GAFCON Slideshow – Mount of Olives
We’ve added a slideshow of photos taken on the Mount of Olives – with a focus on people our Australian readers will recognise. Photos thanks to Russell Powell.
Dr. Mark Thompson: Just what is the Bible?
GAFCON participants have been organized into about 6 different workshops. I’ve fortunately been placed in the workshop that has to do with scripture. The first session was led this morning by Dr. Mark Thompson from Sydney. He discusses the nature of scripture, its clarity, its truthfulness, and its place in the church. These are my notes from his talk. It was brilliant and incredibly encouraging. …
– Matt Kennedy of Stand Firm blogs from GAFCON.
See also Mark’s Authority in the Church – on the GAFCON website.
(Photo from the pre-GAFCON leaders consultation – by Russell Powell.)
Sowada and Forsyth write from GAFCON
SydneyAnglicans.net has posted comments from Dr. Karin Sowada and Bishop Robert Forsyth – on their experiences so far at GAFCON.
(Photo: GAFCON Media team.)
Pilgrims help draft GAFCON statement
There is no advance text of a final statement of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), nor prepared plans for future organization and action. And there won’t be one until the 1,200 bishops, priests and laity meeting in Jerusalem June 22 – 29 has had a chance to seek God’s guidance and contribute their thoughts to the Statement Committee.
“The final statement is going to emerge as the work of all the participants of GAFCON,” said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of the Anglican Church of Kenya and chair of the Statement Committee. …
– Press release from GAFCON. (Photo of Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi: Joy Gwaltney.)
GAFCON Pilgrims on Mt of Olives
One thousand two hundred Global Anglican Future Conference pilgrims visited the Mount of Olives on Monday, June 23.
Traveling on close to 30 tour buses, the pilgrims worshipped, prayed together, and had their picture against the backdrop Jerusalem’s Old City. The Rev. David Pileggi, rector of Christ Church, Jerusalem, reminded pilgrims that it was on the Mount of Olives, which separates Jerusalem from the desert, that Jesus wept over the city. Pilgrims took time to pray for their own cities, provinces, dioceses, congregations, and families.
Pilgrims also walked down the valley slope to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus wrestled with God’s will and was arrested the night before his crucifixion.
The Rev. Martin Foord, from Perth, Australia, said of the experience: “It has revolutionised my reading of scripture. I can’t read the Bible the same way again. I can now visualise Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.”
His compatriot, the Rev. Gary Nelson, concurs: “I got this sense of history, being in the very place where real events happened. I got a feel for the distances. It has helped me visualise portions of scripture. You can understand how news (2,000 years ago) spread so quickly.”
– GAFCON Press release. (Photo: GAFCON media team. Click for a larger version.)
From the Files: To Lambeth or not?
Decisions about the Lambeth Conference have not been made in haste. Here’s news from our website from one year ago –
“Standing Committee … respectfully requests the Archbishop of this diocese to communicate to the Archbishop of Canterbury our dissatisfaction at the attempt to maintain union with the unrepentant while continuing to refuse fellowship to faithful and orthodox Anglicans such as the Church of England in South Africa …”
Read this excerpt from the minutes of the Standing Committee of Sydney Diocese on 25th June 2007 – Read more
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…