Ashley Null consecrated as the second Anglican Bishop of North Africa

“On Sunday 11th May, the world-renowned Thomas Cranmer scholar, the Rev Canon Dr John Ashley Null, was consecrated as the second Anglican Bishop of North Africa in a joyful service at St George’s Tunis …”

– Report from Charles Raven at the GSFA website.

(Gafcon photo.)

Being a Christian Entrepreneur — An Interview with Mr Neil Smith

For the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, Charles Raven interviews Christian businessman Neil Smith.

There are some fascinating insights into the challenges of doing business as a Christian – as well as insights into what works and what doesn’t work in investment and development.

In 2016 Neil founded The Relay Trust – a charity set up to enable the training of grassroots Christian leaders in the poorest Anglican provinces of Africa – currently training about 8,000 people a month in partnership with the GSFA. (Charles Raven is The Relay Trust’s CEO.)

– Watch here. 36 minutes.

Communion Restructure Fails to Bring Renewal — GAFCON

“To my brothers and sisters in the Gafcon family,

The recommendations of the December 2024 Report of IASCUFO (the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order) will fail to bring about renewal in the Anglican Communion.

There is merit in the leadership of the Primates’ Council and the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) being handed over from the Archbishop of Canterbury to a rotating, international chair.

But their proposed restructure of the ‘Instruments of Communion’ fails to bring genuine renewal to our Anglican Church.

The IASCUFO recommendations weaken the foundations of our common doctrine by sanctifying the revisionist theologies of provinces and dioceses that have wandered from the truth. …”

– A message from The Most Rev’d Dr Laurent Mbanda, Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council.

Related:

Fatal Flaws in the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals – Bishop-Elect Phil Ashey at The American Anglican Council.

Courage and Truth – Archbishop Justin Badi in Oxford

This 5 minute video recorded in Oxford by Archbishop Justin Badi, Chairman of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, is a reminder of the need to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

GSFA New Year 2025 Devotional

“In 2025, we are reminded to focus on Jesus the Truth and life. Hebrews 12:2.

Each year comes with its own challenges, but once we trust God these challenges turn into opportunities for the gospel of Christ. My prayer to you all is that; Emmanuel God with us will challenge  every challenges that may encounter us as a GSFA family, particularly preaching and teaching biblical truth. …”

– Dr. Stephen Samuel Kaziimba, Archbishop of the Province of the Church of Uganda, shares a New Year devotional from the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches.

GSFA Chairman’s Christmas Message and Year-end Review

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.
Isaiah 9:6-7a.

My dear brothers and sisters,

At Christmas we celebrate the fulfillment of God’s promise. The long-awaited Messiah has come and where he is present the curse of sin is broken and the reign of God breaks in. Isaiah prophecies that ‘the government shall be upon his shoulder’ and while we shall not see its fulness until he returns in glory, wherever Christ is proclaimed faithfully we see the blessings of his kingdom. Men, women and children of every nation are born again to a living hope, sin and evil lose their power, and relationships are restored. …”

– Archbishop Dr Justin Badi, Chairman of the GSFA Steering Committee, shares this message and review.

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.)

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.

The GSFA’s Chairman’s Quarterly Letter — September 2024

The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches has released this Quarterly Letter from Chair of the GSFA Steering Committee, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

Dear GSFA Family and Friends,

I am writing this letter on September 3rd which, according to the Anglican Lectionary, we observe as the Festival of Gregory the Great who died in 604. For Anglicans, he has a special significance as the Pope who had the missionary vision to send Augustine, who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, to evangelise the Anglo-Saxons in 597.

It is good to remember that our Communion originated from bold missionary enterprise, not only in more recent centuries, but also in its deep past. And there are other aspects of Gregory’s life and ministry from which we can learn. The Anglican Communion is going through a time of crisis and change and so was the Church of Rome when Gregory became Pope. The glory of ancient Rome had departed and both secular and church leadership were weak, leading to widespread poverty and insecurity.

Yet despite this weakness, Gregory’s papacy began the transition to a new Rome which rose to become the centre of Western Christendom. As heirs of the Reformation, we are aware of the errors of the late mediaeval Church, but this does not take away from Gregory’s achievements. In addition to the mission to England, he reformed both church and secular government, systematised relief for the poor, renewed the liturgy and established Rome as the leading Church of the West.

We too live in a time of historic transition. Tragically, the See Augustine founded has departed from the faith Augustine taught and I see lessons of hope for us in the life of Gregory as we continue the great task of resetting the Communion.

Firstly, he was a man of deep spirituality who knew his weakness despite his strong natural and spiritual gifts. He suffered poor health and perhaps this reinforced his sense of dependence upon God. The challenges before us cannot overcome in our own strength. Like St Paul, we need to be people of prayer who know that God’s power is made perfect in weakness.

Secondly, Gregory knew that practical action and good administration is necessary if the Church is to be effective in its witness and the care of people. This is our understanding too. At the First Assembly in June, the GSFA relaunched its three Tracks and I am delighted to report that action plans to take us up to the next Assembly in 2027 have already been presented to the Primates Steering Committee. Please pray for the newly appointed Track Chairmen as they take this strategic work forward: The Rev Dr Timothy Chong from Singapore (Missions Partnership), the Rt Rev Prof. Alfred Olwa, Bishop of Lango, Uganda (Leadership and Ministerial Formation) and Mr Diogo Henriques of the Anglican Church in Brazil (Economic Empowerment). I am delighted that they will be supported in this work by our Track Facilitator, Mr Daniel Magagnin on a part time secondment from one of our Mission Partner organisations, The Relay Trust.

Thirdly, Gregory saw that without effective leadership, the growth and life of the Church in the West would be compromised. He established Rome as a locus of spiritual leadership in teaching, liturgy and mission, not to emulate the past glories of Empire, but to restore the Church’s effectiveness in a world that had changed profoundly. Likewise, the GSFA, through the Cairo Covenant, has established a new locus of leadership to deal with a new reality, now that the historic centre of the Communion has surrendered to a secular culture which is alien to the vast majority of its members.

Fourthly, Gregory was a missionary leader. At a time when the Church of Rome could have been inward looking because of its many challenges, Gregory took missionary initiatives that would change the course of history. Likewise, mission is the great purpose to which we are committed and I rejoice that the Missions Track is already under way with GSFA Mission Partners joining the Diocese of Singapore’s Mission Roundtable in Bangkok next month. We are already enabling strategic connections and I praise God that arising from a conversation at  our First Assembly in June, the Ven Darrell Critch of the Anglican Church in North America has been elected as a missionary bishop for the Diocese of Mahajanga, Madagascar in the Province of the Indian Ocean. Please pray for Bishop-elect Critch and his family as they prepare to leave Canada and begin this new journey of faith.

Let me conclude by urging us to hold in prayer those of our brothers and sisters within the GSFA family who suffer; for an end to war in Sudan, for peace as my own nation of South Sudan decides whether to go for elections in December or not, and for those affected by widespread flooding in both countries. We also continue to pray for the people of Myanmar and Eastern Congo facing growing fragmentation and violence, and of Bangladesh as they adjust to a new government and struggle with floods which have displaced many thousands.

May the all sufficient grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. Amen

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

Source: The GSFA.

GSFA Pastoral Letter Following The Church of England’s General Synod

This Pastoral Letter been released by the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, 11 July 2024 –

“We request all the faithful in the GSFA to uphold our faithful brothers and sisters in the Church of England, bishops, clergy and laity, who have come together as ‘The Alliance’. We stand with them in the struggle that lies ahead as they seek to establish a new Province of the Church of England that will enable them to continue their witness to Jesus with integrity and freedom.”

Full letter below:

“Dear brothers & sisters who hold to the faith once delivered,

‘Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’ Hebrews 12:2

We request all the faithful in the GSFA to uphold our faithful brothers and sisters in the Church of England, bishops, clergy and laity, who have come together as ‘The Alliance’. We stand with them in the struggle that lies ahead as they seek to establish a new Province of the Church of England that will enable them to continue their witness to Jesus with integrity and freedom.

Despite the continued opposition of almost 50% of the Synod, the bishops of the Church of England have now succeeded in gaining support for services of blessing for same sex couples and the endorsement of a timetable to enable clergy to enter into same sex marriages.

With heavy hearts we see with increasing clarity that they will not be deterred from taking a path which is entirely contrary to the teaching of our Lord as held universally by the Christian Churches for two millennia and that they will continue regardless of the hurt and dismay suffered by faithful Churches of the Global South.

This latest development serves to illustrate the new reality that we felt compelled to articulate in the GSFA Ash Wednesday Statement of Feb 20th last year. The Church of England, has set itself to cement its departure from the historic faith by liturgical change. There can therefore now be no doubt that the Mother Church of the Communion has forfeited her leadership role in the global Communion and that the legacy ‘instruments of unity’, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other instruments over which he presides, (the Primates Meeting, the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Consultative Council) are all compromised.

Yet in the great mercy of God there is hope and a future. Last month, the GSFA held its First Assembly in Egypt where we were able to adopt the ‘Cairo Covenant’ of 2019, creating a new covenanted ecclesial body within the Anglican Communion. As we stated in our Communique of 18th June 2024 (the same day on which Canterbury Cathedral announced that it would be offering prayers of blessing for same sex couples),

‘GSFA has become a spiritual home for all orthodox Anglicans. The GSFA Covenant of 2019 (also known as the Cairo covenant) is an historic development, a new instrument for the Anglican Communion to bring true unity in diversity which honours the supreme authority of Scripture.’

There is of course much work still to do in growing this new instrument. We are confident of more Provinces subscribing and we will be working hard to ensure that the ministry tracks (Economic Empowerment, Leadership & Ministerial Formation, and Missions Partnership) have substance to support Anglican mission and ministry around the world. The good news is that the GSFA has set itself to redefine the Communion with the adoption of the Cairo Covenant.

In a time of crisis with its temptation to compromise, my prayer is that we will be those who are ‘looking to Jesus’ before anyone or anything else, faithful to the ‘founder and perfecter of our faith’ and willing to endure.

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

– Source: GSFA.

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.

Bishop Stephen Hale’s EFAC Global message after the GFSA Conference

“Message from Bishop Stephen Hale, Chairman of EFAC Executive Committee

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

This EFAC Global report has been written while I’ve been in Cairo participating in the Orthodox Leaders Meeting (AOL) organised by the GSFA and GAFCON Global. It is a new meeting that arose out of the Ash Wednesday Declaration of the GSFA in 2023 and the Kigali Commitment also in 2023. Its purpose is to connect the Primates with the many mission partners and groupings who are involved in conversations about resetting the Anglican Communion. A Statement from this meeting will be issued in due course.

The background to all of this for EFAC Global is a remarkable journey from the Lambeth Conference in 2022 to today. …”

– Read it all, via Anglican Mainstream.

Larger photo.

Egypt: A CEEC perspective from John Dunnett, National Director

The Church of England Evangelical Council’s National Director, John Dunnett, reports on the GSFA First Assembly in Egypt –

“It was an amazing privilege to attend the gathering of 200 archbishops, bishops, senior leaders and lay brothers and sisters from 40 different countries.

There was an incredible sense of unity amongst people from radically different cultures and backgrounds, all united in the gospel. …

I was struck by a real sense of disbelief, shock, grief and betrayal at the Church of England’s continued departure from its biblical doctrine…”

– Read it all here.

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.

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