Rev. George Conger
June 30, 2008
Jerusalem—Conservative Anglicans attending the Global Anglican Future Conference will break with the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church, forming a “church within a church” for traditionalists.
Prior to the release of a communiqué prepared by delegates (or pilgrims) to the Jerusalem assembly, a midpoint report given by the Archbishop of Kenya Benjamin Nzimbi on June 26 states the final document “will require” the creation of “appropriate” and “permanent structures” to support “faithful Anglicans who live and serve in provinces that have abandoned the traditional teaching of the Bible.”
Participants of GAFCON pose for a picture on the Mount of Olives. (Photo by George Conger) |
The GAFCON movement “is a global movement for the transformation of life and Gospel ministry,” Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney said, as the “Gospel of Jesus has immense power to change people’s lives.”
GAFCON would be a “movement, not something of the moment,” Archbishop Nzimbi explained, but the movement for reform will work within the bounds of the Anglican comprehensiveness.
We are “not innovators or rebels,” said Professor Stephen Noll, vice-chancellor of Uganda Christian University, but a movement “back to the original sources of our tradition.”
The changes GAFCON seeks are new structural relations between Anglican churches, concrete support for embattled U.S. and Canadian traditionalists, a common approach to reading the Bible, and a new catechism and Book of Common Prayer shared by conservatives across the communion, Nigerian Bishop John Akao told reporters on behalf of the communiqué drafting team.
The schedule for the conference runs 12 to 14 hours a day: with worship, Bible studies, workshops, small group meetings, regional or national group meetings, and plenary sessions with addresses from the leaders of the Anglican conservative movement.
Archbishop Nzimbi reported that on a structural level, for the GAFCON movement to “continue to develop it will require an agreed theological framework and appropriate structures to sustain its growth.”
Bishop Martyn Minns of Cana, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, and the Rev Dr. Cesar Guzman of Chile take part in worship. (Photo by George Conger) |
“There is also agreement that more permanent structures need to be established for those faithful Anglicans who live and serve in provinces that have abandoned the traditional teaching of the Bible,” the midpoint statement said.
Pilgrims will state their “profound sadness” on the current state of affairs within the Anglican Communion, and their “sense of betrayal and abandonment by the existing leadership and communion structures.”
However, GAFCON pilgrims are “determined to stay true to the Bible, to continue the work of mission and to do so as Anglicans,” Archbishop Nzimbi said.
Asked by the IRD if this meant working with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Nzimbi said “we would like to come together. We are not excluding anybody as such,” he observed, save for “those who are fighting with the word of God.”
Closes door sessions on Friday and Saturday will perfect the document, which will be released on Sunday.
The tone and organization of GAFCON is unlike any previous pan-Anglican jamboree. In the past we were “all scouts together,” said Robert Tong, a leading lay delegate from Australia, but we were now seeing the “center of Anglicanism” shift from “Europe to Africa.”
GAFCON is the first African-led and internationally funded pan-Anglican gathering. Archbishop Akinola stated the $5 million in costs for the June 22-29 conference had been raised in five months, with $2.4 million coming from the Church of Nigeria. Two individuals contributed the bulk of the Nigerian funding he said, providing sufficient funds to pay the costs of the American bishops and delegates under Nigerian oversight to attend the gathering.
Bishop-elect AkinTunde Popoola, the Church of Nigeria’s press spokesman, said the Nigerian donations were given anonymously, but he could confirm they were Nigerian nationals resident in the country, and were not American supporters of CANA.
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester, England speaking at Gafcon on June 25. (Photo by George Conger) |
“Nigeria has been self-supporting” in its obligations within the Anglican Communion, he said. He noted that the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) had been granted a dispensation from Nigerian canon law requiring dioceses to contribute to the support of the national church. “CANA does not pay a dime to Nigeria,” he said.
The 1072 delegates or “pilgrims” to GAFCON paid £800 per person, £600 for spouses to cover the costs of meals, lodging, local transport, and conference costs. National delegations have contributed to the costs of CANA, with the American and British groups undertaking fundraising campaigns to help cover costs and along with other donors provided scholarship support for some individuals.
Hugh Pratt, GAFCON treasurer, dismissed speculation that wealthy American conservatives were footing the bill for the gathering, telling IRD such talk was “nonsense.”
The choice Anglicans were facing was straightforward, Bishop John Rodgers, former Dean of the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry said. “It’s a question of doctrine or structure. Which of these makes one Anglican?”
On the opening night of the conference, Archbishop Akinola stated GAFCON had “no intention” of starting a new church and that he would remain an Anglican, leading many observers to believe the powerful Nigerian Church had pulled back from threats to break up the Anglican Communion.
However, the archbishop’s colleagues explained that being an Anglican did not mean loyalty to a church system centring round the Archbishop of Canterbury, but to a set of theological principles. In 2005 the Church of Nigeria altered its constitution to reflect this view, removing references to the Archbishop of Canterbury as the focus of fellowship and replacing it with a confessional statement.
The new constitution stated Nigerian Anglicans would be in fellowship with those who shared a common faith, drawn from the Bible and the historic creeds and formed by the 1662 English Book of Common Prayer and the Articles of Religion, Bishop Popoola said.
This was the context in which Archbishop Akinola was speaking, a Nigerian bishop explained, speaking off the record as the final conference communiqué has not been completed. However, Archbishop of Rwanda Emmanuel Kolini summarized this view, noting that “Lambeth is irrelevant to us,” referring to the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
It was no longer business as usual, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester, England said, as the Anglican ways of ordering the church no longer worked “because in the end they were based on English good manners. In our world we have found that English good manners are not enough.”
The Rev. Canon George Conger is a priest of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida and senior correspondent of The Church of England Newspaper.
- Earlier Article: Traditional Anglicans Gather in Jerusalem (June 24)
- Next Article: Anglican Conservatives Create “Confessing Movement” (July 8)
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