Anglican Mainstream

Christ Church is a small but pioneering congregation serving the attractive semi-rural Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, within easy reach of Birmingham and the motorway network.

We are seeking a new Rector who can take the church on to a new stage of its life and witness following the appointment of the current minister, the Revd Charles Raven, to a teaching post with the Anglican Church of Kenya.

The successful applicant will be passionate about:

Teaching the whole word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Evangelism and mission, with particular emphasis on serving the local community through our outreach centre “The Lighthouse” and reaching children and families.

Encouraging wholehearted discipleship of Christ through pastoral leadership with strong support for marriage and family life.

Christ Church is part of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (UK) and this appointment will be overseen by the Rt Revd John Ellison, Chairman of the Anglican Mission in England Panel of Bishops.

Further details from the Church Administrator at admincc@talktalk.net or write to the administrator, Mrs S Needham, ‘The Lighthouse’, 10 Queens Road, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, DY13 0BH.

Closing date: 14 March 2012
 

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Thank you for responding to our call to pray for the recent meeting of the Primates’ Council. We received many messages of support, and were aware of the Lord blessing us as a result of your intercessions. The Primates’ Council remains committed to move forward in the work of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and our hopes for a renewed Anglican Communion.

We are immensely aware of being involved in a spiritual struggle. Our Global Anglican movement has made its stand on the gospel of Jesus Christ as expounded in the Jerusalem Declaration. This has united us. It has also divided us from those who promote a different ‘gospel’. Our twofold aim is to promote the preaching and defence of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ and to recognise and have fellowship with Anglican Christians whose spiritual lives are threatened by false teaching.

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By Chris Sugden, CEN

Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya, the chair of the Primates Council of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, addressed the conference of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans on Human Rights, the Bible and AIDS in Durban South Africa on Friday November 4th. He said his role as chairman was to visit and share with faithful Anglicans and his vision was for FCA to create a strong spiritual movement in the entire Anglican Communion.

He spoke of the challenge facing the Christian church of a “powerful secularizing spirit in the whole world that says ‘Leave me alone to life my life’ and wants to make God irrelevant”. His vision was for the FCA to be like the East African Revival which did not remain in one denomination. “From communities of faith we can testify to the power of Jesus in our lives”. He continued: “We are not going to create another church. We want to renew this church from within and welcome back those who have fallen without”.

He urged: “We cannot remain orthodox without love and you cannot love if you do not remain rooted in the faith. Otherwise our human sympathies will sweep us away with the waves and the tides. When you talk of orthodoxy you should not be confused with someone who is unloving and unexciting. Who expressed the life of truth and love better than Jesus?”

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From AAC

I have been working this week from London in meetings of the global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), which has just opened an office here under the able leadership of Bishop Martyn Minns. Next year, there will be a conference of about 200 leaders from the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans held in London in the spring. The theme of the gathering will be "Jesus Christ: Unique and Supreme," based on Colossians 1:15-20 –

The structures of the Anglican Communion have continued to deteriorate since the 2008 Lambeth Conference. That same year, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) took place in Jerusalem, which gave birth to the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a global movement committed to the renewal and reformation of the Anglican Communion around a common confession (The Jerusalem Declaration). GAFCON was not just a moment; it is a movement. The purpose of the 2012 leadership conference will be to gather existing and emerging FCA leaders – laity, clergy, theologians, youth, bishops, women and men – to promote the ongoing renewal and reformation of the Anglican Communion. These leaders will truly represent this global movement of Anglicans all over the world. We hope and pray this will set the stage for a larger "GAFCON II" meeting to be held in 2013.

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From Christian Today

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) has announced the launch of a new society to provide support to orthodox Anglicans within the Church of England.

According to GAFCON, the Anglican Mission in England (AMIE) is "dedicated to the conversion of England and biblical church planting".

GAFCON said the society was "determined to stay within the Church of England" and work "as closely as possible" with its institutions.

AMIE is aimed at providing an effective structure that would allow orthodox Anglicans to remain within the Church of England rather than leave it, as some have chosen to do.

It consists of a steering committee and panel of bishops who will provide oversight in collaboration with senior clergy.

Its launch follows the release of a communiqué by the GAFCON Primates’ Council in May in which they spoke of providing greater support for those looking to remain within the Anglican Communion.

Read here

By George Conger, CEN

Evangelical leaders in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa have called upon the church’s Synod of Bishops to clarify their ambiguous statements on human sexuality.

On March 17, the Fellowship of Confession Anglicans (FCA) in South Africa published an open letter on the internet, making a “plea for clarity on the position and teaching of our faith” in light of bishops’ February pastoral letter.

At the close of their Feb 7-12 meeting in Natal, the Southern African bishops deferred taking action on adopting guidelines for the blessing of same-sex unions, citing legal difficulties and theological divisions within their ranks.

A draft document entitled “Pastoral Guidelines in Response to Civil Unions” was reviewed by the bishops at their Sept 2010 meeting and distributed to the dioceses. The February 2011 meeting, however, stated the bishops were not able to approve the document. “It is difficult to give blanket guidelines [on same-sex blessings] because the position is starkly at variance in the legal systems of the seven countries where we work.”

“We continue to work on creating guidelines in several areas of difficulty raised by the issue of civil unions,” the bishops said—which are legal in South Africa, but illegal in the six other nations in the province.

Read here

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in South Africa has been concluded its second annual conference in Port Elizabeth from October 27-29.  This was a time of felowship for members of FCA – SA from six of the costal dioceses in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA), as well the Church of England in South Africa (CESA) and international visitors from four continents.

The Diocesan Bishop of Port Elizabeth, Bethlehem Nopece welcomed participants from the Dioceses of Cape Town, False Bay, Durban, Natal, and George, along with Bishop P.J.Lawrence, Bishop of Nandyal in the Church of South India, Bishop Glenn Davies, Bishop of North Sydney, Australia, Bishop Desmond Inglesby, Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in South Africa, and bishops of the Anglican Church in North America, officiating for the first time in Southern Africa – Bishop John Guernsey of the Diocese of the Holy Spirit and Bishop Bill Murdoch of the Anglican Diocese of New England. Read the rest of this entry »

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).

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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.

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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.

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