English Bishops urge African and Southern Cone Primates to attend Lambeth: Primate Akinola takes a different view
Twenty one English Bishops have written to Primates urging them to attend the Lambeth Conference.
The Church of England Newspaper reports:
AN OPEN letter from a group of evangelical bishops in the Church of England has urged those Primates threatening to boycott this year’s Lambeth Conference to attend the 10- yearly meeting. In an open letter to the Archbishops of Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, the clerics, who describe themselves as ‘the evangelical bishops in the Church of England’, say they share the Primates’ ‘increasing sorrow and alarm at the developing situation around the Anglican Communion’, and highlight their support for the Windsor process and the idea of a pan-Anglican Covenant. The bishops give their backing to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advent Letter which encouraged the Global South Primates to attend Lambeth, and point to Dr Williams’ determination to base the conference on Scripture. They go on to offer their support to the Archbishop ‘in his immensely difficult task of developing the life of our Communion in new ways of mutual understanding and support’, and urge the Primates ‘to be present to help us do this’. The Bishops acknowledge that the whole Windsor process has been ‘tortuous and frustrating and much slower than we would all have wished’, but warn if it is abandoned it ‘would inevitably split apart those who share an equally high regard for Scriptures and for the historic faith of the Church’. They continue: “We cannot believe this to be the mind of the Spirit or indeed that you yourselves would really want such a result. “We urge you therefore to take the long route, waiting for God to work through the processes that are already in train and praying for him to work his purposes in us and through us together. “We long to share with you in fellowship and long to share with you in fellowship and in celebration at Lambeth and, beyond that, we look to sharing with you in our common calling to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord throughout the world.”
The letter has been signed by the following 21 bishops: David James (Bishop of Bradford), Mike Hill (Bristol), Graham Dow (Carlisle), Tom Wright (Durham), Jonathan Gledhill (Lichfield), John Pritchard (Oxford), George Cassidy (Southwell), David Hawkins (Barking), Richard Inwood (Bedford), Bob Evens (Crediton), Nick Baines (Croydon), Cyril Ashton (Doncaster), Clive Young (Dunwich), Geoffrey Pearson (Lancaster), James Langstaff (Lynn), Graham Cray (Maidstone), James Newcombe (Penrith), Paul Butler (Southampton), Lee Rayfield (Swindon), John Went (Tewkesbury)
The Archbishop of Nigeria said in a Press Conference in Lagos on Wednesday January 30:
The issue is that there are members of our Anglican family who are not paying attention to scripture, but are giving prominence to modern culture. They are bringing new principles to interpret scripture. The word of God has precedence over any culture. Those of us who will abide with the Word of God, come rain come fire, are those who are in GAFCON.
Those who say it does not matter are the ones who are attending Lambeth. There might be a view, for whatever it is worth, that they want to be there to observe what is going on. But Uganda, Rwanda, Sydney, Nigeria: we are not going to Lambeth conference. What is the use of the Lambeth conference for a three weeks’ jamboree which will sweep these issues under the carpet. GAFCON will confer about the future of the church, which will set a road map for the future. We are a movement that will move away from the “maybe – maybe not”.
The issue is that church leaders are endorsing what is wrong. They are not willing to make the gospel that the Lord can bring change available. We want to move forward with commitment to the word of God. The question is asked how many people we are. The question is rather how many people we are representing. Four primates who are in the leadership of GAFCON represent more than 30 million Anglicans.
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