GAFCON Chairman’s letter, September 2016
“My dear people of God,
As I write, GAFCON is about to launch a project which I believe will be very significant for the future of the Anglican Communion. Under the leadership of Director Dr Samson Mwaluda, the recently retired Bishop of Taita Taveta in Kenya, the GAFCON Bishops Training Institute begins its first conference in Nairobi on 29th September for some twenty recently consecrated bishops drawn from GAFCON affiliated provinces. We already have a waiting list for our next conference!…”
– Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, shares some encouraging news in his latest pastoral letter.
New website for GAFCON UK
GAFCON UK now has a website.
(Thanks to Anglican Mainstream for the tip.)
GAFCON UK responds to Archbishop Nicholas Okoh’s August Letter
“GAFCON UK welcomes and is very encouraged by the Chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council’s recent August Letter. In it Archbishop Okoh states that the ‘greatest cause for concern continues to be the British Isles’. We share this analysis and hear Archbishop Okoh’s call on GAFCON UK and the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) to ‘demonstrate that they have the necessary courage and faith in a context which to a large extent they alone can grapple with’.
GAFCON UK has recently been reconstituted precisely to meet the challenges that Archbishop Okoh outlines and is committed to grappling with the departure from orthodoxy in the UK. The AMiE is about to launch an ambitious plan for pioneering church-planting in the context of the ReNew Conference in September, where the aim is to encourage regions throughout England that pioneer, establish and secure healthy local Anglican churches.
Andy Lines
Chairman of the GAFCON UK Task Force.”
– via GAFCON.
GAFCON Chairman’s Pastoral Letter, August 2016
“My dear people of God,
I have just returned from a very encouraging visit to the United States where I met with my brother Archbishop Foley Beach and I rejoice to see how the Anglican Church in North America is growing strong and standing firm.
As the steep decline of The Episcopal Church (TEC) of the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada continues, despite the hope of its leaders that reshaping it in the image of secular culture would attract, we give thanks for the Anglican Church of North America and remember the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (Matthew16:18).
GAFCON recognises that the Church is not ours. It belongs to Jesus and it is Jesus who builds the Church through his word. …”
– Read all of Archbishop Nicholas Okoh’s pastoral letter for August 2016 at the GAFCON website.
Statement from the Task Force of GAFCON UK in response to John Bingham’s article in the Daily Telegraph 29/8/2016
“GAFCON UK warmly commends the initiative of Rev Dr Peter Sanlon and others from a number of parishes in the Home Counties to set up a ‘shadow synod’ as stated in John Bingham’s article ‘Parishes begin Church split’.
This is a grass-roots initiative by local congregations which is representative of the views of many across the country, and is in line with the concerns of Anglicans from the GAFCON movement worldwide…”
– A statement from the GAFCON UK Task Force – via AMiE. (Photo: Dr. Peter Sanlon, St Mark’s, Tunbridge Wells.)
And here is the online version of the article by John Bingham in The Telegraph.
The Rev Dr Peter Sanlon, Vicar of St Mark’s Church in Tunbridge Wells, who is hosting this week’s meeting, said: “If senior leaders of the Church of England water down the teaching of the Church of England on key issues like homosexuality, then this synod could easily evolve in to a new Anglican jurisdiction in England.
“The Archbishop of Canterbury has signalled that he is aware of the possibility that a significant proportion of the church will not accept a change in the church’s teaching.
“This could be the beginning of that playing out.”
After “Shared Conversations” what Gospel will the Church of England share?
“In Nairobi, Kenya I still remember a Sunday lunch Archbishop Eliud Wabukala hosted for Archbishop Justin Welby and other Archbishops, bishops and honored guests gathered the day before GAFCON 2013 began.
During that lunch, Archbishop Peter Jensen gave the opening remarks. He reminded all those present—and as he looked directly at Archbishop Justin Welby—that he and other GAFCON Primates had been asked not once, not twice, but three times to go back to their Bibles and reread what it had to say about issues of sexuality. Archbishop Peter Jensen said that he and the GAFCON Primates had done so, and had concluded that God’s word on homosexuality and same-sex marriage was clear, authoritative and unchanged. On the eve of GAFCON 2013, he cited this conviction as among the principal reasons he and others in GAFCON were standing for Biblical clarity and authority.
Immediately following, Archbishop Welby was invited to give remarks. He came forward and thanked Archbishop Jensen for his stirring speech. He then gave brief remarks that concluded with, “please don’t forget lost people.” And then he sat down.
The Archbishop of Canterbury failed to engage Archbishop Jensen’s remarks about Biblical clarity and authority. In that context, his plea not to forget lost people reveals the false dichotomy that seems to be at the heart of Canterbury’s thinking and the ‘Shared conversations.’ It is just this: that if we hold fast to the clarity and authority of the Bible, we will never reach lost people…”
– American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey writes about a revealing incident in Nairobi, and the apparent thinking behind the Church of England’s Shared Conversations. Emphasis added.
(Photo: Canon Ashey reporting from Nairobi in 2013.)
GAFCON Statement on Proposed Primates’ Meeting 2017
Just released:
“In the last week, there has been news of a potential Primates’ Meeting scheduled to begin October 2, 2017. Consequently, we have received a number of inquiries, both from the media and our membership, asking the question of whether or not the Gafcon Primates will attend.
For all who had hoped that attendance at the January 2016 Primates’ Gathering might restore godly order to the Communion, the results were clearly discouraging. Gafcon is fully committed to guarding the unchanging truth of the Gospel, and restoring the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion. In due course, the Gafcon Primates will take counsel and together make a decision about the wisdom of attending future meetings.
The next meeting of the Gafcon Primates’ Council is in April of 2017. We give thanks for the courage that is being shown by our members across the globe, as they share God’s Word both ‘in season and out of season’. Please continue to pray for the continued growth of this reformation movement.”
How we became GAFCON — 5 minute video
Archbishop Dr Peter Jensen describes how GAFCON came about, and why it is needed, in this new video.
Pass the link around.
And here is a 60 second video from Dr Jensen on the same topic.
See also: Where are we now? The aftermath of the January meeting of the Primates – Peter Jensen.
“In January this year, the Primates of the Anglican Communion were summoned by the Archbishop of Canterbury to a meeting. So serious is the crisis in the Communion about the authority of God’s word that almost every Primate attended.
As I have said previously, the result was the mildest possible rebuke over the greatest offence for the greatest offenders, with the hope that there may be repentance.
It is now perfectly clear that the meeting failed in its intention. Far from being rebuked, the leaders of the Episcopal Church said that they intend to continue in their present course and indeed to export their ideas vigorously to the rest of the world…” (Read more.)
Canterbury is only as helpful as he is faithful
“So the Archbishop of Canterbury has called for yet another meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion for October, 2017. As if this meeting could cure the wound that has been made even more incurable by his own personal failure to uphold the recommendations of the meeting he called in January of this year—failures that I documented several weeks ago in “At this point, why should we care about the Anglican Communion?”.
When I last wrote about this, I emphasised the Archbishop’s failure to defend the special role of Bishops to guard the doctrine, discipline and order of the Church…”
– The American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey points out that the way forward is not through Canterbury.
Pastoral Letter from GAFCON Chairman Archbishop Okoh, July 2016
Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council has released his July Pastoral Letter.
Read it here at the GAFCON website.
Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit welcomed by GAFCON Primates
“Following his enthronement as the sixth Archbishop of Kenya on Sunday 3rd July in All Saints’ Cathedral, Nairobi, the Most Rev Jackson Ole Sapit met with the GAFCON Primates who had travelled from as far away as South America to be present for this day of prayer, preaching and colourful celebration…”
– from GAFCON.
President Kenyatta congratulates new Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop
“President Uhuru Kenyatta has congratulated the newly enthroned Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop, the Most Reverend Dr Jackson Nasoore Ole Sapit.
Speaking at the enthronement service at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi, President Kenyatta wished Archbishop Sapit success in his duties as Head of the Anglican Church in Kenya and assured him of his support…”
– from Capital News. (Earlier photo from the Anglican Church of Kenya.)
A leading Anglican theologian exposes the ‘Third Way’ myth
“Myths are not necessarily old. A new myth is being invented by Anglican church leaders who claim to be orthodox and even evangelical.
They tell us that differences between Christians about the acceptability of same-sex relationships are secondary issues and the Church should therefore follow a ‘Third Way’…”
– Canon Charles Raven (pictured), Membership Development Secretary for GAFCON, highlights this commentary by Dr Martin Davie.
ACNA Provincial Council 2016
Canon Phil Ashey sends this video report from the ACNA Provincial Council, currently meeting in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
GAFCON 3 to be held in Jerusalem in 2018
News from GAFCON:
GAFCON Conference 2018
June 22, 2016
The Chairman and fellow Primates of the GAFCON Council are pleased to announce that the third GAFCON conference will be held in Jerusalem in 2018.
Jerusalem has a special place in the hearts of the GAFCON movement as it was the location of the first conference in 2008. Moreover, Jerusalem stands as a constant reminder of the birth of the Gospel and the movement’s determination to remain true to the teachings of our Lord and his Holy Word.
GAFCON was greatly blessed by both the initial conference and the second meeting in Nairobi in 2013. When Anglicans from across the Communion come together in unity it is a tremendous blessing, and we are excited to see the Church built up in the land where it was given its foundation.
Dates and further details will be announced in due course.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…