Province of the Indian Ocean Elects Gilbert Rateloson Rakotondravelo as Seventh Archbishop

“The Rt. Rev. Gilbert Rateloson Rakotondravelo, Bishop of Fianarantsoa, was elected as the Province of the Indian Ocean’s seventh primate and archbishop by the provincial synod on December 14.

He succeeds Archbishop James Wong, who has led the province of eight dioceses in Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Reunion, and the Comoros, since 2017. The province, also known as the Anglican Church of the Indian Ocean, has about 505,000 members. …”

– Report from The Living Church. (Photo: Berthier Lainirina, via The Living Church.)

Gafcon responds to the resignation of Archbishop Welby

A Statement from Gafcon:

“We were saddened by the news of the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the reasons for his decision. While the Gafcon Primates have been critical of the Archbishop’s leadership, the circumstances of his resignation is not an occasion for rejoicing, but for grief and self-reflection.

The presence of child sexual abuse in the church of God is a pernicious evil, which has brought devastating, long-term effects upon survivors and their families. Yet their trauma is only exacerbated by negligence or inaction in pursuing and prosecuting perpetrators for their crimes. Such failures to act also grieve the heart of God and bring shame upon his church.

We appreciate Archbishop Justin’s willingness to resign from his office, as it shows evidence of his desire to take responsibility for his own lack of action in investigating the allegations against John Smyth, which came to light in 2013. While his own admission of regret and remorse is welcome, the past cannot be undone.

Leadership in any sphere of life is challenging, and no less so in the church of God. Christian leaders are called to be shepherds of the flock. Yet, none of us is perfect, as we all make mistakes, but owning our failures is also the mark of good leadership. While some errors of judgment have greater consequences than others, the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, knows our frailty and forgives all who are truly penitent. He also cares for the downcast and broken, as he cares for those who have been abused.

We pray for Archbishop Justin, his wife Caroline, and his family as the days ahead will not be without difficulty. We also pray for all those who have experienced sexual abuse by false shepherds in the church of God. May they know the peace of God that passes understanding and that heals all our infirmities.

The Most Revd. Dr. Laurent Mbanda
Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council
Archbishop & Primate of Rwanda (EAR)
Bishop of Gasabo.”

– Source: Gafcon.

GSFA Pastoral Statement Following the Resignation of Justin Welby

From The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches:

“My dear brothers & sisters,

As many of you will now know, the Archbishop of Canterbury resigned yesterday. This follows criticism in the Makin Report published last week of his failure to respond adequately and effectively to the sustained and uniquely brutal abuse of boys and young men dating back to the late 1970’s.

We should hold in our prayers the many who were scarred by this experience and for whom this dramatic turn of events will stir up traumatic memories and re-visited distress. It is also a time of great personal challenge for the Archbishop himself and his family, who are coming under great strain.  We continue to uphold them in prayer during this difficult time.

The GSFA recognizes the observations, findings and recommendations of the Makin Report, including the danger of a church culture in which what is expedient takes priority over the values for which the Church stands. As we proceed with the Cairo Covenant, our fellowship will hold fast to paramount biblical and spiritual principles, including those of fostering a safe church, implementing oversight over best safeguarding procedures in the interests of all groups, parishioners, stakeholders and vulnerable persons who operate within the Anglican Communion.

There has never been a more challenging time for Global Anglicans to come together, and for senior church leaders to exercise their professional responsibilities to review and upgrade their safeguarding procedures, and to be held accountable for timely oversight and church discipline.

“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” 2 Thessalonians 3:5

The Most Rev Dr Justin Badi Arama
Archbishop and Primate of the
Episcopal Church of South Sudan, and
GSFA Chair.”

– Source: The GSFA.

GSFA photo.

Canon Phil Ashey on the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury

If you haven’t been following developments in the UK, this reaction by Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council will help explain things:

John Smyth was a Canadian-born British barrister, actively involved with children in the Anglican Communion through several different ministries. He was the chairman of the Iwerne Trust, which ran the Iwerne camps, where he had access and opportunity to abuse hundreds of children and young men. His abuse was not only sexual but physical, performing sadistic beatings on schoolboys and young men attending these camps, as well as attendees at other Christian groups dedicated to the discipleship of young men. This abuse occurred in England but continued in Africa, when Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in the early 80s and continued to run children’s camps. He moved to South Africa in 2001.

Independent investigations revealed that Smyth inflicted sexual, emotional, spiritual, and physical abuse on at least 100 people. The greatest display of hypocrisy within the Church that Smyth participated in was his role as a lawyer representing morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse, prosecuting those accused of blasphemy and immorality. While living in South Africa, he ran the Justice Alliance of South Africa, an organization dedicated to upholding high moral standards in society. He also unsuccessfully opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage in South Africa, claiming that such activity would result in “violence to mind and spirit”. The irony of all this can’t be overstated.

Smyth died before he could be brought to trial.

This past year, the independent review called the Makin Report was commissioned by the Church of England and published this last week, revealing the details on what church authorities knew about the abuse and how they intentionally covered it up or ignored it. Smyth moved to different locations and was allowed to take up posts where he had close contact with young men, even though church leaders knew what was going on. One of those leaders was Archbishop Justin Welby who, in 2013, was informed of Smyth’s abuse but took no action against him. His level of culpability remains to be seen, but he resigned today as Archbishop of Canterbury in a shocking statement.

Though he claimed to take responsibility, much of the statement reads as if he was not so culpable, with hardly an apology but with a pledge to continue entrusting the Church and himself to Jesus Christ. It makes one wonder why this hadn’t happened sooner, when he continued to harbor and abet leaders who destroyed the fabric of Christian morality in the very Christian Church itself. The Smyth case was one horrific example of a leadership style that buries rather than resurrects; hides rather than clarifies; and, frankly, misrepresents rather than speaks the whole truth. This moral failure with regards to Anglicans in England and Africa completely compromises all his leadership and previous pledges from the Canterbury communion towards the majority of the Global South.

Again, the way Abp. Welby dealt with these allegations shows not just an issue with a particular scandal but a recurring practice of burying hard truth and hoping it will go away. It never goes away; truth always comes back to haunt you. That’s the case with the Makin Review and that’s the case with the “Living in Love and Faith” prayers for the blessing of same sex unions in the Church of England– a debacle throughout, in which Welby tried to play both sides and cover up the painful truth that there is no compromise. It’s this desire to stay neutral that, in the end, isn’t neutrality at all. He did nothing when he heard about what Smyth was doing, just like he did nothing to bring discipline to wayward churches and leaders in the Anglican Communion.

The larger debate on human sexuality within the Church of England and increasingly elsewhere in the Anglican Communion is certainly not a case of individual abuse. But with regards to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s “spiritual leadership” of the Anglican Communion, it is spiritual abuse at a corporate level that is damaging countless souls under his care; he has refused to deal with it. In his statement today, he wrote, “It is my duty to honour my Constitutional and church responsibilities, so exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed.” But where was his duty to honor and defend the Faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3), including the Church’s unbroken biblical teaching on marriage, not only as a bishop but as an archbishop and the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion? So now he resigns for this particular scandal, at this time, in the Church of England—but without regard  for the myriad of spiritual scandals he oversaw over his tenure in the See of Canterbury?

Welby’s leaving leaves a lot of questions for the future of the Anglican Communion.

What kind of successor will take his place, and will he or she continue the fracturing or help bring unity based on biblical truth and faithfulness to the unbroken teaching of the Church?

How does this affect Gafcon and the Global South? Does his resignation really matter to them? And what does the See of Canterbury mean for the identity of global Anglicanism, when its highest leader utterly compromised his spiritual and temporal leadership of the Mother Church by aiding and abetting the worst serial abuser in the history of the Anglican Church?

Is this the final nail in the coffin of Canterbury’s post-colonial domination of the Communion?

Isn’t now the time, at this moment, for the Global South and GAFCON to rally the rest of the Communion around repentance? What better moment to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations and draw other national and regional Anglican churches into the covenantal structures of the Cairo Covenant, ratified in June in Egypt, to carry on the Anglican Communion under biblically-faithful commitments?

Archbishop Welby’s resignation has been a long time coming. What a sad and tragic end to what had been a much hoped for beginning of a return to biblical-faithfulness in the Mother Church. Please pray for the victims of this horrific abuse, and for Anglicans to walk everywhere in the light (I John 1:7-9) as we move forward.

– Received by e-mail. Now also posted on the American Anglican Council website.

Archbishop of Canterbury resigns

Early this morning, Eastern Australian Time, Archbishop Justin Welby resigned, releasing a statement –

“Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Makin Review has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.

When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.

It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.

It is my duty to honour my Constitutional and church responsibilities, so exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed, including those in England and in the Anglican Communion.

I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church. As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse.

The last few days have renewed my long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England. For nearly twelve years I have struggled to introduce improvements. It is for others to judge what has been done.

In the meantime, I will follow through on my commitment to meet victims. I will delegate all my other current responsibilities for safeguarding until the necessary risk assessment process is complete.

I ask everyone to keep my wife Caroline and my children in their prayers. They have been my most important support throughout my ministry, and I am eternally grateful for their sacrifice. Caroline led the spouses’ programme during the Lambeth Conference and has travelled tirelessly in areas of conflict supporting the most vulnerable, the women, and those who care for them locally.

I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England, which I dearly love and which I have been honoured to serve. I pray that this decision points us back towards the love that Jesus Christ has for every one of us.

For above all else, my deepest commitment is to the person of Jesus Christ, my saviour and my God; the bearer of the sins and burdens of the world, and the hope of every person.”

– Source, The Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.

Photo: Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.

Gafcon rebukes Archbishop Welby and affirms orthodox Anglicans in England

Here is a Communique from the Gafcon Primates’ Council:

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3)

We, the Gafcon Primates, meeting in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, to celebrate the investiture of Archbishop Steve Wood as the third Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and to welcome him as a Primate of the Anglican Communion, send greetings to the faithful.

We wish we could write to you about our great joy for mission, evangelism, and church planting, but recent statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury require us to yet again address an urgent matter surrounding biblical ethics confronting our beloved Anglican church.

The recent actions of the General Synod of the Church of England, where Archbishop Justin Welby has championed the introduction of same-sex blessings into the life of the Church of England, has galvanised the Gafcon movement in the ongoing reset of the Anglican Communion. However, Archbishop Welby’s recent explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine in his interview on Britain’s podcast, ‘The Rest is Politics,’ has brought us to repeat our serious call for his personal repentance.

In this interview, he publicly states that:

“all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship and whether it’s straight or gay. In other words, we’re not giving up on the idea that sex is within marriage or civil partnership. We’ve put forward a proposal that where people have been through a civil partnership or a same-sex marriage, equal marriage under the 2014 Act, they should be able to come along to their local, to a church, and have a service of prayer and blessing for them in their lives together.”

While he may claim not to have changed the doctrine of marriage, the Archbishop of Canterbury has demonstrably changed the doctrine of sin, by promoting the sanctification of sin by means of a divine blessing.

This is in clear breach of Holy Scripture, which unequivocally teaches that the only proper context for sexual intimacy is in the relationship of a man and woman who have been joined together in marriage. All forms of sexual intimacy outside of this context are condemned as immorality and are behaviors from which the people of God are regularly called to repent (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

It is also in clear breach of Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which rejected, “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture,” and which the Archbishop as recently as 2022 declared to be the teaching of the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England.

We are guided by Jesus’ solemn words of warning to the Church of Thyatira, because, “they tolerate the teaching of Jezebel,” which endorses sexual immorality. Only judgment awaits Jezebel and all who follow her, unless they repent (Revelation 2:21-22; 22:15). Any toleration, let alone endorsement, of immorality is liable to God’s judgment.

For this reason, in response to his public comments, we solemnly repeat our call for Archbishop Justin Welby to personally and publicly repent of this denial of his ordination and consecration vows, where he promised to, “teach the doctrine of Christ as the Church of England has received it.”

Gafcon supports all faithful Anglicans, both those who have chosen to leave established provinces where the authority of Scripture has been compromised, as well as those who choose to remain as they seek to reform their province from within.

Therefore, we continue to champion The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) as Gafcon’s authentically-Anglican structural provision for those who cannot by conscience remain within the historic, revisionist structures.

Additionally, we express our support for The Alliance as they seek to stand firm in defense of biblical marriage within the Church of England, and we stand ready to defend, authenticate, and support them.

Finally, we declare afresh to all those in England who, “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to all the saints,” that you are not alone.

Gafcon Primates’ Council.
Reformation Day,
31 October 2024.

– Also published on the GAFCON website.

Justin Welby and the Continued Erosion of the Faith in the Church of England

“The Australian Church Record (ACR) is deeply grieved by the recent remarks made by the Archbishop of Canterbury in ‘The Rest is Politics’ podcast episode released on 21 October 2024.

In the context of the current turbulence in the Church of England over matters related to human sexuality, Archbishop Justin Welby stated that ‘All sexual activity should be within a committed relationship and whether its straight or gay.’ (51:49).

Despite the subsequent Lambeth Palace statement issued on 22 October 2024 which defended this interview as merely Archbishop Welby’s ‘personal view’, this remark represents a serious and public breach of biblical orthodoxy from the most senior representative of world Anglicanism.…”

— Read the full statement just released by The Australian Church Record.

Vaughan Roberts on Justin Welby’s rejection of Church of England teaching on sex

“In a significant interview on the Rest is Politics Podcast England’s Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, has denied the teaching of the Bible, and the teaching of his church.

It is Archbishop Welby’s most public betrayal of his ordination and consecration vow to ‘banish error and to uphold and defend the truth taught in Scripture.’

Archbishop Welby’s comments came on the eve of an important House of Bishops meeting in the UK, which considered a request from a group called The Alliance, consisting of 2360 clergy whose churches represent 42% of the Church of England’s Sunday attendance, and who hold to the Bible’s teaching on sexuality.

They are asking for a separate orthodox province to be created within the Church of England.

Vaughan Roberts is the senior minister of St. Ebbe’s in Oxford, and is one of the signatories of the request from The Alliance.”

– Watch or listen here.

Roadmap for a reset communion — with Paul Donison and Glenn Davies

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“The chair of Gafcon Laurent Mbunda and chair of Global South Justin Badi Arama are to meet to work out a roadmap for the resetting of the Anglican Communion.

Global South Anglicans have endorsed the Former Sydney Archbishop Glenn Davies call for the communion to be reset on biblical foundations.  The Global South have called on their Primates to work with the GAFCON Primates Council and other Orthodox leaders to reset the communion on its biblical foundations as a matter of urgency.

In other Anglican news:

  1. The Church of England General Synod is meeting in York.  They are considering whether to press go to move towards the next stage of endorsing their bishops’ proposals for same sex blessing. Orthodox Anglicans united under a banner called The Alliance are calling for structural differentiation in England (essentially a new province). The Bishop of Oxford has hit back telling The Alliance to take a running jump.

  2. Orthodox Anglicans from across Australasia gathered in Brisbane last week. New daughter churches are being planted within the fledging diocese of the Southern Cross.

  3. A new Archbishop appointed to lead the Anglican Church of North America. Steve Wood will replace Foley Beach.

  4. A collective meeting of orthodox leaders in Cairo has met for a week on ways that faithful christians might be able to reset the Communion. The Global South Anglicans met in Cairo the week before that and voted to call for the chair of the Global South Justin Badi Arama to work with the chair of Gafcon to reset the communion.

Our guests are new General Secretary of Gafcon Paul Donison and new Bishop of the Diocese of the Southern Cross (and former Archbishop of Sydney) Glenn Davies.”

– Dominic Steele speaks with Bishops Paul Donison and Glenn Davies.

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel’s sermon at the GSFA First Assembly in Egypt

Our thanks go to the Anglican Futures website for drawing attention to Archbishop Kanishka Raffel’s sermon at the final session of the GSFA First Assembly in Egypt last week.

The Archbishop spoke on Romans 10:1-10 – and you can see video of the sermon here.

“…the Anglican Communion will not be surrendered to leadership that denies the authority, truth and trustworthiness of the Word of God…”

Take the time to watch to be reminded of the great issues and the great responsibilities before every believer. Most encouraging!

Update:

A PDF file of the Archbishop’s sermon notes is available here, with thanks to Russell Powell. (Clicking the link may download the file to your downloads folder.)

Cof E ‘forfeits leadership’ role in Communion declare Global South Anglicans

“Global South Anglican leaders meeting in Cairo last week repeated their statement that the Archbishop of Canterbury and C of E had “forfeited” leadership and vowed to press on with creating new structures for the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Some 200 Global South Anglicans met in Cairo to hear the Archbishop of Sudan, Justin Badi Arama, state that membership of the Communion had shifted ‘from geography to doctrine’. …”

– From The Church of England Newspaper. Republished at Anglican Mainstream.

Photo: Archbishop Justin Badi Arama at Lambeth in 2022, with thanks to the Lambeth ’22 Resource Group.

GSFA, ACNA, and the Future of Conservative Anglicanism

“The 176 delegates, observers, and invited guests who gathered for the First Assembly of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) on June 11 in the Egyptian desert surely brought a variety of hopes with them.

Some had been working on what is now called the GSFA’s Covenantal Structure for nearly a decade, and were excited to see the body finally convene and elect its leaders. For them, these are crucial steps in building the kind of institution the Anglican Communion hasn’t been in a long time, a body that acts like a global church, standing firm against false teaching and binding its members in mutual submission and common order. …“

– This report, by Mark Michael at The Living Church, is one perspective on what happened at the GSFA Assembly. (We’ll post links to other reports if they come to hand.)

Click here for the full size version of the Assembly group photo, courtesy of GSFA via The American Anglican Council.

Communique from the First Assembly of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches

“The First Assembly of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches – GSFA 9th Trumpet, 11-15 June 2024, St Mark’s Conference Centre, El Khatatba, Egypt …

A total of 200 participants from across 40 nations gathered as orthodox Anglican leaders for the 1st Assembly of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA).

This is the first Assembly of the GSFA after the Global South Churches adopted a new Covenantal Structure in 2019 to bind their communion in Gospel life and witness together as a covenanted ecclesial body within the Anglican Communion.

To maintain continuity with the past and remember our roots, we have chosen to recognise GSFA’s 1st Assembly as also the 9th Trumpet of Global South churches since its first gathering at Limuru, Kenya in 1994. …”

– Read the full Communique released over night at the GSFA website.

Two updates from the GSFA Assembly

Two reports from The American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey:

“Last night, we crossed an important finish line! The members of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) formally and unanimously ratified the Cairo Covenant and its covenantal structures. Among the most important sections are those that define how Anglicans read the Bible and what authority we give to its reading. …”

– Ratifying the Cairo Covenant.

and then a further update via Anglican Mainstream:

“The Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) achieved their third objective of Assembly 2024: the election of godly leaders among the Primates Council, the Council of Bishops, and the Assembly.”

– Global South Assembly – The Structures come together.

Final Communique expected tomorrow.

Can the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans chase the snakes out of the Anglican Communion?

“Yesterday, in a monastery in the Egyptian desert, the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) met for their first Assembly, under their new covenantal structures. Their purpose? To reset the Anglican Communion.

In his keynote address, the current Chair of the GSFA, the Primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi, set out their plan. …

The Global South Fellowship of Anglicans has waited twenty-five years for the Instruments of the Anglican Communion to bring order to the divided church community, but they will wait no longer.”

– Susie Leafe writes at Christian Today.

The Assembly videos can be seen here.

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