Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!
“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!”
These, of course, were the last reported words of William Tyndale who was strangled and then burnt in 1536.
His crime? Translating the Bible into English.
His prayer? That King Henry VIII would allow the distribution of the English Bible.
– GAFCON General Secretary Archbishop Peter Jensen reflects on the life and work of William Tyndale, whose belief in the clarity of scripture led him to translate the Bible into English.
Anglican renewal in Brazil
“Most Christians in the UK probably have only the haziest idea of what Anglicanism looks like in South America.
The Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 inhibited Protestant and Anglican missionary work in the continent at a time when the English language was (and still is) marginal. This is unlike most other areas of the Anglican Communion where the British influence was much stronger.
And yet, out of the continuing crisis in the world wide Anglican Communion, and in spite of official persecution in the area, a reinvigorated and missionary church is emerging in South America.
In fact, the pattern of North America is being repeated – just as a new GAFCON recognised Province, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), arose out of the aggressive and assertive revisionism of the American Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada, so in South America a new orthodox Province is coming into being as the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) and various TEC satellite provinces in central and northern South America follow the lead of their North American counterparts.
This new emerging Province is based on the Anglican Diocese of Recife …”
– Charles Raven with more encouraging news about GAFCON.
Photo, left to right:
Canon Charles Raven, GAFCON Membership Development Secretary;
Canon Dan Alger, ACNA;
Bishop Flavio Adair Torres Soares, Anglican Diocese of Recife;
Canon Alan Hawkins, ACNA
— meeting in Sheffield in January 2017.
The GAFCON vision in action
“The Anglican Communion worldwide is a most amazing gift of God, but it is being squandered by false teachers determined to substitute their own ideas for God’s revealed will in Scripture. They do this without rebuke from the Communion’s traditional leadership.
Gafcon is the future. Through Gafcon the true gospel is being proclaimed and the Bible guarded. We hope this snapshot will demonstrate that the faithful of the Anglican Communion have risen and have begun to reclaim the Communion for a confident and clear witness to Jesus Christ. …”
– GAFCON has produced this overview of what they do, with the hope of gaining your support.
Diocese of South Carolina votes to join ACNA
The Diocese of South Carolina voted [on Saturday] to affiliate with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). The vote, which was held during their 226th Convention, was unanimous in both orders (clergy and laity).
“I cast my vote to affiliate with the ACNA with eager and expectant faith,” said the Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence, the 14th Bishop of South Carolina during his address to the convention. “I believe God has called us to this and I believe we will find a deeper richness in our vocation, fuller fellowship in the Spirit, a more zealous thrust in mission.”
– News from GAFCON. And from South Carolina.
GAFCON Chairman’s March 2017 letter
“As I remarked in my last letter, because of our shared history events in the Church of England have a special significance for the whole Anglican Communion. So this month I must comment on the vote by General Synod on 15th February not to ‘take note’ of the House of Bishops report on marriage and sexuality.
A refusal to ‘take note’ is very unusual. Such a motion is usually just a formality preceding further debate. In this case, people on both sides of the argument about sexuality perceived that the report tried to face two ways. …”
– GAFCON Chairman, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, shares his March pastoral letter.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
“That simple statement from 1 Timothy 1:15 has always been one of my favourite Bible verses, for a number of reasons.
Pre-eminently, though, it is because it conveys the heart of the gospel. It always reminds me of the picture the Lord Jesus himself gave of the shepherd who seeks the lost sheep until he finds it, lays it on his shoulders and brings it home safely.
Whatever else you may think about the Lord coming into the world, saving sinners was his chief aim and his death on the cross was the chief means.…”
– GAFCON General Secretary, Dr Peter Jensen, continues his series of posts marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
Archbishops Jensen and Akinola in Burlington, Ontario
“Archbishops Peter Jensen and Peter Akinola in were in Burlington Ontario this evening to talk about GAFCON.”
– Anglican Samizdat. has photos and video of the event, which was introduced by the Anglican Network in Canada’s Bishop Charlie Masters.
They speak in Vancouver next week.
GAFCON Statement on C of E General Synod’s rejection of Report
From GAFCON:
“Canterbury can no longer be the defining centre, but through the Gafcon movement a growing number of faithful Anglicans are now recovering their true identity in the gospel itself…”
Read the full statement:
“The Church of England is in turmoil following the General Synod’s rejection of a report by the House of Bishops recommending that there should be no change in the Church‘s traditional teaching on marriage and sexuality.
Even though the report held out the possibility of change and signalled a permissive approach in practice, it was abruptly rejected by an almost unprecedented vote against a motion to ‘take note’ of the report, usually just an uncontroversial preliminary to further debate.
After the vote, the Archbishop of Canterbury repeated his call for ‘a radical new Christian inclusion’ and it seems likely that this is a watershed moment with the Church of England now set on the same path as the Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC) and other Provinces that have taken it upon themselves to reinvent fundamental Christian doctrine.
Gafcon UK have already commented that ‘The confusion created by the General Synod vote on 15th February makes it abundantly clear that a new vision is now needed of what Anglican Christianity in England can and should be.’
It is also increasingly clear that a new vision is needed for the Anglican Communion as a whole. Despite its enduring historical symbolism, Canterbury can no longer be the defining centre, but through the Gafcon movement a growing number of faithful Anglicans are now recovering their true identity in the gospel itself as the Bible is restored to its rightful place at the heart of the Communion.”
– Source, GAFCON.
GAFCON UK responds to the Synod vote, and offers a new vision
“The confusion created by the General Synod vote on 15th February makes abundantly clear that a new vision is now needed of what Anglican Christianity in England can and should be. …
After the very expensive ‘holding operation’ of the Shared Conversations and the production of GS2055, the inevitable crisis in the C of E is now upon us; one that cannot be covered up by more platitudes about reconciliation and unity.
There is a better way. …”
– Read the full important statement from GAFCON UK.
GAFCON UK’s response to the lobby group OneBodyOneFaith
“GAFCON UK welcomes the publication of the OneBodyOneFaith statement “A time to build”.
The statement is admirably clear in its wholesale abandonment of any pretence that OneBodyOneFaith has any respect for Biblical authority or any interest in the wellbeing of global Anglicanism. …”
– GAFCON UK responds with clarity to yet another call to ditch the authority of God’s word.
GAFGON Chairman’s February 2017 letter
“It seems … that the Church of England bishops have recommended the right thing for the wrong reason. They have retained the Church’s traditional teaching, but because they think that holding opposite views together will eventually produce a consensus, not because it represents an apostolic boundary.”
– from Archbishop Okoh’s February 2017 letter to GAFCON supporters.
GAFCON Statement on TEC voting in Lusaka
Here is a statement from GAFCON General Secretary, Dr. Peter Jensen:
“The agreement from the January Primates meeting in 2016 was broken when The Episcopal Church (TEC) took part in decision making on issues pertaining to polity and doctrine in Lusaka. Equally damaging, was an attempt by the Anglican Communion Office to deny the fact by claiming that, technically, the process included no formal votes. This is sophistry.
The Primates agreement in January was never limited to the narrow issue of the method of voting. It said that ‘[The Episcopal Church] will not to take part in decision making on issues pertaining to polity or doctrine.’ [Primates 2016 Communique]
Whether a meeting uses a consensus model, or a voice vote, or paper ballots, or electronic ballots is of no relevance. The Episcopal Church was not to take part in decision making on issues pertaining to polity or doctrine. They did.
As the GAFCON Primates Council has said: ‘The future of the Anglican Communion does not lie with manipulations, compromises, legal loopholes, or the presentation of half-truths; the future of our Communion lies in humble obedience to the truth of the Word of God written.’ [Gafcon Primates Communique, April 2016]
Archbishop Peter Jensen
General Secretary.”
From GAFCON.
Remnant in Scotland finding hope through GAFCON
GAFCON has posted this video message from The Rev. David McCarthy, Rector of St. Thomas’ Church, Edinburgh.
GAFCON General Secretary Dr. Peter Jensen writes, “In this video, Revd David McCarthy, rector of St Thomas’s Edinburgh, laments the crisis which hit the Scottish Episcopal Church in June 2016 when the General Synod rejected the bible’s teaching by voting to change the church’s Canon on marriage.
However, reminded how in the recent past the Gafcon Primates came to the aid of Anglicans in North America, David and fellow orthodox Anglicans in Scotland are encouraged by support from within the wider communion and ask for our prayers.”
The Grace of God – or the World of the West? – Dr Mike Ovey
At the CMS NSW Summer School today, Rector of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, William Taylor, paid tribute to Dr. Mike Ovey as “one of the great generals of the Christian faith”.
Take the time to thoughtfully watch this challenging and Christ-honouring address, given by Dr. Ovey, at GAFCON II in Nairobi in October 2013, to see why. Watch it here, courtesy of Anglican TV.
“My first really significant encounter with worldwide Anglicanism came at theological college.
It was 1990 and an east African priest was on secondment with us. He preached in the college chapel. He posed a question. Which gospel, he asked, which gospel do you westerners want us to believe? The one you came with or the one you preach now? Which gospel? I was horrified, not because what he said was not true. I was horrified because it was true.
My east African brother’s question has nagged away at me ever since. But how has it come about that we have a different gospel now from the one we first preached. What is this difference between what we westerners say now and what we said then? …”
Full text PDF from GAFCON.
GAFCON Chairman’s New Year Message for 2017
“As you will have seen from our end of year review, GAFCON is increasingly active. We are extending our reach, growing in influence, standing with the marginalised, strengthening our organisation and equipping key leaders, but all these things are the outworking of faithful prayer in the power of the Spirit. We are a spiritual movement in a spiritual battle and at the heart of the struggle is the challenge to the Word of God.
This is nothing new. Right at the beginning of bible history, the serpent says ‘Did God really say?’ (Genesis 3:1) and this is the question the traditional leadership of the Communion seems unwilling or unable to resolve. For instance…”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…