Anglican Mainstream

To the Archbishops of Canterbury and York

June 24 2010

Your graces,

We welcome your intervention in the run up to the General Synod debate on the Women Bishops' measure and its helpful recognition of the need to address the issue of jurisdiction by means of a 'nominated bishop' arrangement. This certainly represents a significant improvement on the current draft of the measure but there are some aspects which are unclear to us.

To secure the honoured future of those who in conscience cannot accept the ministry of women bishops, there will need to be further elaboration as to their powers of ordination, appointment and licensing. There also needs to be further elaboration on how consistency between the dioceses will be achieved.  A scheme that derives authority from the whole church should have arrangements also provided by the church as a whole.

As you will be aware there is much interest amongst us in the concept of a mission society. We are continuing to explore this concept which, if carefully crafted, will provide the necessary fellowship for the bishops, clergy and people so affected, would give much of what is necessary in a clearly Church of England framework, and provide a strong impetus for mission.

Yours sincerely in Christ

Paul Perkin
Chris Sugden

for the Steering Committee of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans
(UK and Ireland)

The Chelmsford FCA steering group met yesterday (29th June) to consider our future aims and programme.

Feedback from the launch meeting on the 16th June suggested that many of those who attended wanted to see more attention given to the question of Anglican ‘identity’ — what the things are that ought to define the Church of England, its membership and its ministry.

The consensus of the group was that our focus should be on the ‘big picture’ of Anglican orthodoxy, rather than always on ‘firefighting’ with regard to particular issues. At the same time, those special issues do need to be addressed, and there are many areas in which there is a need for action and mutual support.

The hope was expressed that the Fellowship could therefore operate on two levels — developing our understanding of ‘Confessional’ Anglicanism today, and supporting one another within the diocese as and when appropriate.

An initial gathering to look at the nature of Anglicanism is being considered for November this year, under the title "Anglican — by accident or design?"

See the website here.

The Fourth Blast of the Trumpet

The image of the trumpet blast seems to be an over-dramatic description of the communiqué issued from the latest Global South Encounter. In fact, the response to it has been somewhat muted. But as a guest at the conference, I believe that it fully deserves the title ‘trumpet’ and will in time be regarded as an historic statement.

One reason why it fails to create a strong reaction is that it simply confirms the obvious. The crisis moment has now passed. Many of the Global South provinces have given up on the official North American Anglicans (TEC and the Canadian Church) and regard themselves as being out of communion with them. They renew the call for repentance but can see that, failing something like the Great Awakening, it will not occur. The positive side to this is that they are committed to achieving self-sufficiency so that they will cease to rely on the Western churches for aid. That is something the Global South has been working on for some time, with success.

In my judgment, the assembly was unresponsive to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s video greetings. I don’t think that what he said was obscure. It just seemed to be from another age, another world. His plea for patience misjudged the situation by several years and his talk of the Anglican covenant was not where the actual conference was at. He seemed to suggest that the consecration of a partnered lesbian Bishop will create a crisis. In fact the crisis itself has passed. We are now on the further side of the critical moment; the decisions have all been made; we are already living with the consequences. And it was in working out the consequences that the communiqué may eventually be seen to be historic.

Read here

We are encouraged by and welcome the Communique from the Fourth Anglican Global South to South Encounter in Singapore, with its positive emphasis on mission. We particularly endorse:

1. Their positive response to the call to declare the next ten years a Decade of Mission and Networking, to expand mission sending capacity to enhance networking among Global South Provinces, together with the need to pay greater attention to the role of Christian professionals in the mission, ministry and witness of the Christian community. and the pastoral needs of the laity, especially women and young [10]

2. Their agreement that the future of the Communion lies in winning the next generation for Christ and therefore their call to each region to adopt initiatives to better understand the needs and characteristics of this new generation so that we might better communicate the Gospel and Christian values to them. [12]

3. Their statement of ‘the absolute necessity and priority for the Church to disciple her members under the authority of the inspired Scriptures so that they may transform their societies and reach the nations with the Gospel’. [13]

4. Their recognition that TEC and ACC’s ‘continued refusal to honor the many requests made of them by the various meetings of the Primates throughout the Windsor Process have brought discredit to our witness’; the urging of the Archbishop of Canterbury to implement the recommended actions’; and their encouragement to Provinces ‘to reconsider their communion relationships with The Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada until it becomes clear that there is genuine repentance’. [18 and 19]

5. Their acknowledgement that there are many within TEC who do not accept their church’s innovations, to whom we should offer loving and prayerful support. [19]

6. Their recognition that the recently formed Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a faithful expression of Anglicanism’; their welcome to ACNA churches as partners in the Gospel; and their hope that all provinces will be in full communion with the clergy and people of the ACNA and the Communion Partners. [19]

7. Their view that ‘there is a need to review the entire Anglican Communion structure; especially the Instruments of Communion and the Anglican Communion office; in order to achieve an authentic expression of the current reality of our Anglican Communion’. [22]

Dr Philip Giddings (Convenor Anglican Mainstream)
Rev Paul Perkin (Chairman, Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (UK and Ireland))
Canon Dr Chris Sugden (Executive Secretary, Anglican Mainstream)

By Charles Raven, SPREAD

Although not attended by great fanfare and ceremony, something quite remarkable seems to be happening in Singapore at the fourth Global South to South Encounter. We are seeing the emergence of a global Anglicanism of substance, displacing the shadow Anglicanism of institutional pragmatism. Institutions which until recently had the appearance of substance – the Anglican Consultative Council, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates meeting and the Archbishop of Canterbury himself – are now taking on an unreal quality as shadows of a discredited past while the GAFCON movement, dismissed by many at its inception in 2008, is turning out to have foreshadowed a fundamental realignment which is now beginning to express itself in new structures.

The shadow quality of the old order was inescapable in both the medium and the message of Rowan Williams’ address. Due to a ‘full diary’ his was a virtual presence by video and his message amounted to little more than yet another call to continue with ‘careful listening’. So it is not surprising that Dr Williams politely absented himself this time round since it is clear that he has nothing new to say.

At the previous South to South encounter at the Red Sea in 2005, the Global South primates held him to account for his well known sympathy for the homosexual agenda and when a private request to repudiate those views failed to elicit a response, it was reiterated in a public letter which also called on the Archbishop to be more decisive: ‘We are disappointed’ they wrote ‘with your deferring to “process.” You seem to keep saying, “My hands are tied.” We urge you to untie your hands and provide the bold, inclusive leadership the Communion needs at this time of crisis and distrust’. In response, Dr Williams reaffirmed the Covenant process as the only way forward and concluded rather crisply: ‘If this letter is a contribution to that process of debate, then it is to be welcomed, however robust. If it is an attempt to foreclose that debate, it would seem to serve very little purpose indeed.’ Read here

GAFCON website has announced today that the Commentary on the Jerusalem Declaration by its Theology Resource Group is now available for downloading.  The website also gives ways the printed version can be accessed in different parts of the world.

http://www.gafcon.org/news/being_faithful_now_available_for_download/

The Commentary on the landmark Anglican ‘Jerusalem Declaration’ has been released in digital form and is available for immediate download. (Large pdf file)

In June 2008, 1200 Anglican leaders, bishops, clergy and lay people, from 27 provinces of the Anglican Communion met in Jerusalem for the Global Anglican Future Conference.

One of the results was the establishment of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, with the ‘Jerusalem Declaration’ as its foundation.

In 2009, 40 theologians, from 14 countries throughout the Anglican Communion, produced a commentary on this important document called “Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today”.

This Gafcon/FCA Primates Council, including leaders from some of the strongest Anglican communities in the world, have urged Anglicans everywhere to read and study this important work.

It has now been made available for download, in special edition along with “The Way, The Truth, and the Life” which was launched at GAFCON.

The complete PDF is available for download here.

Statement from GAFCON/FCA Primates Council

We have received the Archbishop of Canterbury’s letter informing us of the Pope’s offer of an ‘Apostolic Constitution’ for those Anglicans who wish to be received into the Roman Catholic Church.  We believe that this offer is a gracious one and reflects the same commitment to the historic apostolic faith, moral teaching and global mission that we proclaimed in the Jerusalem Declaration on the Global Anglican Future and for this we are profoundly grateful.

We are, however, grieved that the current crisis within our beloved Anglican Communion has made necessary such an unprecedented offer. It represents a grave indictment of the Instruments of Communion whose very purpose is to strengthen and protect our unity in obedience to our Lord’s clear command.  Their failure to fully address the abandonment of biblical faith and practice by The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada has now brought shame to the name of Christ and seriously impedes the cause of the Gospel.

The Primates Council of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON/FCA) is convinced, however, that Anglicanism has a bright future as long as we remain grounded in the Holy Scriptures and obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ’s call to reach the lost and make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe the whole Gospel.  We also believe that there is room within our Anglican family for all those who hold true to the ‘faith once delivered to the saints’. We would like to encourage those Anglicans who are considering this invitation from the Roman Catholic Church to recognize that Anglican churches are growing throughout the world in strength and offering a vibrant testimony to the transforming work of Christ. 

We are convinced that this is not the time to abandon the Anglican Communion. Our Anglican identity of reformed catholicity, that gives supreme authority to the Holy Scriptures and acknowledgement that our sole representative and advocate before God is the Lord Jesus Christ, stands as a beacon of hope for millions of people.  We remain proud inheritors of the Anglican Reformation. This is a time for all Christians to persevere confident of our Lord’s promise that nothing, not even the gates of hell, will prevail against His Church.

+Peter Abuja,
Chairman,
GAFCON/FCA Primates Council
November 10, 2009

By Charles Raven, SPREAD

This week a spokesman for Fulcrum, the ‘open’ evangelical’ grouping the in the Church of England, has claimed that the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans will fragment the Church of England, weaken its structures and polarise debate. Many might think that as far as the first two charges are concerned, the Church of England has been managing to bring these about quite effectively on its own without any help from the FCA in Great Britain and Ireland, but Kuhrt claims that the FCA needs to ‘bury good news’ and to substantiate this he buries the bad news.

As far as the third charge is concerned, the FCA is not polarising debate, but its existence inevitably brings issues to the surface. And this is what happened at a meeting of the Church of England’s Evangelical Council last week as the Revd Stephen Kuhrt represented the Fulcrum position on the FCA. An alternative view was given by the Revd Vaughan Roberts in his address ‘Why I Praise God for the FCA’ .

Both are published side by side in this week’s Church of England Newspaper, but this is not simply a Church of England matter. The FCA in these islands is part of the global GAFCON movement and much as some would want to deny it, the problems which have engulfed the Anglican Churches of North America are inexorably manifesting themselves in England.

Vaughan Roberts is an excellent advocate for the FCA and there is no point in repeating him. My focus is on Stephen Kuhrt’s critique of the FCA in which he unintentionally draws attention to the very reasons why we need it.

First, we are told that what the FCA and Article 13 of the Jerusalem Declaration ‘opens up are the grounds for pretty much any parish or grouping with a grudge against authority appealing to FCA UK and receiving its support.’ This is a parody. ‘Being Faithful’, the GAFCON Theological Resource Group’s commentary on the Jerusalem Declaration, makes it clear that ‘the breaking of communion between churches is only to be applied in extreme circumstances’ and ‘should be exercised with due process and over time’ (p65) and commends the eight step pattern of discipline recommended in ‘To Mend the Net’, the 2001 proposal for restoring order in the Anglican Communion by Archbishops Maurice Sinclair and Drexel Gomez (which was shunted into a siding by one of Stephen Kuhrt’s favoured ‘Keele Evangelicals’, former Archbishop George Carey).

Read the rest of this entry »

Vaughan Roberts, Church of England Newspaper October 16

The launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (UK and Ireland) on 6 July was an answer to my prayers.  I had feared that orthodox Anglicans, who share a common commitment to the essentials of our faith and a concern about departures from it within the Church of England and wider Anglican Communion, would spend more energy disagreeing over their different strategies for the defence and proclamation of the gospel than in supporting one another and working together for Christ in our church and nation.   GAFCON gave me a glimpse of another possibility: a wide spectrum of believers including Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals of all shades, joining together in one united movement for the cause of Christ in the Anglican Communion in the light of great opportunities for mission and serious departures from the apostolic gospel.  The existence of a national FCA provides us, I believe, with a God given opportunity.  It is urgently needed for the following reasons:

1.    To support the beleaguered orthodox overseas
FCA is committed to supporting Anglicans around the world who are suffering because of their commitment to the orthodox faith in dioceses and provinces that have departed from it.  TEC is currently spending very large sums of money on deposing clergy and dispossessing churches.  Both those who have formed the ACNA and others who have remained in TEC need to know that they are not alone and can rely on our prayers and partnership, as do the orthodox in a number of other countries who face great difficulties.  Their situations are urgent now and can not wait for the outcome of the proposed Anglican Covenant process, which is anyway likely only to address questions of order rather than the issue of defending orthodox belief.

Read the rest of this entry »

From Stephen Sizer

Members of the FCA Theological Resource Group outside Christ Church, Virginia Water.

Orthodox Anglican Bishops, clergy and theologians from Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, Australia, the USA and UK were meeting at Sunningdale Park in Berkshire over the weekend.

They also attended the morning service at Christ Church, Virginia Water. The Right Revd. Ikechi Nwachukwu Nwosu from Nigeria preached a moving sermon on Matthew 16:21-28 (front row fourth from right). Warm greetings were received from the Right Revd Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford. Members of Runnymede Deanery also attended.

Pictured (from left to right)

Back and middle rows:  Dr George Malek (South Africa), Canon Dr Kevin Donlan (USA), Revd Charles Raven (UK), Revd Dr Roger Beckwith (UK), Revd Dr Mark Thompson (Australia), Revd Professor Stephen Noll (Uganda), Canon Dr Chris Sugden (UK)

Front Row:  Canon Etienne Mbusa (Congo), Dr Ngozi Okeke (Nigeria), Revd Erin Clifford (UK), Rt  Revd Dr John Akao (Nigeria), Rt Revd Dr Ikechi Nwachukwu Nwosu (Nigeria), Mrs Bimsola Odunayia (Nigeria), Canon Arthur Middleton (UK)

Church of England Newspaper October 9

Sir, It has been very sad to see the controversy about FCA over the summer. Anglican Christians, from conservative and mainstream evangelical, charismatic, middle of the road and Anglo-catholic backgrounds, from around the world, came together to uphold the historic Christian faith, the authority of Scripture and traditional human sexuality.

Yet in England we seem to be allowing our much smaller differences to cloud our unity of purpose.

During my visits to South America I have met many of the leaders of the Dioceses, which have sought Episcopal cover there. I have been moved by their pain about the situation in the USA and impressed by their graciousness towards those Parishes who do not want to accompany them. I have glimpsed too something of the hard work and prayer of the Gafcon Primates. Without their gracious firmness the Anglican Communion would so easily have drifted to a more liberal position. 

There are differences of opinion over strategy. Whether it will be FCA or the glacial speed of the Windsor process or some combination of both that eventually wins the day for orthodoxy we don’t know. But we do know we are called to ‘contend for the faith that was once and for all entrusted
to the saints’ and to walk in humility with each other. 

The Rev Canon Patrick Coghlan
Chair of South American Mission Society
but writing in a personal capacity
Sheffield
 

Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today

A Commentary on the Jerusalem Declaration supplemented by The Way, the Truth and the Life – Theological Resources for a Global Anglican Future

How did the worldwide Anglican Communion come to the present situation, in which its conflict is a matter of continual public debate, and where it seems no peace-initiatives have been able to succeed? Out of concern for the very future of the Anglican Communion, over 1000 senior leaders from seventeen provinces in the Anglican Communion, representing 35 million church-going Anglicans, met for the Global Anglican Future Conference and Pilgrimage (GAFCON) in Jerusalem in June 2008. They met to seek counsel, to pray, and to return to their biblical and historical roots in the Holy Land, in a coalition of the willing. The GAFCON Statement, which contains the Jerusalem Declaration, is a prophetic response to the current situation of indiscipline. Being Faithful is an exposition of the Jerusalem Declaration, set alongside the theological resource papers drafted for the meeting in Jerusalem, which were previously published as The Way, the Truth and the Life.

Over against the culture of repudiation and innovation, public confession of the apostolic faith is necessary in order to shine the light in a dark place. To identify where orthodox Anglicans stand in response to these powerful cultural influences, it is necessary to confess that which we believe in relation to the current challenges. This is a time-honoured response of the Church to the challenges to its life. More importantly, it is an expression of, and a humble witness to, our orthodoxy and identity as Anglicans, living under the full and complete authority of the Bible. We are not attempting to fix Anglican identity but to reaffirm it, as being anchored in the apostolic faith, and as belonging to a Christian church which is centred on the gospel and bounded by Scripture.

We are using a new Print on Demand publishing partnership in the UK and USA which we hope will make the book more accessible and affordable around the world. Publisher’s price: £7.50, US$10.00 (if bought via US channels). Additional overseas shipping will apply if bought from the UK.

ISBN: 978 0 946307 99 9

First published 2009: 162 pages

International purchasers should note that they may be able to source this book more cheaply via Amazon.com due to local printing.

Read further here
 

Chris Sugden  Evangelicals Now  October 2009

“I waited and prayed for this for 15 years” – said Rev David Macgregor, the retired Dean of Pretoria in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, (ACSA) following the launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in Southern Africa (FCASA).

70 people gathered from Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town in St John’s Church Walmer Port Elizabeth on September 3rd. They came from both the ACSA which is recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the (largely conservative evangelical) Church of England in South Africa (CESA) which is not.

One clergyman from ACSA told me this was the first Anglican meeting he had attended with people from CESA.

FCA brought together orthodox Anglicans from the charismatic, conservative evangelical and anglo-catholic traditions at Jerusalem in June 2008, in London in July 2009 and again in South Africa in September 2009.  Contributors included Alan Kenyon-Hoare, the vicar-general of the Anglican Catholic Church of South Africa, Bishop Desmond Inglesby of CESA, Nigel Juckes, a charismatic vicar from Durban and Archdeacon Sharon Nell from Port Elizabeth.

The host Bishop Bethlehem Nopece of Port Elizabeth. said: “The issues within the Anglican Church have been simmering for a long time, and are only now coming to the fore.  The interpretation of Scripture and its cultural validity is an issue affecting all denominations in the Body of Christ – however, the true Church of Jesus will not compromise on His Word and will stand firm against liberal thinking that has infiltrated this sacred institution. As concerned Biblical Anglicans, we intend to do the same in SA through the FCA.” Read the rest of this entry »

November   17th – 19th 2009

Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans Consultation: Algarve Portugal

At the Jerusalem GAFCON Conference in June 2008, representatives of 40 million churchgoing Anglicans affirmed the historic and orthodox Anglican faith in the Jerusalem Statement. This restates the power of the good news of Jesus Christ to bring us together across continents and cultures into the global fellowship of the Anglican Communion. The mission of making this good news known is currently being hindered and obstructed in many ways by belief and behaviour in church leadership that is contrary to the teaching of the Bible and the apostles.

To this end the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans ( www.fca.net) was launched  at the Jerusalem Conference. We are a fellowship of people united in the communion of the one Spirit and committed to work and pray together in the common mission of Christ. It is a ‘confessing fellowship’ in that its members confess the faith of Christ crucified, stand firm for the gospel in the global and Anglican context, and affirm a contemporary rule, the Jerusalem Declaration, to guide the movement for the future. We are a fellowship of Anglicans, including provinces, dioceses, churches, missionary jurisdictions, para-church organisations and individual Anglican Christians whose goal is to help reform, heal and revitalise the Anglican Communion and expand its mission to the world. The Jerusalem Declaration is the basis of our fellowship.

The Fellowship in the UK and Ireland was launched in London on July 6th. Continental European representatives who were present mooted the possibility of a further “coming together” to explore this thinking – an opportunity for worship, discussion, prayer and discernment. In support of this a Consultation in the sunny Algarve is to be held 17th -19th November. Read the rest of this entry »

By David W Virtue and Mary Ann Mueller, Virtueonline

NASHOTAH, WISCONSIN—In a stunning pronouncement, the American Anglican Council (AAC) announced the launching of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans-North America (FCA-NA) this week bringing together individual Anglicans in the great Diaspora who are unable to find an ACNA church near them. Orthodox Episcopalians and Anglicans can join to become ministry partners.

"I am pleased to announce the formation of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans – North America as a ministry partner of AC-NA to which you can apply immediately," said the Rev. Phillip Ashey, AAC’s travelling chaplain. He urged Anglicans to go on line and join the FCA -NA apply at: www.fca.net.

FCA-NA joins with FCA in England and South Africa.

This much-awaited announcement was made at the Nashotah House refectory in front of more than 50 members the Southeastern Wisconsin American Anglican Council (SEWAAC) chapter monthly meeting.

GAFCON secretariat and FCA director Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen charged the ACC to organize the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in North America. Since then Fr. Ashey and others, including Nashotah House Dean Robert Munday and Fr. William Beasley – who were both present at this month’s SEWAAC meeting – have been working towards seeing FCA-NA become a reality. As AAC’s Chief Operating Officer, Fr. Ashey has been kept busy with back-to-back meetings while in the Upper Midwest. He will address delegates at a major FCA-NA planning summit in Plano, Texas, this week, along with Dean Munday, Fr. Beasley and others, to hammer out detailed plans for the FCA-NA’s eventual roll out.

FCA has rolled out with great fanfare and success in England and South Africa. The next logical step was North America where the infant Anglican Church in North America is getting a foothold and seeking formal recognition from the rest of the Anglican Communion as the Thirty-Ninth Province. Hopefully, FCA’s American unveiling will take place before the end of the year.

Fr. Ashey explained that ACNA’s focus is to reach North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ, and with the help of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, which was originally conceived through last summer’s GACFON meeting for the "benefit of the church and the furtherance of its mission".

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Church of Uganda

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (South Africa) was successfully launched on 3rd September, at St. John’s Church, Walmer, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

The launch was hosted by Bishop Bethlehem Nopece, Bishop of Port Elizabeth. Recently retired Archbishop of Kenya, Benjamin Nzimbi, spoke to the gathering as one of the founding GAFCON Primates.

Bishop Bethlehem Nopece was the only Bishop from South Africa to attend the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem in June 2008.

Greetings were shared from Archbishop Peter Akinola (Nigeria), Archbishop Peter Jensen (Sydney Diocese, Australia), Archbishop Bob Duncan (Anglican Church in North America), Retired Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord George Carey, and Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali. (Rochester Diocese, UK)

The theme for the day was “Be Faithful”. Each speaker emhasised that Anglicans are commissioned to fully express what they believe Anglicanism should be and what it should offer to the Christian community in Southern Africa.

“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,” said conference organizer Rev. Gavin Mitchell.

The name “Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans” came from the GAFCON Statement passed by delegates at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) held in June 2008 in Jerusalem. The Statement said, in part,

We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, are a fellowship of confessing Anglicans for the benefit of the Church and the furtherance of its mission. We are a fellowship of people united in the communion (koinonia) of the one Spirit and committed to work and pray together in the common mission of Christ. It is a confessing fellowship in that its members confess the faith of Christ crucified, stand firm for the gospel in the global and Anglican context, and affirm a contemporary rule, the Jerusalem Declaration, to guide the movement for the future. We are a fellowship of Anglicans, including provinces, dioceses, churches, missionary jurisdictions, para-church organisations and individual Anglican Christians whose goal is to reform, heal and revitalise the Anglican Communion and expand its mission to the world.

Read the rest of this entry »

Presentation at the launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Southern Africa, Port Elizabeth, September 3 2009

Chris Sugden

Why was it necessary for the Primates of Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and the Southern Cone to invite Anglicans from around the world to meet with them and their bishops in Jerusalem in June 2008 for the Global Anglican Future Conference? You have with you today three people who were in the room when that decision was taken: Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, Canon Vinay Samuel and myself. 

My privilege this morning is to set out why GAFCON Jerusalem 2008 was necessary.

The immediate cause for GAFCON was the invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams to those who had consecrated Gene Robinson as a Bishop to attend the Lambeth Conference.  This invitation was sent in July 2007, and the timing was significant as I will show later.

Following this invitation, Archbishop Peter Akinola made a visit in October 2007 at his own expense to London to meet with Archbishop Rowan Williams to ask him most seriously to delay the Lambeth Conference until the issue of the consecration of Gene Robinson by the Episcopal Church could be resolved.   When Archbishop Williams proved immovable on this certain things became crystal clear to Archbishop Akinola and his colleagues. Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings from the Chairman of the GAFCON Council, and Primate of All Nigeria,  the Most Rev Peter Akinola

" What a great blessing and tremendous joy to know that the mustard seed of GAFCON sown in the land of our LORD barely a year ago is already growing so fast and so big.  Please convey my warm greetings and congratulations to all the brethren in Southern Africa as follows:

It was wonderful and most encouraging being together in Jerusalem when GAFCON was born. I thank God for your courage and determination to stand out for their faith not counting the cost. May I remind you that issues and concerns that led to GAFCON are still very much with us. Revisionists will not come to repentance. The action of TEC at its recent General Convention have confirmed our fears that for them, there is no going back. They are intensifying their search for new disciples in Africa, using mammon to buy silence and cheap compromise of the Gospel. They claim to be theologically with us, but are in full alliance with all that we stand against.

GAFCON and FCA people must continue to stand very firm on the word. We must not not waver or succumb to pressures posed by finance and economics. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. We must trust him who has called us. He is faithful and will provide what is needed for his work. Read the rest of this entry »

Keynote address at the launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans South Africa, St Johns Church, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, Thursday September 4th 2009

Canon Dr Vinay Samuel, convenor of the Theological Resource Group of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans

That is why the setting up of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in Southern Africa is so critically important.   Can you from an orthodox biblical faith bring biblical gifts to shape this social agenda that is at the heart of South African social identity?  If South Africa is simply going to take a human rights agenda that is not tempered or shaped by biblical truth, but shaped principally by the ideology of rights and uses the iconic status of leaders such as Desmond  Tutu and Nelson Mandela to silence any questions to its agenda, whether in human sexuality or in any other area, it is not the best gift to the world from South Africa. It is up to you, small as you are, to say “No, we will draw on all the best of South Africa, its journey in reconciliation, its journey in throwing off religious prejudices, its journey in social transformation; but we will also recognize its weaknesses – its weakness in moral frameworks, its inability to be able to uphold truths. Are you prepared to be prophetic that way?  Not prophetic in saying: “ This is the mission God has given to South Africa, lets push it all over." Rather, prophetic in being obedient to what the Bible is teaching.

Article begins here:

The challenges we face today are for the soul of Anglicanism – defining the centre of Anglican faith and identity.  Anglican identity has become a contested area.

Constestation in Anglican Communion matters is nothing new for Chris Sugden and myself as we work together in the Anglican Communion.  In 1985, Chris and I were invited by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie and Canon Sam Van Culin, the Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council to help with the preparations for Lambeth 1988.  We offered the help of  our colleague Bishop Michael Nazir Ali who later became the General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society and after that the Bishop of Rochester, to help prepare study material for the1988 Lambeth.  This recognized that one of the major issues that the 1988 Lambeth was facing was the issue of the ordination of women:  how to take this contentious issue and still remain Anglican and really learn to walk with each other.  We knew that there was all this contestation going on about what it was to be truly Anglican.

In 1995 the issue of sexuality was being promoted in an aggressive fashion by certain sections of the church that we were moving to a situation of real conflict for the soul of Anglicanism and to define the centre of Anglican identity.  So this is nothing new.

We prepared by bringing orthodox bishops together for conferences and consultations in different parts of the world to study both the issue and the processes of the Lambeth Conference. So, when at the 1998 Lambeth, the resolution 1.10 was passed with overwhelming support for an orthodox position, it was not an accident. It was well prepared, because we knew it was a contest for the soul of Anglicanism. It was about defining the centre of Anglican faith and identity. The result of course has been that those who were advocating for revision to the teaching and practice of the Anglican Communion vowed that never again would they submit their plans and proposals to the vote of the Lambeth Conference. And the 2008 Lambeth Conference was designed with that in mind.

From consensus to constestation

Anglican faith and identity has become a contested area. What happened over these 20 years is that the consensus from the past – that you could take if for granted that you could be Anglo-Catholics, High Church, Low Church, Broad Church, Round Church -  there was a consensus and a common ground that you recognized each other, that you could be different types of Anglicans living with mutual tolerance and respect and space. This consensus was rapidly changing with cultural changes, and with pressures from everywhere and with the activism of certain groups of people, more particularly in the western hemisphere. Read the rest of this entry »