Be Faithful! Bishop Wallace Benn
Church of England Newspaper July 2 2009
The title for the launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in Westminster Central Hall at 10.30 on July 6th says it all: Be faithful. That is our calling as Anglican Christians today. The Scriptures exhort us to remain faithful to the faith ‘once for all delivered to the saints’, to the Lordship of Christ and hence to Apostolic teaching and practice.
Powerful cultural forces, exerted through social pressure, the media and legislation are forcing Christians to conform to the way of the world in matters of marriage and sexuality. The Episcopal Church in North America, the Anglican Church of Canada and others have embraced these forces and, often without due process and against natural justice, are forcing out those Anglicans who seek to remain faithful to Biblical teaching and practice. In the church in the West generally there is a gradual slide in the same dangerous direction.
The gathering on July 6th will express the unity of Anglican Christians in their loyalty to the teachings and commands of Jesus. A major step towards that unity was taken a year ago at the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem. Many within and without the church were unsure about what Anglicans stood for. GAFCON issued the Jerusalem statement, which has been widely received by Anglicans around the world as expressing the heart of Anglican faith and practice.
Over 900 Anglicans have already registered for ‘Be Faithful’. They will consider the situation of the global Communion, and express their solidarity and support for Anglicans under pressure and persecution, both in North America and in the Sudan. They will address challenges to maintaining biblically faithful witness and ministry in the Church of England today.
The FCA is not another organization. It is not seeking to create another church. It is a spiritual movement and fellowship for renewal, reformation and mission – uniquely bringing together those whose key shaping and commitment, but not exclusive identity, has been through the Anglo-Catholic, conservative evangelical, and charismatic expressions of Anglicanism.
The FCA movement can do this because it is defined by its centre in the Christian faith as currently embraced in the Jerusalem Declaration and Statement. Vinay Samuel, a speaker on July 6th writes:
“Gafcon is defined by its centre and not by any boundaries. It is a fellowship of people who affirm the centre of orthodox faith as expressed in the Jerusalem Statement. Some who are uncertain whether they are in or out might be finding boundaries which were never intended by those who have taken the initiative to launch this fellowship.”
“Some orthodox Anglicans distance themselves from GAFCCON/FCA while affirming that they have much in common with the Jerusalem Statement and with the initiators of FCA. They are as keen to be seen as "inclusive" as they are to be seen as Orthodox. Inclusion is elevated to as important a basis for fellowship as orthodox faith. As an Indian Christian who lives in the west I am no stranger to exclusion, but I do not believe a biblical understanding of inclusion supports such a view.”
It would be premature to ask a movement to clarify all its terms or meet all the requirements set by others sadly hesitant to identify with it. What matters, as Bishop Bob Duncan told the launch of the Anglican Church in North America, is “to keep the main thing the main thing”. That is what ‘Be Faithful’ will seek to do by the grace and with the help of God.
Tickets may be purchased online at www.anglican-mainstream.net here or at the door for £15 (Ordinands £5).
Wallace Benn is Bishop of Lewes, Chairman of the Advisory Council to the GAFCON Primates and President of CEEC.
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