Greetings in the Name of our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

The world wide Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is a cause of great joy to me because it is bringing together Anglicans around the globe in a
common love for each other and the Lord Jesus Christ. This love is the work of the Holy Spirit who is gathering us for clear and confident gospel
witness at a time when there is growing confusion and disorder in our beloved Anglican Communion.

I thank God for the witness of Reform as you hold unswervingly to the faith once for all delivered to the saints despite the severe erosion of
orthodoxy taking place around you. As the Global South Primates acknowledged at our recent meeting in China 'it grieves us deeply to
observe many Anglican churches in the west yielding to secular pressure to allow unacceptable practices in the name of human rights and equality'.

So I would like to assure you of my prayers and necessary support. We are building a truly global fellowship in a partnership inspired by the Holy
Spirit, marked by prayer, generosity, sacrifice and genuine love. I long to see the day when faithful Anglicans can feel at home in any part of the
world and share the joy of true fellowship in the Holy Spirit.

May the favour of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands.

The Most Revd Dr Eliud Wabukala, Archbishop, the Anglican Church of Kenya and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council

The formation of the Anglican Ordinariate was a natural consequence of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s mismanagement of the crisis facing the Anglican Communion, the leaders of the Gafcon movement said in a statement released on May 10.

In a strongly worded communiqué summarizing the work of their April 25-28 meeting in Nairobi, the archbishops of the Gafcon movement, representing a majority of the church’s members, voiced their displeasure with the usurpation of authority by Dr. Williams and the staff of the Anglican Consultative Council and laid upon their door responsibility for the de facto schism within the communion.

While the 13-point communiqué touched on administrative issues for the Anglican reform movement, including the creation of a Nairobi and London offices, the appointment of Bishop Martyn Minns as Deputy Secretary, and the calling of a second Jerusalem conference in 2013, the heart of the letter came in a sustained attack on the actions taken by London-based instruments of the Anglican Communion.

Read here

The council of Anglican leaders was established by the Global Anglican Future Conference in 2008, representing more than 35 million Anglicans.

Now, the Primates are planning for a second GAFCON in 2013 preceded by a leadership conference in New York in 2012.

At the start of their meeting just after Easter, the council elected Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya, as its new Chairman to replace Archbishop Greg Venables, the Primate of the Southern Cone.

The new Primate of the Southern Cone, Archbishop Hector Zavala, was welcomed to the council, as was the Primate of Rwanda Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje.

The election of Archbishop Wabukala is significant as it marks a transition of the chairmanship to someone other than one of the original GAFCON primates.

Archbishops Zavala and Rwaje are also new Primates.

In a 13 point statement issued after their Nairobi meeting, the Council said “if we are offer adequate support to our member provinces, sustain our various initiatives, and strengthen our communications capabilities we must add capacity to our current secretariat.”

A Chairman’s office would be established in Nairobi, Kenya and a GAFCON Global Coordination office would be established in London under the direction of the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop of the Church of Nigeria, serving as Deputy Secretary and Executive Director.

The meeting discussed the challenges confronting the Anglican Communion and the Primates said they were “disappointed that those who organized the Primates meeting in Dublin not only failed to address these core concerns but decided instead to unilaterally reduce the status of the Primates’ Meeting. This action was taken with complete disregard for the resolutions of both Lambeth 1978 and 1998 that called for an enhanced role in ‘doctrinal, moral and pastoral matters’. We believe that they were seriously misled and their actions unacceptable.”

“We continue to be troubled by the promotion of a shadow gospel that appears to replace a traditional reading of Holy Scriptures and a robust theology of the church with an uncertain faith and a never ending listening process. This faith masquerades as a religion of tolerance and generosity and yet it is decidedly intolerant to those who hold to the “faith once and for all delivered to the saints”.

The Primates reaffirmed the statement of orthodox faith formulated at GAFCON 1 in 2008, known as the Jerusalem Declaration.

“We believe that the theological principles outlined in the Jerusalem Declaration offers the only way forward that holds true to our past and also gives a sure foundation for the future” the Primates said.

The full text of the Primates Communique is below.

Nairobi Statement from the GAFCON/FCA Primates Council

Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

1. We met in Nairobi from April 25th through April 28th, 2011. We gathered as the elected leaders of provinces and national churches of the Anglican Communion and as leaders of GAFCON/FCA. We rejoice in the Easter proclamation that Jesus Christ is alive and we joyfully acknowledge his love for all humanity, his Lordship over all the earth and his promise to return with power and great glory.

2. We are profoundly saddened by the many disasters that have afflicted our world in recent months and offer our prayers for those whose lives have been devastated. We take to heart the warning from our Lord that in our age there would be “wars and rumors of wars” and a season when, “nations will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom and famines and earthquakes in various places.”

We also remember His solemn warning that no-one can know the time for the end of this age and so we acknowledge all these events as reminders of the urgent need for repentance and reconciliation with our heavenly Father.

3. We are distressed that, in the face of these enormous challenges, we are still divided as a Communion. The fabric of our common life has been torn at its deepest level and until the presenting issues are addressed we will remain weakened at a time when the needs before us are so great. We were disappointed that those who organized the Primates meeting in Dublin not only failed to address these core concerns but decided instead to unilaterally reduce the status of the Primates’ Meeting. This action was taken with complete disregard for the resolutions of both Lambeth 1978 and 1998 that called for an enhanced role in “doctrinal, moral and pastoral matters”. We believe that they were seriously misled and their actions unacceptable.

4. We note the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to offer support for those Anglican clergy and congregations who find themselves alienated by recent actions in the Communion. We believe that the provision of an Anglican Ordinariate is intended to be a gracious gift but sadly one that also points out that our own Communion has failed to make adequate provision for those who hold to a traditional view of the faith. We remain convinced that from within the Provinces that we represent there are creative ways by which we can support those who have been alienated so that they can remain within the Anglican family.

5. We devoted a considerable portion of our time together exploring some of the presenting issues regarding Anglican ecclesiology. We were mindful of the importance of letting scripture speak directly to the nature of the church and not simply let our current experience delimit our doctrine. While we are grateful for our history and our particular Anglican tradition we believe that there is and can only ever be one church of Jesus Christ which he has purchased with his own blood and over which he is the Head. The local church is the fundamental expression of the one true church here on earth and is bound together with other local churches by ties of love, fellowship and truth. From such networks have come denominations, national churches and global communions.

6. As members of the global Anglican Communion we delight in the particular history with which we have been blessed. We are grateful for the missionary heritage that gave birth to our global communion with its distinctive balance of reformed catholicity. Meeting in Nairobi we are especially thankful for the influence of the East African Revival with its emphasis on the renewing power of the Holy Spirit, a call to Holy living and unquestionable desire for evangelism.

7. We believe, however, that we are fully the church in our various settings, created and sustained by Word and Sacrament, and marked by obedience that results in faith, hope and love. We also recognize the Lord’s call to discipline demands from us a commitment to unity, holiness, apostolicity and catholicity. All of these are aspects of what it means to be church and we are committed to resourcing our bishops and other leaders so that we can more fully become the church that God has established.

8. We continue to be troubled by the promotion of a shadow gospel that appears to replace a traditional reading of Holy Scriptures and a robust theology of the church with an uncertain faith and a never ending listening process. This faith masquerades as a religion of tolerance and generosity and yet it is decidedly intolerant to those who hold to the “faith once and for all delivered to the saints”. We believe that the theological principles outlined in the Jerusalem Declaration offers the only way forward that holds true to our past and also gives a sure foundation for the future.

9. Confident of the power of God’s Word to renew His church we are creating a network for theologians and theological educators who embrace the Jerusalem Declaration to give further support for our seminaries and Bible Colleges. We have also reviewed and approved plans for the leadership conference now scheduled for April 2012 and the beginning preparations for an international gathering of Primates, Bishops, Clergy and Lay Leaders now scheduled for the first half of 2013 and provisionally designated “GAFCON 2”

10. We are delighted in the election of the Most Rev’d Eliud Wabukala, Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya to serve as Chairman of the Primates’ Council and also the Most Rev’d Nicholas D. Okoh, Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) to serve as Vice-Chairman. We were pleased to appoint Bishop Greg Venables and Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini as trustees. We also welcomed the Most Rev’d Hector Zavala, Province of the Southern Cone and the Most Rev’d Onesphore Rwaje, Anglican Church of Rwanda as new members of the Council.

11. We also recognized that if we are offer adequate support to our member provinces, sustain our various initiatives, and strengthen our communications capabilities we must add capacity to our current secretariat. Consequently it was agreed that a GAFCON/FCA Chairman’s office would be established in Nairobi, Kenya and a Global Coordination office would be established in London under the direction of the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop of the Church of Nigeria, serving as Deputy Secretary and Executive Director.

12. Finally we know that it is only be God’s grace that we can accomplish anything and we call on all those who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord to join us in prayer for our world and especially for those who are suffering because of natural disasters as well as those who struggle to live under violent and oppressive governments. We know that our only hope is in the redeeming and transforming love of God and we pray that we will all be faithful to our call to be an instrument of God’s grace.

13. To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

The Primates Council

The Most Rev’d Eliud Wabukala, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Kenya, Chair

The Most Rev’d Justice Akrofi, Archbishop, Anglican Province of West Africa

The Most Rev’d Robert Duncan, Archbishop, Anglican Church in North America

The Most Rev ‘d Onesphore Rwaje, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Rwanda

The Most Rev’d Valentino Mokiwa, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Tanzania

The Most Rev’d Nicholas Okoh, Archbishop, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)

The Most Rev’d Henry Orombi, Archbishop, Church of Uganda

The Most Rev’d Hector Zavala, Province of the Southern Cone

The Most Rev’d Peter Jensen, Archbishop, Diocese of Sydney, Secretary

Statement from the Most Rev’d Eliud Wabukala, Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya and newly elected Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council.

Praise the Lord! It is a great joy to greet all of you as we celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Christ was an event that changed the course of history for good and as a result, my life and the lives of millions of others have been changed for eternity.

Yesterday I was elected Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council and I am honored to accept this call to serve the Anglican Communion in this special way. Together with 1200 bishops and leaders from around the Anglican Communion, I was privileged to spend a life- changing week in Jerusalem in 2008 as part of the Global Anglican Future Conference. It reminds me of my roots in the East African Revival when the renewing Spirit of God permeated the Church leading to a confession of sins, a thirst for God’s Word filling the converts with humility, a simple lifestyle and an unquestionable desire for evangelism. It is these qualities that have kept the Church in our region faithful to the Gospel. It is my conviction that this same Spirit is at work in GAFCON.

I am honored, therefore, to join my colleagues in helping lead this movement forward and am humbled by their trust. It is a delight to welcome two new Primates to the Council, the Most Rev’d Tito Zavala, Bishop of Chile and Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, and also the Most Rev’d Onesphore Rwaje, Primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.

GAFCON is made up of Anglican archbishops, bishops, clergy and laity from around the world. We include Provinces that contain the majority of the active membership of the Anglican Communion. We joyfully acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ, believe in the trustworthiness of God’s Word and the transforming power of God’s Spirit. 

• At the heart of GAFCON is the Jerusalem Declaration that gives a theological and historical framework to our faith as Anglican Christians
• GAFCON is committed to the work of reforming, reshaping and renewing global Anglicanism.  
• We are determined to strengthen and support orthodox Anglican Bishops, Dioceses and Provinces in their witness to Jesus Christ and the transforming power of His Spirit. 
• We will work to recognize and encourage faithful Anglicans in regions of the world where there is no biblical Anglican voice or presence. 
• We are developing theological and other resources to help grow our Anglican family in Biblical faithfulness and practical concern, and 
• We are building a global partnership of faithful Anglican churches who are committed to Biblical faith as described in the Jerusalem Declaration.

I recognize that we have set ourselves a truly monumental task but we serve God for whom nothing, not even overcoming death itself, is impossible.
Pray for us. Pray that we will all be faithful to God’s Call.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

Nairobi, 28th April, 2011
 

THE ANGLICAN Covenant is too little and too late, to hold the Anglican Communion together, the leaders of the Gafcon movement said last week. Revisions to the document adopted last December by the Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee were unacceptable, the Gafcon Primates’ council said on November 24, and urged the Communion to adopt “new initiatives to more effectively respond to the crises that confront us all.”

Seven primates along with Archbishops Robert Duncan of the ACNA and Peter Jensen of Sydney acknowledged as “well intentioned” the “efforts to heal our brokenness through the introduction of an Anglican Covenant,” but concluded the “current text is fatally flawed and so support for this initiative is no longer appropriate.” The Primates further rejected Dr Rowan Williams’ plea for business as usual. “We can no longer maintain the illusion of normalcy,” they said, and “join with other Primates from the Global South in declaring that we will not be present at the next Primates’ meeting.”

Questioned about the statement, a spokesman for Lambeth Palace told The Church of England Newspaper ACC Secretary General Kenneth Kearon “has said the following: ‘The decision whether to come remains a matter for the Primates. The meeting is being organised and will be going ahead in Ireland next January. We are still receiving acceptances and hope as many Primates as possible we be able to attend’.”

Crafted at a meeting in Oxford held from October 4-7, the statement crystallizes months of discussions among the reform-minded leaders of the Communion. Frustrated with the course adopted by Dr Williams in addressing the crisis of doctrine and discipline in the Communion, and openly scornful of the integrity of the ‘Anglican Communion Office’, the Gafcon Primates reiterated their call to ditch a church whose primary principle was the paramount importance of its London organs for one that espoused common doctrines.

The Communion needed to reform or it would die. “New ways of living out our common life” were “emerging as old structures are proven to be ineffective in confronting the challenges of living in a pluralistic global community,” they said.

They offered the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration as a way forward, saying the “unique character” of the Communion’s reform movement “with its diversity of cultures and its embrace of the Jerusalem Declaration as a common theological confession is a vital contribution to the future” of the communion.

While the statement was released on the same day as General Synod debated the Covenant, the timing of the release was not intended to sway discussion in England, a spokesman told CEN.

The “Oxford Statement” required weeks of refining and was passed from archbishop to archbishop before it was ready for release, a Gafcon secretariat spokesman said.

Sources within the Gafcon movement tell CEN the Oxford Statement should not be read as an outright rejection of the Covenant, but as a vote of no confidence in the current draft that vests authority in the Anglican Communion “Standing Committee”.

On November 1, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali encapsulated the thinking of many of the Gafcon leaders, telling CEN the new Section IV of the Covenant was “quite different” from what had been prepared by the Covenant design team, and “produces a new kind of ecclesial animal” in the Standing Committee. “We have had a spate of resignations” from the Standing Committee “that calls into question its on-going credibility,” he noted. Yet the Standing Committee will “make recommendations” about discipline.

The Ridley draft of the Covenant “was much better and stronger,” Dr Nazir-Ali said. It provided “due safeguards and allowed the Primates to make the final decision", he observed.

Transcript of Interview with Bishop Minns. A transcript of the following interview with Bishop Kings can be read here

Q: Bishop Martyn Minns is from the Anglican Church in North America and sits on the Secretariat of the GAFCON Primate’s Council. I asked him what did GAFCON leaders regard as the fatal flaw in the Anglican Covenant.

 +Minns: The fundamental thing I think is that trust is gone. Decisions and documents that have been worked on in the past have not been honored. I think there’s simply a lack of trust in the process. I think also the introduction of this whole roll of the standing committee in terms of how the covenant is actually exercised has also caused great consternation. But I think, in fact I have a direct quote from one of the Primates who said, “ look, why do we keep going?. All the decisions have been made. The documents we signed have never been honored. There’s no point.”

 Q: Is it your sense that this is not punitive enough?

 +Minns: I don’t think it’s an issue of punitive. It’s simply that it’s been watered down. The content and the process has shifted from the Primates themselves to this Standing Committee which it’s still not clear cut what it is. So it’s not a matter of punitive. It’s simply I think that there’s a breakdown in the trust from the earlier conversations.

 Q: Why did the Primates of GAFCON decide to release their statement rejecting this covenant just as the General Synod was debating it?

 +Minns: The decision was frankly simply providential. There was no attempt to time it. What we’ve tried to work hard is to make sure that the documents of this sort that everyone whose name is listed has had time to reflect, take advice, and to agree to the wording. And every time that’s happened its complicated and long. It just so happened that it was done on the day. There was no planning or coordinating that at all.

Q: There are critics who will say that this was a tactical possibly even manipulative approach by GAFCON, what’s your response to that allegation?

+Minns: Well that’s simply not true. The attempt to get everyone on board at a precise moment is simply not possible. Finally, after everyone had read through it, thought through it, prayed through we were ready to release it. I think most of them had no clue the Synod was even meeting.

 Q: Archbishop Williams has clearly worked very hard to get this covenant through the Synod, isn’t this a slap in the face for him?

 +Minns: I don’t think there’s anything personal in this at all. I think there’s a lot of affection for Archbishop Rowan. Frankly the process had been going for many many years. And it’s the lack of trust and a lack of willingness to listen to those in the Global South is really what’s behind this.

 Q: Well what would it take to persuade you to tarry longer with this process and to engage further with it?

+Minns: I think it would be to honor the decisions and documents that have taken place in the past. I think that trust has to be rebuilt.

 Q: The Anglican Communion is now faced with what looks like a two tiered communion, would you accept that?

 +Minns: I wouldn’t say its two tier. I think the structure is shifting and I think moving frankly from a fairly colonial structure in to a much more of a global structure. And I think it will be far more of a network than a hierarchical structure.

Q: Some liberals of course have their own reasons for not welcoming this covenant. Liberals, conservatives, traditionalists struggling with the covenant does this now signal the end-game for the Anglican Communion?

 +Minns: By no means. I think the Anglican Communion has got a huge contribution to give to the world. I think in many parts of the world it’s thriving and growing and doing some remarkable things. I think it’s simply the way in which we operate together that has to change. I think it’s a testament to its effectiveness. Its grown so much globally that the sheer weight of it and the vision and …(unintelligible)… of the Communion is no longer in England. I believe that the Anglican Communion is incredibly healthy and doing some remarkable things. Structurally, it’s the institutional structure that’s simply not kept up with its life. And I think that that’s what needs to change. And as you know institutional change has always been very hard. Those in power are always reluctant to give it up.  

 Q: Was it GAFCON’S intention all along to reject this covenant?

 +Minns: Not at all. GAFCON folk actually were instrumental in the very beginning and actually the first draft. Archbishop Drexel Gomez and a number of the Global South folk were actually involved in producing the very first draft.

 Q: At what point did GAFCON leaders and primates know this covenant was unacceptable?

 +Minns: I don’t believe there was a single point. I think it’s been an unfolding realization.

 Q: What are those Primates who are part of GAFCON, is it now the case that they will en masse refuse to attend the next Primates meeting of the Anglican Communion?

+Minns: I believe that that’s what the statement says. And I believe that it’s not just those primates but also a number of other primates in the Global South that have communicated that.

Just as the Church of England General Synod was giving its backing to a mechanism to preserve unity in the Anglican Communion, conservative Primates were issuing a statement declaring that they can no longer give it their support.

In a statement issued by the Primates Council of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) today, they said they could no longer accept the Anglican Covenant as a means of resolving disputes within the Anglican Communion despite originally being some of the main drivers behind the measure.

“While we acknowledge that the efforts to heal our brokenness through the introduction of an Anglican Covenant were well intentioned we have come to the conclusion the current text is fatally flawed and so support for this initiative is no longer appropriate,” they said.

The statement was signed by Archbishops from West Africa, North America, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya.

In it, they also confirm that they will not attend next year’s Primates’ meeting in Ireland. Instead, they plan to hold their own meeting in the latter part of 2011, followed by an international gathering dubbed GAFCON 2 sometime in 2012.

Read here

Like so many other teenagers of my era, I was taught by my school history teacher that in the sixteenth century the ancient Church of our land was transformed into a national institution that was both Catholic and Protestant, or as Professor Diarmaid McCulloch might put it more accurately, both Catholic and Evangelical.

The Evangelical Anglicanism in which I grew up started with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and then taught me that the ministry of Word and Sacrament within the Book of Common Prayer. As part of this process, I came to value the lives of great Evangelical heroes…

Later on, going to college and living in other parts of the country, I came into contact with many Anglican Catholics, who also believed that we should begin with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and then go on to develop our Christian character from the Word and Sacrament of the Book of Common Prayer. They also had their heroes… I learnt to value their heroes as much as my own and my Catholic friends were willing to discover the value of my heroes as well.

What I am saying is that, in our heart of hearts, both us Catholics and Evangelicals share a common Anglican heritage. It was the Book of Common Prayer, whether in its 1662 or its 1928 version, that actually secured our common purpose. One of the tragedies of the past half century has been the fact that the long process of liturgical revision has never offered us a modern language BCP.

Now at last the prospect of women in the episcopate and a host of other unbiblical and unhistoric novelties has woken up both our constituencies. Forward in Faith and Reform find themselves locked in a protracted struggle to maintain their very existence as valued members of the Anglican Church. Frankly, I would no longer wish to remain in a Church which had effectively expelled my Catholic brethren, and I suspect that most of my Catholic friends would not wish to stay in a Church without Evangelicals either. So what do we do now?

Read 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

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

THE Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) Primates Council has bracketed the UK with Kenya and Uganda as nations “where Christian views are marginalised and ignored”.

England is also defined as an “Associate Par­ticipant”, along with Australia, New Zealand, the Anglican Church in North America, and the Communion Partners of the Episcopal Church in the United States, in the “Fourth Global South to South Encounter” to be held in Singapore later this month.

The Council, which constitutes the Primates of Nigeria, West Africa, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the Southern Cone, to­gether with the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, and the leader of the Anglican Church in North America, Archbishop Robert Duncan, was meeting in Bermuda as guests of the American businessman Emmanuel Kam­pouris (News, 9 April).

Absent from the Bermuda meeting was the Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Revd Henry Orombi. He demanded of the Archbishop of Canterbury last week that the Primates of the Anglican Communion should meet urgently, without the American and Canadian Primates, and with an agenda set by the particip­ants.

In a three-page letter sent to Dr Williams last Friday and released to the press, Arch­bishop Orombi hints at a double standard in the treatment of Primates and complains that the responsibility of the Primates is being diminished.

He commends the “clarity and honesty” of the President Bishop in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Most Revd Mouneer Anis, who resigned in February from what became the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion (SCAC) (News, 5 February). Archbishop Orombi does not recognise the SCAC, and has not attended meetings since its failure, as he sees it, to uphold the “hard-won agreement” of the Primates at Dar es Salaam in 2007.

Read here

The Primates Council consists of Primates (Senior Archbishops) of Anglican Provinces who met together in Jerusalem in June 2008 as part of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). Their determination to give witness to the life transforming gospel of Jesus Christ and the trustworthiness of the Bible led to the establishment of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA).

FCA is a movement defined by theology that delivers spiritual and practical outcomes to faithful Anglican Christians around the world. Together the Primates Council represents over thirty four million Anglicans more than half of the active membership of the Anglican Communion

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.

It is to say, rather, that the GAFCON proposals are not only not needed in England but are positively harmful and indeed offensive. This was more or less what I said on the radio last Thursday, where I distinguished carefully between the American and English situations. AS FAR AS ENGLAND IS CONCERNED, it is damaging, arrogant and irrelevant for GAFCON leaders to say, as they are now doing, ‘choose you this day whom you will serve’, with the implication that there are now only two parties in the church, the orthodox and the liberals, and that to refuse to sign up to GAFCON is to decide for the liberals. Things are just not like that. Certainly not here in England.

A proposal to give the partners of gay priests some of the same rights that are awarded to priests’ spouses is likely to spark a new row over homosexuality.

 

Bishops and senior clergy will debate at next month’s General Synod whether the Church should provide same-sex couples with the same financial benefits as are awarded to married couples.

Read 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"We must move ahead together. But there is one situation where we are in danger of leaving Anglicans behind," the AAC priest lamented. "This is the situation we are in…"

Many southern Wisconsin Episcopalians feel disenfranchised from their orthodox Anglican roots and traditional Anglican heritage. They have found it spiritually necessary to either leave The Episcopal Church or hang tough in The Episcopal Church because there is no local ACNA congregation to plug into for a variety of reasons including distance and lack of enough members to plant a parish.

SEWAAC President Bill Chapin explained that many SEWAAC members particularity feel disenfranchised because they are trapped within a revisionist TEC diocese, sit in revisionist TEC pews and because there are only three ACNA churches within the entire Diocese of Milwaukee. There is nowhere else to go. The three churches are: St. Edmund’s, Elm Grove; Light of Christ, Kenosha; and all Saints, Milwaukee. The Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee encompasses the entire southern third of the state, stretching from Lake Michigan to Iowa along the Mississippi River. The other Episcopal dioceses in Wisconsin include Eau Claire and Fond du Lac.

Fr. Ashey came to exhort, build up, and encourage the SEWAAC members and support them in their Anglicanism. He explained the spiritual mechanics of ACNA and how it can help the beleaguered Wisconsin Episcopalians as they struggle to remain faithful to their Anglicanism in a spiritually hostile environment.

"At this watershed moment we need to be sure that it is God that is going before us and not just our own ideas," he cautioned. "Don’t get ahead of the Lord – we must move together."

Fr. Ashey was quick to point out that even though TEC has become theologically revisionist through a false gospel, heretical, and heterodox ways in the post-modern, post-Christian culture, The Episcopal Church leaves behind a great tradition.

"Saying that TEC is dead does not remove our respect for what was once great and Godly," he explained. "Our Book of Common Prayer, our worship, our architecture and hymnody …"

He mentioned some of the great Episcopal orthodox bishops including Jackson Kemper who was a driving force behind the creation of Nashotah House and is still a Wisconsin legend.

However, the priest cautioned that too many times the problematic preoccupation is with the hurts of the past and the loss of buildings, rather than reaching out to the next generation with the life-giving power and transforming love of Jesus Christ.

He then laid out a game plan in which SEWAAC members, indeed all Anglican Christians, could grasp the essence of the Gospel message.

"First get a grip on God’s promises," he said. "Draw on the great Evangelical stream of Anglicanism."

He noted that exegetical preaching and teaching in worship and small groups give the Christian the much needed opportunity and time to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the Word of God in Holy Scripture.

"This will mean intentionally supporting seminaries like Nashotah House," Fr. Ashey noted.

He also noted that all Anglicans need to be committed to Bible study and allow what they learn to shape their values in the vision, mission and strategic objectives of the church and that every person needs to consciously commit Scripture passages to memory.

The next step is to get a grip on God’s patterns — personal holiness of life including Anglo-Catholic spiritual disciplines, which help to cultivate the interior life in Christ. He pointed to developing a Rule of Life which includes frequent Eucharist, the Daily Office, Scripture meditation, listening prayer, spiritual accountability and regular confession.

"Every member of the church is called to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ," he said.

Next comes laying hold of the presence and power of God through the Holy Spirit, a new Pentecost need for renewal of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Life of the Spirit – a Christianity with Power as the supernatural dimension of the normal Christian life.

Other points Fr. Ashey mentioned were that worship and prayer have to take priority because they are what shape everything in ACNA.

"As foolish and powerless as it may seem, our Number One strategy to build the Anglican Church in North America is to preach Christ Crucified." Fr. Ashey explained. "We will preach Christ crucified through personal relational evangelism: ‘presenting Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit so that people everywhere will put their trust in God through Him, know Him as Saviour and serve Him as Lord in the fellowship of the Church."

He went on to say that other ways of preaching Christ crucified are to fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations… equipping each member so that they may reconcile the world to Christ … establishing mission partnerships with the Global South and to learn from them.

Finally Fr. Ashey enumerated various points on how ACNA can gain recognition as the Thirty-Ninth Province and help stem the tide of the false Gospel from continuing to spread and infect "the torn Communion."

He noted that ACNA’s leadership needs to join in demanding that the Ridley Cambridge Draft of the proposed Anglican Covenant be immediately released; that ACNA join others in asking the Archbishop of Canterbury to request that all TEC representative withdraw from participation in any Anglican Communion office including the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council; request that the Church of England’s General Synod, as well as the other primates of provinces of the Anglican Communion, recognize ACNA as the only Windsor-compliant authentically Anglican body in North America; help facilitate a meeting of wider the Confessing Communion to address various aspects of TEC’s revisionist theology which depart from the historic faith and order of the ancient church; and support Nashotah House as it enters into theological collaboration with the Orthodox which could hopefully lead to an Anglican-Orthodox statement.

Also: ACNA leadership must demand that the Communion-wide "Indaba listening process" be suspended until such time that an alternative funding source can be secured; continue to help inform the Global South and GAFCON partners of TEC’s underhanded way of attempting to infiltrate their Provinces through the use of money, seminary exchanges and the corrupted Indaba listening process; help the GAFCON’s Global South partners establish solid Biblical and confessional inter-Anglican ministry networks and help bind together the Confessing Communion; and finally, help support Global South and GAFCON provinces in engaging the Torn Communion other than on Canterbury’s terms and TEC’s liberal agendas, focusing instead on the Jerusalem Declaration.

"The most effective thing we can do is gain recognition as a genuine, robust Anglican Province is to stay focused on our mission," Fr. Ashley concluded, "to continue to preach Christ crucified, and to continue to share the transforming love of Jesus Christ to all of North America through evangelism, church planting, discipleship, and mission."

"Let us build a Church like the one in Acts 2:42-47," he urged, "a Church that is worthy of recognition as the Thirty-Ninth Province."

Following Fr. Ashey’s presentation, SEWAAC’s President Bill Chapin said that in his opinion Fr. Ashey’s address was "one of the finest we have ever had."

SEWAAC has been helping disenfranchised Wisconsin Episcopalians stay moored to the wider Anglican Communion while they are currently trapped in a revisionist parish in a hostile diocese.

"We are a conduit for orthodoxy," he noted. "We are an orthodox advocacy group. There are no SEWAAC parishes. We do not plant churches."

Chapin said that SEWAAC has worked hand-in-glove with Nashotah House through the years. He is very grateful for the traditional seminary’s enthusiastic support in helping provide a meeting place and theological underpinnings of the Christianity 101 course and upcoming Christianity 201 course.
 

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

Chris Sugden

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

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

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

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

First, all that they had done since 1998 to state and clarify both the scriptural teaching  of the Anglican Communion, and its pastoral response from a biblical perspective to those in same-sex relationships, had achieved nothing. The result of this process was that there was no clear message of Anglican identity.  The account of this ten year process is given by Archbishop Akinola in his article: “A most agonizing journey towards Lambeth 2008” which is the opening chapter of The Way, the Truth and the Life (Latimer Trust 2008).  The question was therefore would more of the same achieve anything further.

Second, those  who had defied this teaching would be fully part of the spiritual, table, Eucharistic and conciliar fellowship of the bishops of the Anglican Communion for three weeks.  By refusing to join them, these African archbishops were not refusing to come to a table to discuss an issue about which there was disagreement.  For them it was a matter of the witness of the Church – did its senior leaders in the highest councils of a hierarchical church endorse the actions of people who had made a bishop of a divorced man, living now in an active same-sex relationship outside the Christian teaching on marriage and engage with them as equally faithful shepherds of the flock of Christ?

230 serving bishops – over a quarter of those eligible to attend Lambeth, said they would not do this.  For them it was a conflict about the nature of truth.  Was truth to be found in endless discussion, at an open table, in an indaba process where no revelation was given or to be apprehended, or in unbounded diversity? The so-called open table is already biased in favour of a non-biblical agenda as it assumes that all opinions are of equal worth, even those that reject the bible’s teaching.  The indaba process is designed for communities where the moral boundaries and the system of governance is settled and not up for discussion: it is not designed to investigate or invent or design those boundaries.  True diversity for these bishops was to be found in the expression of different gifts of the Holy Spirit, discovered and exercised in adherence to scriptural and Christological distinctives.  In sharp contrast the prevailing passion for diversity pushes these distinctives to the margins.

These bishops were not against dialogue and discussion. They were against being part of a dialogue of senior Christian leaders that had no accountability to any revealed truth.

Third, these archbishops had come to the conclusion that more of the same discussions that had preceded Lambeth would not achieve anything further.  The resolutions of the Lambeth Conference of 1998 had been ignored. Why should they believe any further resolutions would resolve matters or be followed?  Then the decisions of the Primates Meeting had been overridden. The Primates’ Meeting in Dromantine in Ireland in 2005 had decided that the American and Canadian churches would be asked to withdraw their participation in the councils of the Church until they had responded to the requests made of them through the Windsor Report.  But they attended the ACC meeting in Nottingham in 2006 and now were being invited to the 2008 Lambeth.  Further, the Primates Meeting in Dar-es-Salaam in 2007 had specifically asked for responses from those churches to requests by the Primates Meeting by September 30 2007.  Three months before those responses were given, the bishops of those churches were invited to Lambeth 2008. So those responses were rendered irrelevant and the Primates’ request vain.  Further the strong request of the Primates’ meeting in 2007 that all litigation against orthodox churches in North America be dropped was and continues to be ignored.

As these Primates reflected on these developments, or rather lack of developments between 2003 and 2007, they came to the conclusion that a new approach was needed.  They needed to take council with their bishops, and clergy and lay people.

From what transpired at Jerusalem in 2008 we can see a number of contours of this new approach taking shape.

First, they would call for a coalition of the willing – of those who would stand publicly with Anglican faith and practice as set out in the Anglican formularies. Over 1200 people from 27 provinces of the Communion responded to their invitation to meet. They represented at least over 40 million of the 55 million churchgoing Anglicans around the world.

Secondly, they called for Anglicans to return to their roots to discover who we are. Primarily this was to their roots in scripture as the supreme authority for faith and conduct. But to engage with scripture they felt strongly called to return to the places where scripture if one can put it this way, took place: where God spoke and acted in history to and for his people.  It was not an easy decision to meet in Jerusalem and was beset with many difficulties. But meeting in Jerusalem was very powerful. We met in a city whose life had been shaped by the word of God, We met in the place, on the steps of the temple, where Peter had preached the risen Jesus and opened that life to the whole world.  For me, as a member of the Church of England, it was very powerful indeed to realize that my spiritual roots belonged here, where Abraham had been called to sacrifice Isaac on the Mount of Moriah; where the Old Testament worship had taken place; where Jesus had taught and been tried, been crucified and raised; and where the Holy Spirit had been given to empower the disciples for mission. And here were 1200 of us, from the nations of the world, the fruit of that mission 2000 years later gathered to worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. Rome, Canterbury, Geneva, New York are just not in the same league.  Our Anglican roots are not in the sixteenth century, nor in the sixth century, but in the Holy Land all the way back to Abraham.  People are Anglicans because of their biblical faith, not because they are approved by one or another structure.

Thirdly, the Primates trusted the Holy Spirit moving among his people to guide us.  There was no prepared text or even papers for us to discuss at Jerusalem.  There were bible studies and study groups, but no texts. Yet, as the week progressed, in bible study groups, workshop groups, and regional groups, the participants found they came to a common mind about the nature of Anglican identity and mission.  This they expressed in the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration.  There were scenes of great joy when the statement was read and adopted. We were so thrilled that God had led us from all our backgrounds, and cultures and traditions to be rooted in the same understanding of his Word and our faith.  

Fourthly, this leads to the point that this movement does not depend on a centralized bureaucracy.   It was the development of such a centralized bureaucracy over the last 40 years that had undermined the orthodoxy of the Anglican Communion.  For a large bureaucracy requires large funds to support it and this hands control to funders and fund raisers.

In sharp contrast to this centralized approach, the approach of GAFCON and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans has been to enable each parish, congregation and committed person to contribute. That is why it is so good to be having this meeting here in St John’s Walmer. At our launch in London, one church provided all the staffing for the stewarding; another group of churches provided the staffing for the worship service.   This enables local churches and people to know they have a significance in having a larger role themselves.   The development of FCA South Africa will not be a matter of setting up a central office to do the work: it will be a matter of many small battalions all over the place moving things forward as part of a larger movement.

The heart and root of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans certainly in the UK and Ireland is in the life and work of local churches where mission is done and their leadership. We have determined to build on the space we have and relate internationally to the other Fellowships and the Primates’ Council.

And fifthly the controlling paradigm is mission.  It was the argument of those who called GAFCON that the mission of the Anglican church was being severely hindered by the unwillingness of the church to be consistently biblically faithful in its discipline and practice of marriage.  They argued that issues of sexuality had crowded out other vital issues for the church to engage with: therefore they engaged with those issues at Jerusalem. The focus of the Jerusalem Conference was on the Lordship of Jesus, the authority of the scriptures, the kingdom of God, the centrality of a strong doctrine of the cross, church planting, enterprise solutions to poverty and the gospel’s engagement with secularism and other religions.  Following Jerusalem the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in the UK at the request of the Primates Council has established Anglican International Development to enable local churches to partner churches, Dioceses and provinces in gospel shaped development with resources, skills, contacts and support.

Sixthly, the controlling driver for mission is theology, not ideology.  The GAFCON Primates Council as it became, commissioned a Theological Resource Group to provide a preparatory study for the Jerusalem Conference which is available as The Way, the Truth and the Life.  It has also commissioned this Theological Resource Group to produce a commentary on the Jerusalem Declaration.

So the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans was formed to address two tasks: first to take forward the mission of the church, and preach the transforming biblical gospel so that people can come to know Christ and second to provide support and protection and fellowship for those faithful Anglicans who were being persecuted for their orthodox faith and who need recognition and authentication.  In particular the Primates Council has provided encouragement to those in the United States to form their own new entity, the Anglican Church in North America.

Finally, why Confessing Anglicans?  Public confession of the apostolic faith is needed to identify where orthodox Anglicans stand in relation to the current challenges. It is not saying that we are the only faithful Anglicans.  It is reaffirming Anglican identity and rooting it in the apostolic faith, belonging to a Christian church which is centered on the gospel and bounded by Scripture.  The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans invites others who share this confession to stand clearly and firmly with us and to be willing to pay the price.