distinct mission. Anglicans created GAFCON in 2008 in response to what the group says was Western churches' abandonment of Bible-based doctrines. Gafcon laid out an ambitious agenda as a missionary movement offering safe harbor to refugee Anglicans. GAFCON is clearly the bringing together of a particular number of key groupings into a wider movement. I began this essay one day after the announcement of the "Kigali Commitment," the communiqu of the fourth Global Anglican Future Conference in Kigali, Rwanda.Many Anglicans are rejoicing in what is being termed an historic turning point in "resetting" the life of the Anglican Communion after twenty-five years of turmoil. This is unloving as it leads them into error and places a stumbling block in the way of their inheriting the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). (Emphasis added). How many primates are prepared to disregard a Canterbury invitation to the next Primates Meeting? Here it can learn a lot from the failure of the evangelical wing of the Church of England to make any serious impression on either the church or the nation, despite its numbers and enthusiasm. He served as Assistant Vicar at Nakibizzi Parish, Buikwe District, from 1990 to 1994. WHAT PORTION OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION DOES GAFCON AND THE GSFA REPRESENT? However, the vision of what a reformed Communion would look like remains sketchy. Secondly, the Kigali Statement references the decision of the Church of England, with the express leadership and support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to authorize prayers for the blessing of same sex unions as the tipping point in this crisis. It grieves the Holy Spirit and us that the leadership of the Church of England is determined to bless sin.. In keeping fully with Lambeth Conference Resolution 1.10 (1998), the Kigali Commitment recognizes the call upon the whole church to minister pastorally and sensitively to all, irrespective of sexual orientation, and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage, and any trivialization or commercialization of sex. It is also, thankfully, where the Statements authors appear to recognise the need for more time, prayer and deliberation and cooperation with the Global South and CAPA. He was 17 years old when a friend invited him to visit an Anglican church, and it was there that heheard the Gospel clearly preachedfor the first time. He was consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of Shyiria in March 2010. If we conceive of two different Communionsone aligned with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the other aligned with the Kigali Commitment, it is true that, at the level of official membership, these each represent about 50% of the Anglican Communion. Many of those at GAFCON have sadly decided they cannot in conscience participate in the Lambeth Conference or had that decision taken by others and imposed on them. Unity in the Anglican Church. Archbishop James Wong Yin Song was born in 1960. He was converted as a young man while working as a translator for a CMS missionary and was ordained deacon in 1991 and priest in 1992. Please pray that the leadership of GAFCON and Global South will stay in step with the Holy Spirit (see Galatians 5:16-26). He is a regular radio broadcaster and shares years of Biblical and theological study in addition to more than 35 years of ministry experience as he shepherds the Anglican Diocese of the South. The Primates Council is served by a Secretariat led by the General Secretary, Archbishop Ben Kwashi and includes the Global Operations Manager, and the Director of the GafconBishops Training Institute. Archbishop Beach was the Rector and Pastor of Holy Cross Anglican Church in Loganville, Georgia from its founding in 2004. That this rather than an abandonment of the Communion is the central message from GAFCON is another very encouraging sign. #BeerAndTheologycontinues to meet regularly at The Angel pub, Rotherhithe. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby In addition, since Australia includes Sydney (about 50k members), we must subtract that from the total Canterbury-led Communion and shift those numbers over to the GAFCON/GSFA group. They will not be merging anytime soon. Faithful Anglicans from around the world gather this April in Kigali, Rwanda for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a renewal movement within the family of churches descended from the missionary activities of the Church of England. For those at GAFCON, a priority has been set. He then served as parish priest at Katente Parish from 1997 to 2000. THE Rt Revd Andy Lines, consecrated "Missionary Bishop for Europe" within the Anglican Church in North America, has warned against a "free-for-all" in the Church of England. Both organizations share a significantly overlapping membership and the same orthodox theology. In fact, it is fully in conformity with the teaching of the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. Copyright 2023 by American Anglican Council. The Gafcon movement is a global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion. Following his return to Kenya, he was Diocesan Mission and Development Coordinator for the Diocese of Nakuru and then in 2005 he was consecrated as Suffragan Bishop in Kericho Diocese in Western Kenya, becoming the Diocesan Bishop in 2008. An eleventh Gafcon Province is the Anglican Church in Brazil, which emerged after theliberal Episcopal Church of Brazil also abandoned Biblical orthodoxy. Ben Jeffries for us on the state of the Anglican Communion. Most of the rest of Beachs remarks concentrated on spiritual themes rather than on church politics. We knew that Gafcon and GSFA Primates were meeting behind the scenes, and now we rejoice to hear how they have come to recognize and respect their complementary rolesGafcon as a movement focused on mission and offering safe harbour for Anglicans pressured by or alienated from revisionist dioceses and provinces, and Global South establishing doctrinally-based ecclesial structures within the Communion. Anglican identity is defined by this and not by recognition from the See of Canterbury.. The primary expression of this is taken from canon A5 of the Church of England and this foundation is then expanded into the 14-point Jerusalem Declaration. Here are some of the key takeaways. There are now around 85 million Christians who are part of the Anglican tradition, making the Communion the third-largest Christian denomination in the world. GAFCON is incorporated in the UK as 'The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans' (company number 07759253) Registered Address: Unit 42-43 Kingspark Business Centre, 152-178 Kingston Road, New Malden, Surrey KT3 3ST United Kingdom I encourage you to read and reflect upon the GAFCON Kigali Commitment (2023) for yourself. It can also be found on our website here. During the recent GAFCON conference, they have split from the CofE over same sex unions. Gafcon is a movement focused on evangelism and mission, church planting and providing support and a home for faithful Anglicans who are pressured by or alienated from revisionist dioceses and provinces. We will stand . . This invalidates the schismatic accusation but it remains to be seen what it means in practice and what stance those in the fellowship will take to the various ecumenical agreements Anglicans have entered into in recent decades. After election by the ACNA College of Bishops, he also began serving as Archbishop of the Province in 2014. What? But the Kigali Commitment also reflects the resolve of Jesus and his disciples to journey on, no matter how many people turn away. This is a poignant sacrificial moment of sifting for Jesus and his disciples. This is clear from the section on The Authority of Gods word: The current divisions in the Anglican Communion have been caused by radical departures from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. continues to meet regularly at The Angel pub, Rotherhithe. The Kigali Commitment (2023) asserts that the primates who align with the statement represent the overwhelming majorty (estimated at 85%) of Anglicans worldwide. The accuracy of this number has been publically challenged, and so an explanation is in order. He was then elected the fourth Archbishop and Primate of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda on 17 January 2018. As the Archbishop of Canterbury has said in his initial response The 'tenets of orthodoxy' spelled out in the document will be acceptable to and shared by the vast majority of Anglicans in every province, even if there may be differences of emphasis and perspective on some issues. . It is the same face we find in the top leadership of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans. Wong was granted Seychelles citizenship on 11 May 2017. In other words, the face of the top leadership of Gafcon is a global Anglican Communion face, representing (with Global South) the 85% majority of Anglicans in Africa, Austral-Asia, and the Americas. Its goal is to offer a biblical counter to progressive Anglicans' errors in doctrine and practice and a spiritual home for the faithful. Archbishop Foley Beach who leads both GAFCON and the Anglican Church in North America put a stake in the ground in his remarks at the opening ceremony Monday evening. It is now supported by the Gafcon Guarantors who ensure continuity of vision, strategy and resources and the Gafcon Trustees who monitor legal and operational compliance. Therefore, the 85% seems to be a fair and probable estimate of the real lay of the land within Global Anglicanism. We acknowledge their agreement that communion between churches and Christians must be based on doctrine (Jerusalem Declaration #13; GSFA Covenant 2.1.6). The remaining questions include: Which faction will have custody of the name? However, all evangelicals and most other Anglicans should be able to give a generally positive response to this reassertion of a doctrinal core to Anglican identity. How might this definition of appropriate pastoral care help us along the way? Is the Anglican Communion going to break apart? Its central claim is that Western secularism and pluralism are not only damaging society but have infiltrated the churches, leading to a false gospel being propagated. This will, in some Provinces, require the same kind of changes in Constitutions and Canons that the Church of Nigeria instituted in 2005, removing the recognition from Canterbury as a condition of membership in the Communion. He was elected Archbishop and Primate of the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan on 20 January 2018. The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches ( GSFA ), formerly known as Global South (Anglican), is a communion of 25 Anglican churches, of which 22 are provinces of the Anglican Communion, plus the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Church in Brazil. I mean, why does a secular government of only one of the nations represented in the Anglican Communion still get to pick the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion? We cannot 'walk together' in good disagreement with those who have deliberately chosen to walk . He is a longtime supporter of GAFCON. These people are described as representing millions of faithful Anglican Christians, probably the majority of Anglicans in the Communion, although the failure to publish a full attendance list makes it difficult to assess this claim and it is clear that some were not in the Communion (e.g. In the London Church Times (18th May 2018), Bishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council claimed that Gafcon had been 'inaccurate' in describing the newly formed Anglican Church in Brazil as part of the Anglican Communion and claimed that "To be part of the Anglican Communion requires being in communion . The final version of the Gafcon IV Kigali Commitment (2023) will go down in history as among the historic turning points of the Anglican Communion. Here they reaffirm their commitment to continue this unique work. All Rights Reserved. We are seeking to have a Gafcon representative or advocate in each church who will be our point of contact for the Moment & Prayer items. Gafcon Kigali has Begun. Among the remaining Provinces several local branches of Gafcon have been established or are in the process of being formed. As a bishop, he was particularly concerned for youth outreach while his development interests led to him becoming Chairman of the Anglican Church of Kenyans development arm, Anglican Development Services in 2012. But let me offer the following eight take-aways and commentary on the GAFCON Kigali Commitment. He wasin office until his election as the 6th Archbishop of Myanmar, at the general synod held at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Yangonon 15 January 2008. Dr. Foley Beach is a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the School of Theology at the University of the South, and Georgia State University. The Kigali Commitment (2023) will not permit Anglicans patiently walking in good disagreement. That narrative from the Canterbury-led Communion is DOA. 2023 The Institute on Religion and Democracy. Pray for the fruit of the Holy Spirit to come out of their collaboration. Make your commitment, preached GAFCON Secretary and Archbishop Ben Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria, pointing to the body and blood of Christ as GAFCON prepared to share in Holy Communion at the conclusion of the event. The substantive content of GAFCONs response to this crisis is a commitment to reform, heal and revitalise the Anglican Communion and expand its mission to the world in the belief that the Anglican Communion should and will be reformed around the biblical gospel and mandate to go into all the world and present Christ to the nations. He has previously taught at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Trinity College, Bristol and been an Adjunct Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. After theological study to degree level in Kenya he attended Reading University in England and has an MA in Social Development and Sustainability. However, it is important to discern what is new and different here and consider whether it opens up possibilities for constructively reconfiguring some of the divisions of the past. But the Kigali Commitment goes even further by recognizing that true loveGods love does not lead people into sin: Aware of our own sin and frailty, we commit ourselves to providing appropriate pastoral care to all people in our churches. The Anglican Diocese of Sydney is also officially listed as a member. This is an historic moment of the formal fracture between the majority Gafcon and Global South Anglican Communion (85% est.) . Whatever our instant reactions to GAFCON whether positive or negative or simply confused we may do well in coming weeks and months not to rush to definitive judgment. Sadly, and with broken hearts, we must say that until the Archbishop of Canterbury repents, we can no longer recognize him as the first among equals, spiritually. We therefore commit to pray that God will guide this process of resetting, and that Gafcon and GSFA will keep in step with the Spirit. That this is the situation is to a significant degree recognised across the Communion including by the Instruments of Communion that GAFCON judges to have failed , In short, while there are dangers in a broad-brush analysis and areas which need nuancing or correcting, much of the diagnosis offered by GAFCON has widespread sympathy and support. Therefore, with sadness we come to the next takeaway. The people of God walk in his ways, walk in the truth, and walk in the light, all of which require that we do not walk in Christian fellowship with those in darkness (Deuteronomy 8:6; 2 John 4; 1 John 1:7).. Those differences could lead to a change in the worldwide Anglican Communion's leadership structure. Gafcon Australia is part of a global family of Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of Anglican Churches. Central to the statement is the call to re-order the Anglican Communion in cooperation with the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA). He has also wrriten an autobiography 'From Barefoot to Bishop' (2017). Institute on Religion and Democracy1023 15th Street NW, Suite 200Washington, DC 20005Contact us | Media requests. The GAFCON statement not only offers a diagnosis and general call for reform based on fundamental doctrine. It grieves the Holy Spirit and us that the leadership of the Church of England is determined to bless sin, the conference statement, crafted across the duration of the event and speaking for the more than 1,300 delegates from 52 countries registered for the gathering. There are also concerns as to whether Anglican identity is here being reduced and restricted to a doctrinal definition. In 2000 he became bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Chile, comprising the entire country of Chile. There needs, therefore, to be a clearer account of what GAFCON is working. Registered Address: Unit 42-43Kingspark Business Centre, 152-178 Kingston Road, New Malden, Surrey KT3 3ST United Kingdom, We are also registered as a charity in the UK under the same name (registration number 1144227), The Most Revd Dr. Foley Beach, Archbishop, Anglican Church in North America, Chairman of Gafcon since 2019, The Most Revd. Subsequently, if we remove from the equation nominal Anglicans who never go to Church, theAnglican Communion consists of about 50 million active Christians. The Church of England exemplifies one view of missions and evangelism. This has shifted in more recent years, and GSFA recognizes and includes groups like ACNA outside of the Canterbury-led Communion. One Anglican leader from Germany expressed how humbled he was that the African churches are reaching back to Europe from where the first missionaries came to them! We do not accept the view that we can still walk together with the revisionist provinces. That declaration has been cited with approval by multiple GAFCON speakers and official statements. In the section on Support for Faithful Anglicans: Since the inception of Gafcon, it has been necessary for the Gafcon Primates to recognise new orthodox jurisdictions for faithful Anglicans, such as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), the Anglican Church in Brazil, the Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE), the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Diocese of the Southern Cross. He currently teaches Christian ethics at Westminster Theological Centre and Ridley Hall, Cambridge and is Assistant Minister at St James the Less, Pimlico where his wife, Lis, is Vicar. All rights reserved. In the state of IL Convicted sex offenders are not allowed within 500 feet of children. Nevertheless, continued conversations between GAFCON and the wider Communion are vital. In particular the articulation of it is not overly prescriptive or narrow in its content. The answer is in the section on Resetting the Communion: We were delighted to be joined in Kigali by leaders of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) and to host a combined Gafcon-GSFA Primates meeting. We rejoice in the declaration of their unity in the Kigali Statement (2023): We rejoice in the united commitment of both groups on three fundamentals: the lordship of Jesus Christ; the authority and clarity of the Word of God; and the priority of the churchs mission to the world. The final version of the Gafcon IV Kigali Commitment (2023) will go down in history as among the historic turning points of the Anglican Communion. Each Anglican Province is led by a Primate (Archbishop), nine of whom are active supporters of Gafcon. In our own life in the ACNA, we are seeking to find more faithful ways to provide appropriate pastoral care for the victims of misconduct and abuse by church leaders. They must consider how they will relate to GAFCON and whether they can offer a more constructive and truly conciliar way of addressing the questions we face. In one of their dioceses over the last few years, there has been a sexual abuse investigation where a lay pastor was convicted of several young people and the failure of the Church of the Resurrection of IL to share with the congregation is irresponsible ( It took them 22 months to tell the congregation) and failure to report to the state agency is irresponsible but that is exactly what they did. The introduction to the statement makes clear it comes from a global body of over 1,000 Anglicans (bishops, clergy and laity) including, significantly, about a third of the bishops of the Communion. The language could not be clearer. Archbishop Justin Badi Arama was born in 1964 in Maridi, South Sudan. And so, we read in the section The Call for Repentance: We consider that those who refuse to repent have abdicated their right to leadership within the Anglican Communion. This cannot be confirmed with hard data, because these churches do not record ASA as a reported metric (indeed, the churches there are often so full, it would be difficult to record! Perhaps more to the point, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell seemingly made oblique reference to GAFCON in his presidential address to the York Synod. Gods good Word is the rule of our lives as disciples of Jesus and is the final authority in the church. (Emphasis added). There is atenth Gafcon Province, The Anglican Church in North America, which is emerging within the Anglican Communion as the orthodox church in the United States, Canada and Mexico. COMMENT The Prophetic Indictment We provide original articles, detailed analysis, reliable news, a virtual library and online discussion. We can partially verify this by running the numbers the other way: If we add up the (pre-COVID) ASA of the Church of England (854,000), The Episcopal Church USA (547,000), the Anglican Church of Canada (97,000), the Scottish Episcopal Church (12,000), the Church in Wales (33,000) and the Anglican Church of Australia (220,000) we get a total of 1.76 million active Anglicans in provinces clearly aligned with Canterbury. Registered Address: Unit 42-43Kingspark Business Centre, 152-178 Kingston Road, New Malden, Surrey KT3 3ST United Kingdom, We are also registered as a charity in the UK under the same name (registration number 1144227), Anglican Network in Europe (proto-province), Why the movement was formed The History of GAFCON, A defence by Jim Packer of the decision to leave the ACoC and form the Anglican Network in Canada.
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