Anglican Mainstream

Keynote Address by the chair of the FCA Primates' Council

……Our conference in Jerusalem was truly a mountain top experience, a rich time of fellowship in the Holy Spirit, of inspired teaching and prophetic insights. But we have to come down from the mountain top and not simply rest on the experience or think that by articulating a vision we have somehow done our work. What does the Lord require? He requires, says Micah: that we act, that we act justly and with mercy, not just write and think about things. We must act out of our God given identity, we must be true to ourselves as we are in Christ crucified, redeemed through the cross where God’s Justice and Mercy meet.
This is what it means to act with authenticity. It is not a matter of following our subjective dreams and feelings, but being true to the one who has risen from the dead, so that we might live not for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose again for us…….

……We should look to the pioneer the new wineskin of the global governance structures which will help and not hinder the task of evangelism. Four years ago the Jerusalem Statement spoke of the ‘manifest failure’ of the instruments of Unity in the Anglican Communion, and since then it has become entirely clear that these instruments have failed us. Orthodox leaders must now do more than simply stay away. We have to go back to the basic principles and develop new structures while remaining firmly within the Anglican Communion. We need to consider how we can build on the model of councilor leadership initiated in Jerusalem in 2008 with the setting up of the GAFCON primate’s council. Our communion has come of age and it is now time that its leadership should be focused not on one person or one church, however hallowed its history, but on the one historic faith we confess. There is added urgency to these concerns and need for creative thinking so that a pattern of global governance that is no longer fit for this context is not perpetuated by default.

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Gafcon Media Release

The Primates Council of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans met over three days, April 19th- 21st in London.

With great anticipation we greet the delegates to the first FCA Leaders Conference as they gather in London.

Over two hundred leaders from thirty countries will hear God’s word and commit to one another for the preaching and defence of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in and through the Anglican Communion. From this meeting will emerge key networks and commission capable of strengthening the worldwide churches and delivering the Christian message to the world.

We pray for those responsible for the appointment of the next Archbishop of Canterbury that they will look for a godly leader of God’s people. We believe that in the future development of the Anglican Communion the chair of the Primates Meeting should be elected by the Primates themselves. We believe that the future of our Communion relies on adherence to Scriptural authority, faithful and Christ-centred preaching of this word, the blessing of God’s Holy Spirit, godly leadership and the spiritual commitment of God’s people.

These spiritual realities and the reality of worldwide Anglicanism should be reflected in the structures of the Anglican Communion.

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From BBC News

Archbishop Peter Jensen is in the UK for the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans conference this week.  Listen to his interview with Edward Stourton on BBC Radio 4 The Sunday Programme.

Listen here

(Starts at around 0:10:10)

By Edward Malnick, Telegraph

A high-powered group of traditionalist Anglican church leaders are to gather in London to address a growing “crisis” over openly homosexual bishops.

They want to restore “orthodox” values to the worldwide Anglican Communion and outlaw liberal church leaders who have rejected traditional teaching.
 
They will meet for the first time since more than 200 bishops boycotted an official summit for Anglican leaders in 2008 in protest at the presence of bishops from the US Episcopal Church, which consecrated the first openly homosexual Anglican bishop.
 
The decision by the leaders to hold talks in Britain is likely to increase tensions between the traditionalists and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who will this year step down amid criticism he has failed to heal divisions over sexuality.
 
Its timing means that it will provide traditionalists with an opportunity to call for Dr Williams’s successor to be sympathetic to traditionalists.
 
The gathering of 200 clergy and laity will be led by Dr Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sidney, who is General Secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), the body set up by traditionalists at their 2008 “alternative” Lambeth Conference in Jerusalem.

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The FCA (Southern Africa) and Bishop Bethlehem Nopece, bishop of Port Elizabeth – South Africa) invites Members of Anglican Churches in the British Isles and all South Africans resident in the UK, both clergy and lay, for an evening of fellowship, information and prayer for Southern African Christianity.

Bishop Bethlehem Nopece of the Diocese of Port Elizabeth and patron bishop of FCA Southern Africa, invites South African Anglicans resident in London and all friends of South Africa to a special meeting.

Bishop Bethlehem would love to share about developments in Southern African Anglicanism and have a time of fellowship and pray for South Africa and the spread of the Gospel in the region.
 
Date : Tuesday April 24
 
Time: 7 – 9 pm

Venue: St Michael’s Church Chester Square, near Victoria Station

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.

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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.

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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