Statement from Lambeth Palace, 21 April 2023
“Responding to ‘The Kigali Commitment’ issued by GAFCON IV today, a spokesperson for Lambeth Palace said:
‘We note that The Kigali Commitment issued by GAFCON IV today makes many of the same points that have previously been made about the structures of the Anglican Communion. As the Archbishop of Canterbury has previously said, those structures are always able to change with the times – and have done so in the past. The Archbishop said at the recent Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Ghana (ACC-18) that no changes to the formal structures of the Anglican Communion can be made unless they are agreed upon by the Instruments of Communion.’ …” (emphasis added)
– Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.
And from the GAFCON IV Kigali Commitment, representing perhaps 85% of global Anglicans:
“Public statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury and other leaders of the Church of England in support of same-sex blessings are a betrayal of their ordination and consecration vows to banish error and to uphold and defend the truth taught in Scripture. …
We have no confidence that the Archbishop of Canterbury nor the other Instruments of Communion led by him (the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates’ Meetings) are able to provide a godly way forward that will be acceptable to those who are committed to the truthfulness, clarity, sufficiency and authority of Scripture. The Instruments of Communion have failed to maintain true communion based on the Word of God and shared faith in Christ.
All four Instruments propose that the way ahead for the Anglican Communion is to learn to walk together in ‘good disagreement’. However we reject the claim that two contradictory positions can both be valid in matters affecting salvation. We cannot ‘walk together’ in good disagreement with those who have deliberately chosen to walk away from the ‘faith once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). The people of God ’walk in his ways’, ‘walk in the truth’, and ‘walk in the light’, all of which require that we do not walk in Christian fellowship with those in darkness (Deuteronomy 8:6; 2 John 4; 1 John 1:7).
Successive Archbishops of Canterbury have failed to guard the faith by inviting bishops to Lambeth who have embraced or promoted practices contrary to Scripture. This failure of church discipline has been compounded by the current Archbishop of Canterbury who has himself welcomed the provision of liturgical resources to bless these practices contrary to Scripture. This renders his leadership role in the Anglican Communion entirely indefensible. …” (emphasis added)
Great Encouragement — yet much Grief that this is needed
Dominic Steele and the team in Kigali have posted a number reactions to the Kigali Commitment.
Do watch them here to understand something of the sadness and pain in this moment, as well as the encouragement to stand firm in Christ.
Interviewees include (not in order) –
* Michael Stead, Statement Committee Chair
* Richard Coekin, Co-Mission Network, London
* Jay Behan, New Zealand Bishop
* Lee Gatiss, UK Church Society Director
* Andy Lines, Bishop for Anglican Network in Europe
* Julian Dodds, USA Bishop
* Vaughan Roberts, Minister of St Ebbes Oxford
* William Taylor, Minister of St Helens London
* Matt and Anne Kennedy, Binghamton New York
* Pete Smith & Jennifer Hercott, Gafcon Australia
* Bill Atwood, Regional Secretary for the Americas
* Rico Tice, Christianity Explored
* Jonathan Pryke, Jesmond Parish Church, Newcastle upon Tyne
* Trevor Johnson, Tim Anderson, Ireland
Photo: William Taylor and Vaughan Roberts speak of their great encouragement at the release of the Kigali Commitment – as well as their sadness and grief that this is needed.
An Historic Moment for the Anglican Communion: Key Takeaways from the GAFCON IV Kigali Commitment
“The final version of the Gafcon IV Kigali Commitment (2023) will go down in history as among the historic turning points of the Anglican Communion. It was virtually everything the delegates had hoped for, and as Rev Canon Alison Barfoot and I observed in our podcast yesterday, it is substantively the same as the first draft even after the Statement Team reviewed 550+ comments submitted!
Here are some of the key takeaways. I encourage you to read and reflect upon the GAFCON Kigali Commitment (2023) for yourself. …
But let me offer the following eight take-aways and commentary on the GAFCON Kigali Commitment. …”
– Canon Phil Ashey from the American Anglican Council has posted these very helpful observations on The GAFCON IV Kigali Commitment released last night.
He also outlines the new leadership of GAFCON –
“Archbishop Foley Beach and the Gafcon primates have passed the baton to the next leaders of the movement. Archbishop Laurent Mbanda (Rwanda) is the new Chair. Archbishops Kanishka Raffel (Sydney) and Miguel Uchoa (Brazil) are the vice-Chairs. Archbishop Kwashi (Nigeria) will continue as General Secretary. In other words, the face of the top leadership of Gafcon is a global Anglican Communion face, representing (with Global South) the 85% majority of Anglicans in Africa, Austral-Asia, and the Americas. It is the same face we find in the top leadership of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans.”
Resetting the Communion ‘urgent’ says GAFCON IV
“After a five-day meeting in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, the 1300 clergy and lay delegates to the fourth Global Anglican Future Conference have agreed on a statement calling for an ‘urgent resetting’ of the Anglican communion.
The largest gathering of Anglicans since GAFCON III in Jerusalem five years ago had to grapple with the fallout from the Church of England’s decision to bless same-sex couples. …”
– Russell Powell has this report on the Kigali Commitment and its implications.
The Kigali Commitment — GAFCON IV Conference Statement — resetting the Anglican Communion on its biblical foundations.
The Kigali Commitment –
Released on the final day of GAFCON IV, 21 April 2023
PDF version here. Or full text below:
(Also available in Swahili, French, Spanish and Portuguese.)
GAFCON Day 4: Remarkable Repentance
The American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey continues his encouraging reports from Kigali.
Here, he discusses Thursday’s events. The final day of GAFCON IV begins this evening, Australian time.
“The Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16-17) and, therefore, it is worth paying whatever cost to stand up for and share this power-of-God Gospel with the world. Along the way, we need to ask ourselves about this cost. What lessons can we learn from the Church of Uganda, and others, about breaking Communion with Anglican Churches that will not uphold the Gospel? What is the cost of breaking Communion with the Mother Church of England? How can we reset the Communion on a Gospel basis? What can GAFCON and Global South do in this new reset to address the needs of African Anglicans in proclaiming the Gospel of Christ faithfully to all nations? These are among the questions the Rev. Canon Dr. Alison Barfoot (Church of Uganda) and I discussed in our Anglican Perspective Podcast yesterday evening. [See below]
We need the power of the Gospel more than ever in the cultures we are evangelizing where identity politics and divisions are deepening. This morning, we heard the power of the Gospel in the exposition of Colossians 3:1-17 by Archbishop Kanishka Raffel (Sydney) who contrasted the identity politics and divisions of the world with the identity of the Church and the unity we experience as followers of Jesus Christ. The identity of the Church finds its source in Jesus Christ and his saving work alone (Col. 3:1-4). “Therefore,” said Archbishop Raffel, “let Jesus be the counselor whose advice and approval is our sole focus.” The identity of the Church is shaped by the character of Christ (Col. 3:5-14) whose death on the cross calls us to “put to death whatever belongs to our earthly (sinful) nature” and “clothe ourselves” with the new nature Christ has given us, his very life, especially his forgiveness and love. Finally, the identity of the Church is formed by Christ-centered habits of the heart (Col. 3:15-17) especially the practice of peace as we gather around God’s word with thankfulness for all Christ has done for us. “Therefore,” he said, “there is no room for grumbling or pride or self-congratulation when we gather together.”
Archbishop Raffel also focused on two things at the heart of identity politics and divisions in our cultures: sex and speech. “Put to death therefore…sexual immorality,” and “rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language…” (Col. 3:5, 8-9). Because of these two things, the wrath of God is coming (Col. 3:6). Why? Because God cares about relationships, and sexual immorality and destructive speech are at the heart of unraveled relationships in our secular cultures.
He then turned the spotlight on the Church and said we, too, must repent of the same things. He noted that our championing of Lambeth Resolution 1.10 (1998) often only focuses on one aspect of sexual immorality, whereas the Resolution also includes the following expressions of sexual immorality:
“Promiscuity, prostitution, incest, pornography, paedophilia, predatory sexual behaviour, and sadomasochism (all of which may be heterosexual and homosexual), adultery, violence against wives, and female circumcision. From a Christian perspective these forms of sexual expression remain sinful in any context.” (Called to Full Humanity, Section 1 Report, subsection 3)
Noting the voices of the victims of these forms of sexual immorality especially victims of predatory sexual behavior, prostitution, and violence in marriage, and our failure to address these dimensions in our focus on homosexuality, Archbishop Raffel concluded that “there is a self-serving blind spot for which we must repent lest the wrath of God fall upon us.” He was followed immediately by Archbishop Peter Jensen (Sydney, ret.) who invited all GAFCON members to first repent of our sins and to turn away from our own impurity before we call others to repent.
A remarkable moment of repentance followed—a time of quiet self-examination for repentance of our own sins and prayers for forgiveness. I was reminded of the challenges we are facing in ACNA in responding to accusations of clergy misconduct by victims of predatory sexual behavior and other abuses of position and power. To what degree are we experiencing the cutting edge of God’s wrath for our failures? What can we do to repent?
Our time of prayer was followed immediately by an unexpected presentation by GAFCON leaders regarding the financial challenges facing GAFCON. It was very surprising and sobering. The leadership challenged those present to respond with extraordinary giving to raise a multi-million dollar endowment to fund the ongoing operations of GAFCON. This “ask” raises questions about the operations of GAFCON. But in the spirit of Archbishop Raffel’s challenge from Colossians 3, is this financial crisis one of the ways God is trying to speak to and shape GAFCON in its operations, vision, and mission? Is there a blind spot in the way GAFCON has functioned for which there needs to be some repentance?
At the heart of true repentance lies the heart of God and the heart of sinful people like you and me. This was the subject of the Rev. Dr. Ashley Null’s plenary presentation on “The power to love: the heart of historic Anglicanism.” Dr. Null reminded us that the human heart requires repentance because it is at the center of human sin. It is also at the center of humanity’s restoration. Our insecurities lead us to act in sinful ways driven by the disordered desires of our hearts. The only way out of sin is to discover a burning love for God that turns us outward away from self.
Medieval Catholic repentance was a combination of fear and hope, but the English Reformers like Thomas Cranmer thought the love of God, rather than the fear of God, leads to true change. The Reformers realized that the sins we struggle with draw us away from the love of God and act as replacements for it. They recognized that the devil’s principal strategy is to make us doubt that God really loves us, to turn away from God’s love, and to feel good about ourselves through “the devices and desires of our own heart.” By ourselves, we do not have the capacity to love God rather than sin.
In returning to the power of the Gospel, the Reformers rediscovered the truth of I John 4:19: We love God because he first loved us. So, Cranmer makes this the central theme of our liturgies and prayers in the Book of Common Prayer! God’s love comes first and always, not our own works and efforts. Through these prayers, we are reminded constantly of the love of God for us whose voice in our hearts can never be extinguished. Only God’s love for sinners can inspire sinners like you and me to love God more than sin!
This is the heart of remarkable repentance and the heart of true discipleship. This is what GAFCON stands for and what also must be at the heart of a reset Anglican Communion. We need GAFCON not only to remind us of this remarkable repentance but also to lead by example.”
– Received via e-mail.
Top photo: GAFCON.
On the Threshold of the Great Anglican Communion Reset
The American Anglican Council‘s Canon Phil Ashey writes from Kigali –
“The first official draft of the GAFCON statement was read today to GAFCON Kigali delegates. The hard work to create an in-depth, thorough, and sweeping evaluation of the issues facing the Anglican Church, the proposed solutions, and the future for biblically faithful Anglicanism were positively received. We are grateful for their hard work and transparency. Tonight, these primates and church leaders will gather again to gather feedback from delegates who met after the reading of the statement in regional gatherings to discuss the draft and make suggested changes. We eagerly await the reading of the final statement on Friday morning!
This morning, Archbishop James Wong (Indian Ocean) taught from Colossians 1:28-2:23 on being “Rooted and Grounded in Christ.” Ultimately, this is what I believe the GAFCON Conference Statement is calling us to be. As Archbishop Wong noted, St. Paul actually uses a mixed metaphor, both a garden and a building, “rooted and built up” (Col. 2:7). We are to bear fruit and grow up to be a place together where God himself may dwell. That is the future of the great Anglican Communion reset.
What Paul described in Colossians is similar to the struggle we now face in the Anglican Communion. The church in Colossae was divided between those who had a simple faith in the supremacy of Jesus Christ and those who believed in “fine sounding arguments,” “hollow and deceptive philosophies,” and the “human traditions and elemental spiritual forces” of the world (Col. 2:4,8). What a perfect description of the context in which the Anglican Communion finds itself today, divided between those who believe in the supremacy of Jesus Christ and the clarity, authority, and superiority of his Word—and those who have produced “find sounding arguments” that have seduced people away from the love of Christ and his teaching, including his teaching on marriage. What St. Paul said is what GAFCON says today: “Do not be deceived.” In the context of our divided Communion, Archbishop Wong concluded, “Look up to Jesus and see that no one takes you captive to anything that takes you away from Jesus!”
In Colossians 2:2, St. Paul describes his mission to the Colossians and others who have not yet met him in these words: “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love.” Just as he encouraged the Colossians to put love and unity together said Archbishop Wong, so GAFCON and the Global South are calling all orthodox Anglicans to stand firm by coming together “in love and unity to overcome the spiritual forces that draw us away from Jesus Christ.” The unity of the 85% of global Anglicans represented by GAFCON and the Global South must, therefore, be rooted in love of Jesus and love for one another.
That’s what I heard in the GAFCON Statement today. It is a call to evangelism, discipleship, and mission. But it is also a call, in the words of Archbishop Wong, “to good order, to be like an army in lines unbroken, in discipline, following the great tradition and rule the Colossians had already received, ‘So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Col.2:6-7).
May this be the word and the spirit of the great Anglican Communion reset!”
– Received via e-mail.
Two highlights from Day 2 of GAFCON IV
There is much to see – but here are two highlights –
Bishop Glenn Davies’ background on what led up to GAFCON I, 2008 and what came after.
It’s a very sobering accounting of recent history. Do watch and share:
He mentions the Kuala Lumpur Statement, 1997.
See also: The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns – by Dr. Mark Thompson, March 2008.
And Bishop Keith Sinclair’s address:
“What we have seen over the past years is the unfolding of a tragedy.”
Bishop Sinclair refers to Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10,
and Peter Jensen’s editorial in the current issue of The Global Anglican.
Time to move on past Canterbury and seek the renewal, revival and reform of the Anglican way — Archbishop Beach tells GAFCON IV
“GAFCON IV will not spend five days bemoaning the failures of the Church of England, but is focused on recalling the wider Anglican world to renewal, revival and reform, the chairman of GAFCON the Most Rev. Foley Beach indicated in his presidential address tonight. …”
– At Anglican.ink, George Conger shares his take on Archbishop Foley Beach’s address on the first night of GAFCON IV in Kigali.
The Challenge of, and the Challenge to, GAFCON
“As the fourth GAFCON conference begins today in Kigali, we are glad to publish the latest editorial from The Global Anglican, written by Peter Jensen, himself a former General Secretary of GAFCON.
This edition of The Global Anglican is due to be published at much the same time as the fourth Gafcon Conference is meeting in Kigali Rwanda.
In speaking of the challenge of Gafcon, I ought to indicate, of course, that I myself was present when the idea of Gafcon was born in December 2007 and helped organise the first Jerusalem Conference in June the next year. Following that I became the General Secretary of Gafcon, a position I held until 2018. Thus, I am no uncommitted bystander, although I am no longer present at the key policy-making decisions.
However, I can speak with some knowledge about the history and significance of the movement, and I want to discuss something of the challenge that Gafcon represents in the Anglican Communion and a particular challenge that Gafcon faces. …”
– Read Peter’s full editorial at Church Society’s website.
Photo: Archbishop Kwashi with Archbishop Peter Jensen in Jerusalem in 2018.
Preview of the ‘Heart of Gafcon’ live broadcast — Starting Monday 17th April
GAFCON IV begins in Kigali, Rwanda, on Monday. Here’s a brief preview.
We’ll have a link on our website to the broadcast for each day. Stay tuned!
60 Days of Prayer for the Church
Church Society in the UK has been promoting “Sixty Days of Prayer for the Church“.
“Church Society is calling us to 60 days of prayer for the Church of England and the global Anglican Communion. The Church of England is teetering on the precipice of grave doctrinal error and pastoral disaster. The potential implications will be felt across the Anglican Communion, with many provinces having already made it clear that they cannot continue in fellowship with the Church of England. The situation is extremely serious, and what we most need is to call on the Lord.
For several years, at Church Society, we have made weekday posts throughout Lent on a number of theological, biblical and pastoral themes.
This year, however, it seemed appropriate to use this time to call the church to prayer. The collects of the Anglican church are intended to gather up the thoughts of the people into short, clear prayers, and so we will be using these as the basis for our prayers.
Each day we will be posting a selected collect along with some thoughts about its significance for the contemporary church, and we hope that these will prompt your own prayers.
The sixty days begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22nd, and finish at the end of the GAFCON meeting in Kigali, on April 21st.
Please join us for this important season of prayer.”
It’s not too late to join in prayer. You can see each of the daily posts at the Church Society website.
Today’s post: Withstand the world, the flesh and the devil, by Sandy Grant, is a reflection on the collect for the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity –
“Almighty God,
grant your people grace
to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.”
and Stephen Tong wrote this post on the collect for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Stephen Noll: The Next Step — Formation of a New Communion of Churches
Dr Stephen Noll has concluded his series of 14 Theses suggesting ways forward for Biblically faithful Anglicans –
“These Fourteen Theses represent an attempt to sketch a providential history of global Anglicanism over the past twenty-five years. …
These Theses describe an ‘Ebenezer moment’ for the Anglican Communion and propose a critical next step: a costly but necessary separation from the Church of England as the mother church and from the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury as a focus of Anglican unity. In truth, this separation has been happening since 1998, as Global Anglicans have begun charting their own way forward.
Any genuine reform of the Church involves a threefold cord: renewal of faith and mission; reform of doctrine, discipline, and worship; and reordering of church polity at the local, regional and international levels. …”
GAFCON press release 9th March 2023
Press release, 09 March 2023
“Many Anglicans across the world are deeply distressed by the Church of England’s recent decision to separate from the historic faith through the creation and implementation of prayers of blessing for same-sex marriages.
Several churches and Provinces within the Anglican Communion are considering their future with respect to the Church of England. The Primates of The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (who represent the majority of the world’s worshipping Anglicans) have already declared that they are in impaired communion with the Church of England and said that they do not recognise the present Archbishop of Canterbury as the “first among equals” leader of the global Anglican Communion.
The Gafcon Movement is a global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to proclaim the unchanging truth of the Bible in a changing world, and to support those who wish to remain Anglican but feel they are no longer able to sit under the authority of their Bishop or Diocese.
On 20 February 2023 the Gafcon Primates endorsed the statement released by the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans pointing to Paragraph 13 of the Jerusalem Declaration (2008) which says: ‘We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed’.
In a number of countries around the world (including Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, the United States, and Wales), Gafcon has supported the establishment of alternative episcopal oversight for those Anglicans who in good conscience cannot remain part of their provincial Anglican Church.
Presently, the Gafcon Primates are meeting regularly with the Primates of The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches and other Orthodox Primates across the world to discern the path forward. The outcome of these meetings will affect the majority of the 85 million Anglicans worldwide.
Gafcon will not be commenting on the content of these meetings while they are ongoing but will be releasing a statement at the end of the upcoming GAFCON IV Conference to be held from 17-21 April in Kigali, Rwanda.”
‘Catastrophic” — Dr Lee Gatiss on the Global South’s rebuke of the Church of England
Church Society Director Lee Gatiss is interviewed by Dave Piper for Trans World Radio about the Global South’s rejection of the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“Lee argues this has left the majority of Anglicans worldwide aghast.
He says vicars will essentially be left to decide doctrine themselves – and could get it in the neck if they go against society’s views on marriage and sexual relationships. And he warns some parishes and dioceses could break away and seek oversight from outside of the UK.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…