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
 

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.

We are longing for the spiritual reform of the Anglican Communion so that in a united partnership we can commend the Lord Jesus as the one and only Saviour of the world. We have had reports from many parts of the Communion about the deliberate incursion of false teaching accompanied by offers of financial aid. We are aware of the conflict, which continues for so many as they struggle to maintain the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Sometimes this involves legal attacks. We offer our support and encouragement to those who make it clear that they will continue to teach God’s word whatever the opinion of a church which has allied itself to the world.

We praise God for the opening of our London office and the presence of Bishop Martyn Minns as our first full time worker. We continue to plan for a leadership conference in April 2012 and for GAFCON 2 in May 2013. We received encouraging reports of the Anglican Mission in England, a missionary society supported by us though which missionaries can be ordained and encouraged.

We also spent time considering our understanding of Church and Communion in the light of the new realities, which have come upon us. We agree with the recent words of the eleven Primates who visited China with Archbishop John Chew, ‘We are wholeheartedly committed to the unity of the Anglican Communion and recognize the importance of the historic See of Canterbury. Sadly, however, the Anglican Communion’s Instruments of Unity have become dysfunctional and no longer have the ecclesial and moral authority to hold the Communion together.’ Something better must emerge.

At a reception in London for local supporters I made two points. First that the unity of several key provinces and hence their capacity to serve God and their nations was preserved by the provision of GAFCON in 2008. Secondly that the East African revival, with its commitment to scripture and emphasis on repentance was a model for how the Communion as a whole could be blessed by God.

My dear Brothers and Sisters, the Anglican Communion has been and can be an immense force for good in this world. But it needs to be renewed and reformed by the Word of God. The Global FCA exists to help towards that goal. We are blessed by your support. Thank you.

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16).

In Christ’s love and service

The Most Rev’d Eliud Wabukala

Primate, Anglican Church of Kenya

Chair GAFCON Primates Council

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?”

He said that the Primates of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa would be meeting in February to address the Zimbabwean situation and ensure it should not happen again in any other part of Africa.

Rev Nigel Juckes of the New Wine Leadership team in South Africa said “I cannot say how much it means for us that you have come to acknowledge us”. Rev Gavin Mitchell, the secretary of FCA Southern Africa said: “Everywhere I meet someone who used to be an Anglican. We cannot bleed Anglicans any longer. Many of us feel we are almost lost. So your visit is entirely encouraging.”

Noting that the world was increasingly dominated by the struggle for human rights since the human dignity movement arose after the second world war as a response to the holocaust, Canon Vinay Samuel of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life noted that now subjective rights were demanded which did not derive from natural or divine law.

He said that “People are increasingly taking freedoms and turning them into rights and demanding that governments and other institutions supply them. People think they are free to define themselves, present that self-definition to the world and require the world to affirm that definition even if they morally disapprove. “ If people do not supply those demands as they are defined, then those people are penalised

“I cannot supply what you demand if it goes against my freedom to believe that you are wrong” is the reply he suggested should be made. “You are demanding more than freedom in demanding that that I supply your rights and so undermine my freedom.”

Dermot O’Callaghan, a member of the Church of Ireland General Synod, surveyed the battle against AIDS in which he demonstrated how an end to multiple sexual partners would bring an end to the epidemic. He also critiqued the report in the Anglican Communion’s book on Sexuality edited by Philip Groves on the Nature/Nurture debate. He argued that same-sex attraction was neither a choice nor an innate condition, but overwhelmingly attributable to factors experienced during childhood.

Archbishop Wabukala closed the conference by commissioning the leadership of FCA Southern Africa.: “We hold this faith for the sake of our future and our children and the glory of God. Remain faithful to the gospel. Organise your prayer life together. Ask God to renew the lives of your churches, your families and the nation.”

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.

The American Anglican Council will be helping the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans develop this conference. We are committed to supporting this global movement of biblical Anglicans and to the renewal and reformation of the Anglican Communion around a common confession. Be sure to monitor our website and emails for more news on these exciting events.

Last night, there was a reception for supporters and those interested in the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. The Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya and Chairmen of the FCA, Eliud Wabukala, was present, along with the Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, Peter Jensen, the retired Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, as well as the former Bishop of Rochester, England, Michael Nazir-Ali.

Each of these men are exceptional Christian leaders who truly seek God's will for the Anglican Communion.

While at the reception, two comments in particular stood out to me. The first was from Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, who described an article that a London newspaper published. It pointedly told the bishop three things: (1) Do not tell us what to do or not do in our bedrooms; (2) do not say that Jesus is unique for everyone as that offends people of other faiths; and (3) do not say that the Christian faith has anything to do with public policy.

This article illustrates the kind of hostility and discrimination that Christians are facing in the UK. It also heralds the same kind of hostility and discrimination many of us are beginning to face in North America. Even though the newspaper printed a letter from an Anglican priest the next day which stated that those three things are exactly what we expect of faithful bishops like Michael Nazir-Ali, the structures and leadership of the Church of England did very little at all to stand up against such hostility and discrimination.

This is one reason why the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans exists- to provide mutual support, encouragement and structures that enable Anglicans to be faithful to Jesus Christ and to "Go and make disciples of all nations…" (Matthew 28:16-20).

The second comment came from Archbishop Eliud Wabukala. In response to the question, "Is it worth continuing the battle within the present structures of the Church of England and the Anglican communion?," Archbishop Wabukala reminded us of the East-African revival. Like GAFCON and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, it, too, was a movement and not just a moment. The East African Revival was a Holy Spirit-directed movement that cut across tribes and races from Rwanda to Tanzania. It was a revival within the Anglican church where the people involved in it spoke out against sin in the church, stood up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and influenced each other. The East-African revival gave birth to a new generation of leaders who ultimately renewed those Anglican Churches so that millions of people could come to faith in Jesus Christ.

This is another reason why the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans exists – to faithfully point out sin in the Church, stand firm for the gospel of Jesus Christ, and renew the Anglican Communion. Like that great revival, we are part of a Holy Spirit movement, empowering existing and emerging Anglican leaders who will renew and reform the Anglican Communion.

Please pray for the leadership of FCA and for Bishop Minns and his family as they take up their new assignment in London. Please pray for the 2012 conference and that it will fulfill everything God is calling it to do. And please pray for the American Anglican Council as we support this vital work throughout the world!

Yours in Christ,

Phil+
 

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

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

October 31, 2010   Anglican Mainstream South Africa

FCA South Africa Conference Ends with Statement of purpose and commitment to the Orthodox faith clearly stated at GAFCON

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.

We were truly blessed by the teaching and preaching of Bishops John Guernsey and Bill Murdoch from ACNA.  They had a timely word for the Church in this region which is widely believed to be the beachhead for the risionism of TEC and the Canadian provinces on the African Continet.

A panel discussion in including Bishop Nopece, Bishops Guernsey and Murdoch (ACNA), Bishop Glen Davis (Sydney) and canons Samuel and Sugden clearly charted the Crisis in the Communion and helped the meeting form a clear

Dr Chris Sugden and Dr Vinay Samuel during one of the discussion times.

understanding of what Orthodox Anglicanism is called to do in the coming years to defend and SPREAD the faith “once handed down”

Perhaps the one message that needs to be heard by all who hold our faith dear in this region are these words that stick in my mind from one of our discussions:

“Fear not little flock; it is the father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom. We are faithful. But be open, network, create these products. Anglicans speak beyond themselves. Say yes we will make a difference. Often the emporer has no clothes. We have a lot of the clothes that the righteous Lord gives us.”

The final sessions of the conference included the commitment to following resolution crafted by the entire gathering to declare our position in these changing times and our commitment to make an effective contribution to the Church in this region.

They produced the following resolution:

Friday, 29 October 2010

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans Southern Africa, meeting for the second annual conference in Port Elizabeth resolved:

1. To constitute a Steering Committee representing parishes and regions.

2. To request Bishop Bethlehem Nopece to be Episcopal Adviser to FCA (SA).

3. To request members of the Committee to meet with the leadership of ACSA and CESA and to update them about the FCA (SA).

4. To affirm our commitment to our Churches and the renewal of the Anglican Communion.

5. To charge parish representatives to share with those around them:

• The Jerusalem Declaration - as the central shared truths of Anglicanism we can use as the minimum expression of the truth.
• Being Faithful – as a good instrument for beginning the education of ordinary Anglicans to know what they believe.
• To encourage individuals and parish councils to sign up to the Statement and join FCA (SA).

6. Respectfully request the GAFCON Primates to commission further contemporary teaching materials based on the Jerusalem Statement for teaching the essentials of the orthodox faith to the faithful – accessible especially for young people.

7. To express gratitude and appreciation to the CAPA conference in Entebbe for the clear and definite leadership in the midst of the global Anglican crisis given in the following areas:

• The welcome and affirmation of the Anglican Church of North America.
• The courageous stand against the liberalizing influence of TEC in the Global South.

8. To express our gratitude to Bishops Guernsey and Murdoch of ACNA for their supportive presence at our conference.
-ends-

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)

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 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

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)

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

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

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).

The Jerusalem Declaration recovers the principle of church discipline, which for the Anglican Reformers was a mark of the true church, along with the faithful preaching of God’s Word and celebration of the sacraments. What the FCA has done is not to encourage fragmentation, but to reveal the fragmentation that already exists. Doctrinal discipline is virtually non-existent in the Church of England today, as Vaughan Roberts notes, and irrespective of the formal status of the Church of England doctrinally as defined in Canon A5, in practice pretty well anything goes. One cannot enter a Church of England parish church with any certainty that orthodox Christianity will believed and preached simply because it is part of the Church of England.

It is this reality which Stephen Kuhrt has to bury, because it calls into question the assumption of evangelical success which underlies his second criticism of the FCA, namely that the it will encourage cynicism about the Church of England’s structures ‘at just a time when these structures need encouragement and endorsement’. He claims that evangelicals in the Church of England have ‘never had it so good’ and that the Church ‘has never had more evangelical bishops than it has now.’

Assuming charitably that all bishops who identify themselves as evangelical do actually still hold to distinctive evangelical beliefs, we need to ask why, in that case, is the Church of England, taken as a whole, so manifestly a failing institution – without an agreed agenda, with declining numbers and with some dioceses facing serious financial difficulty?

The answer seems to be that despite the superficial success of the ‘Keele’ strategy of engagement with the structures, those evangelicals in positions of leadership continue to duck the key question of discipline, and as long as they do that, in practice they collude with the liberal agenda of non-scriptural inclusion and by silence give plausibility to false teaching.

To take a current example, Stephen Kuhrt cites Steve Croft, now Bishop of Sheffield, as one of those who has been able ‘to build a mission shaped agenda right into the heart of the Church of England’. It is not being cynical about his positive achievements to point out that nonetheless, Bishop Jack Spong, who was once rebuked even by Rowan Williams for his extreme scepticism, is next week visiting St Marks’s Broomhall in Sheffield as part of a lecture tour without, it appears, any censure from the Bishop of Sheffield. A diocesan spokesman told me that the Bishop was aware of the event and as long as Bishop Spong was ‘just speaking’ this would not be a problem.

The Progressive Church Network which is organising the lecture tour tell us that ‘Bishop Spong never fails to inspire and encourage those who, like him, believe it’s time to jettison some of the worst dogma which has attached to the Christian tradition’. And included in those ‘worst dogmas’ are the incarnation and atonement. Even if Bishop Spong had simply hired a secular venue for his lecture, should not such views be met with more than silence from an orthodox bishop?

In contrast, when I invited Bishop Howell Davies, a retired Uganda bishop, to conduct a confirmation service in 2000 in place of the then diocesan bishop Dr Peter Selby, who was actively promoting the gay lesbian agenda, Bishop Davies was issued with a ‘letter of unwelcome’ by Peter Selby albeit ,somewhat bizarrely, after the event.

And coming right back to the present, would the Bishop of Sheffield be willing to open one of his churches to a bishop of the Anglican Church of North America? According to the Archbishop of Canterbury their orders are irregular and therefore their ministry cannot be recognised in England so we have a neat illustration of how dysfunctional church structures have become – the hospitality of a parish church is given to the most outspoken heretic of the Anglican Communion while godly orthodox bishops would, presumably, be excluded.

What is true at the local level in England is also reflected in the dysfunctionality of Lambeth initiatives at the international level. Stephen Kuhrt believes that the FCA have had a very negative take on, for instance, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement after TEC’s Anaheim Convention in July, but is it plausible to believe that the Archbishop would have been willing to issue a statement setting out views on homosexuality quite the reverse of his own – to the chagrin of many revisionists – if it had not been for the determination and courage of the GAFCON Primates in being willing to take practical steps to confront false teaching?

One of those upset friends was, unsurprisingly, Peter Selby. The former Bishop of Worcester has sometimes been described as a maverick, but does have a knack of saying the right things for the wrong reasons. In his address to Inclusive Church on 7th October, he sharply criticised the increasingly personalised and ad hoc leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, arguing that ‘when it comes to sexuality, he has taken on an exclusive concern with finding ecclesio-political answers to the current panic. Out of the systemic malaise we seem to inhabit has come an apparently overwhelming false consciousness: a place where the thoughts he thinks arise from the role that has been pressed upon him by others.’

So the GAFCON movement is not the only group to have serious questions about the Archbishop’s leadership of the Communion. Fulcrum evangelicals are like investors in denial, unable to admit they have made a mistake and cut their losses when everyone else can see the business going down the drain.

Peter Selby’s analysis is spot on. The Lambeth inspired Covenant process is driven by pragmatism. It refuses to deal honestly with profound underlying theological differences and this lack of integrity makes the whole process vulnerable to the clearly worked out ideology of TEC and its allies. His address was entitled ‘When the Word of the Street is Resist’ and perhaps it is no coincidence there are already voices in TEC calling for its ample funds to be used for the encouragement of revisionist Anglican congregations and structures in England and the UK. It is unlikely that John Spong’s lecture tour in England will be his last.

So Kuhrt’s third concern, that the FCA ‘will encourage an unhelpful standoff with more liberal groupings and work to increase rather than resolve polarisation on the issue of homosexuality’ expresses an attachment to a status quo which systematically puts the orthodox on the back foot, encouraging them to treat basic Christian doctrine and morality as matters for ongoing debate rather than that to which we hold firm.

At the international level, it became increasingly clear to those who eventually founded the GAFCON movement that the ‘listening process’ initiated after the 1998 Lambeth Conference had become a technique for delay and assimilation. The openly expressed frustration of ‘liberal groupings’ now that they perceive the process is not going all their way (thanks to GAFCON) simply underlines the point. The FCA has brought a much needed theological clarity into a process which had been dominated by an unholy alliance of TEC money and Lambeth hierarchy.

So it is to be hoped that the emergence of GAFCON means the game is over for the revisionists as far as the Global Communion is concerned, but it is certainly not ‘game over’ in England. The Church of England is going to find itself in partnership for the future – the question is with whom? Any hope for the long term integrity and mission of the Church of England must lie in partnership with that biblical integrity and vitality which the FCA represents; otherwise the future may well be with TEC.

Charles Raven

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.

2.    To resist a drift from orthodoxy in the Church of England
Although the situation in TEC is especially bad, there is certainly no room for complacency closer to home, especially in Scotland and Wales.  There is a good number of supportive, orthodox bishops in the Church of England and General Synod has not gone down the heterodox road of the General Convention in sanctioning immorality and yet there is much to cause deep concern.  In recent years the lack of almost any doctrinal discipline has had alarming results, with the Cost of Conscience survey of 2002 revealing that from a half to a third of clergy do not believe core doctrines such as the physical resurrection, the virgin birth or the uniqueness of Christ in salvation.  There already exist two irreconcilable understandings of the Christian faith which can not ultimately be held together.  We must not be naive and fail to notice the gradual slide away from the truth because of the salami tactics of revisionists who are often careful not to overreach themselves and bring things to a head before they are likely to win the victory, but rather gradually establish facts on the ground, thus undermining the orthodox faith slice by slice.  Given this reality, FCA must offer a robust defence against the false gospel and be a bulwark for the truth.

3.    To support the beleaguered orthodox in England
While we ourselves may work in supportive dioceses we must recognise that some are not so fortunate.  There is ample evidence of ordination candidates being discriminated against, clergy finding doors closed when they look for new posts or seek support for initiatives because they are regarded as “too narrow” and increasing numbers of clergy and congregations now find themselves “on the edge” because of their principled objection to the heterodox stance of the diocesan bishop.  The FCA is needed to provide an opportunity for a broader group to offer them solidarity and support.

4.    To prevent defections by orthodox Anglicans
A united body of the orthodox will be a spur to those who may already be tempted to give up on the Church of England.  It should also make it less likely that different groups gradually defect into little offshoots such as the Church of England Continuing (Reform) or (Forward in Faith) or (New Wine). 
It is well known that members of FCA worldwide and in England hold different views on women’s ministry.  While retaining our distinctives and different associations it is vital that we maintain our partnership for the gospel despite differences on this point.  FCA provides an opportunity for a united body in which orthodox believers from the two integrities insist together that those who in conscience can not accept women bishops must receive adequate legally enforceable provision.  We must do all we can to prevent orthodox Anglicans from leaving the Church of England and to resist the success of a divide and rule strategy.

5.    To promote mission
This fifth point is surely the most important for evangelicals and undergirds the others.  The reason that we should work together for the cause of the true faith in the Church of England is not, above all, for the church but for the world.  We must not only ensure the preservation of the authentic gospel but also do all we can to get it out to people where they can hear it.  This, as the Archbishop of Canterbury and many others recognise, will require not just the maintenance of old patterns of parochial ministry but also fresh approaches.  Many evangelical churches have found that despite the talk of “mission shaped church” their attempts to apply these principles have been met by obstacles and opposition from other clergy and some have felt bound to proceed despite opposition because of the urgency of gospel proclamation.  While taking care not to endorse an unprincipled pragmatism the FCA can play an important role in encouraging responsible yet radical mission. 
It is vital that orthodox Anglicans stand together in the cause of the gospel for the sake not just of our church but, above all, for those who do not know Christ.
 

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)

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
 

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

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