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 GSFA help the CofE bishops tell right from wrong?

“Church of England bishops are not known for their transparency – but sometimes there is a rare glimmer of honesty, particularly when a journalist is prepared to ask the right question.

This week, Dave Piper, a radio journalist, used Facebook to ask Rt Revd Martyn Snow, the Bishop of Leicester a simple question and wonderfully he received an honest answer. …”

– This post at Anglican Futures looks at the dilemma facing the Church of England Bishops who want unity over truth.

By way of answer, it draws attention to the address at the GSFA Assembly by the Rev. Sam Ferguson, Rector of The Falls Church Anglican in Virginia:

“Living up to the challenge, in less than an hour, he set out three of the unarticulated assumptions which shape the world in which we live and are seen in the LGBT movement.  He then offered a glorious, biblical alternative to each one.”

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.

Report from Global Assembly of Global South Fellowship of Anglicans, Egypt

From the American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey:

“Dear friends in Christ,

I am writing from the St. Mark’s Coptic Monastery in Khataba, Egypt, where almost 200 delegates from 11 Anglican Provinces, 3 ‘Provinces-in-formation’ duly constituted by Gafcon and recognized as such by the GSFA, and numerous mission agencies from over 40 countries are gathering for the first Global Assembly of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA). This Global Assembly marks an historic ‘reset’ of the Anglican Communion with regards to:

1.    What Anglicans believe (a common confession of faith based on Biblical faith, Apostolic tradition and the Anglican formularies);

2.    A true and genuine Communion of Anglican Churches based upon covenantal structures that provide clear and fair criteria for membership– with mutual accountability and discipline within the boundaries of Reformational Anglicanism; and

3.    A passionate commitment to Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:16-20) –  undeterred by false teaching – through mission partnerships that will enable Anglicans to proclaim Christ faithfully to all nations…”

– e-mail, via Anglican Mainstream.

GSFA takes on the challenge of resetting the Anglican Communion

Anglican Futures has published the second of three posts on the aims of this week’s Global South Fellowship of Anglicans Assembly in Egypt:

“The GSFA are resetting the Anglican Communion by creating a means of global accountability and discipline.” (Emphasis added)

– Read the second post – though you might want to begin with the first in the series, “The GSFA – a potted history”.

Image: GSFA leaders at Lambeth in 2022.

Anglican Global South leaders meet in Egypt to reset and renew the Anglican Communion

“The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) is a recognised grouping within the  Anglican Communion which includes some 75% of Anglicans worldwide and traces its origins to the  first ‘South to South’ Encounter in Kenya in 1994. Since then, regular ‘Encounter’ gatherings have  brought the voice of Global South to the wider Anglican Communion and next week, 11th-15th June, a  group of 200 leaders is being gathered by the GSFA in Egypt as its ‘1st Assembly’ under a new  Covenantal structure.

The Assembly will meet in the context of the rapid growth of Anglican Churches of the Majority  World, in contrast to the Western Churches which, on the whole, have been unable to resist a  cultural drift away from orthodox Christianity. …”

– Report on the upcoming GSFA Assembly in Egypt.

via Anglican.ink. Image: GSFA.

Update on the Worldwide Anglican Communion from Bp Jay Behan

“The upcoming Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) meeting in Cairo is being held from 11-15 June, and I will attend.

Its purpose is to gather orthodox Anglican leaders from around the world who are committed to a new covenantal structure to unite Anglicans worldwide in mission and ministry. …”

– In a recent e-mail update from the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa NZ, Bishop Jay Behan commends Archbishop Laurent Mbanda’s GAFCON Response to the Primates meeting in Rome, and explains why he will attend the GSFA meeting in Cairo.

A high stakes game of ecclesiastical poker in the Anglican Communion — with Justin Badi Arama and Paul Donison

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“It is almost D day in the Anglican Communion.

Today we give the background for two highly significant meetings. One to take place next week in Rome.  The second in June in Cairo.

The Rome gathering has been called by the rejected Canterbury leadership.  The Cairo gathering has been called by the leadership of the Global South.

As background, The Church of England, the historic mother church of the Anglican Communion, under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury formally abandoned the historic Christian faith when the English General Synod voted to follow Archbishop Welby and his house of bishops in voting for same sex blessings.

In reaction, the majority theologically orthodox have drawn a line in the sand and parted company with The church of England.

The Global South Churches said in their important Ash Wednesday 23 statement that the Church of England has disqualified herself from leading the Anglican communion.

Gafcon said the Archbishop of Canterbury’s leadership has been irreparably damaged.

We speak with  the chair of the Global South Archbishop Justin Badi Arama of South Sudan and the new General Secretary of Gafcon Bishop Paul Donison.”

– Watch or listen here.

Asked by Dominic Steele if the Rome gathering is “an attempt to play ecclesiastical poker”, Gafcon General Secretary Bishop Paul Donison replies –

“…I can’t really speak with much clarity or knowledge on what Archbishop Welby is hoping for, but we should assume based on all the games that have been played, I think poker is a good analogy over the last decade and longer from Canterbury that this is yet another attempt to obfuscate, to confuse, to get a win for the traditional revisionist structures.

And my prayer is simply that all of the Bible-loving global primates can see through that.

Hopefully many will see that ahead of time and not go.”

Time to remove Canterbury as the guardian of the entrance door to the Anglican Communion?

From Church Society:

Canterbury and the Future of the Anglican Communion

Two crucial Anglican gatherings take place in the next few weeks. First in Rome (29 April to 2 May), a gathering of the Anglican Primates, called together by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Soon afterwards, in Cairo (11 to 15 June), a gathering of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, for their inaugural assembly. High on the agenda at both meetings will be the future structures of the Anglican Communion. But twelve Primates from the Global South Fellowship have already publicly rejected the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as leader of the Communion. It remains to be seen whether any of these twelve will be present in Rome. Several younger Anglican provinces, like Chile (founded in 2018) and Alexandria (founded in 2020), have begun the process of deleting Canterbury from their constitutions. Other Global South provinces will soon follow suit.

Yet in our Anglican polity, to be “in communion with the See of Canterbury” is often viewed as an essential part of Anglican identity. For example, in the controversy over the failed “Anglican Covenant” proposals, the Church Times declared: “Communion with the see of Canterbury has always been the defining feature of what it means to be an Anglican”. Likewise, Paul Avis asserts in his popular textbook, The Identity of Anglicanism: Essentials of Anglican Ecclesiology (2008): “The litmus-test of membership of the Anglican Communion is to be in communion with the See of Canterbury.” Avis goes so far as to call it “the ultimate criterion”.

Almost a century ago, the 1930 Lambeth Conference include the phrase, “in communion with the See of Canterbury”, as part of its famous description of the Anglican Communion (Resolution 49). This idea has cascaded down the generations and still holds sway in the 2020s. But its origins and contested meaning are interrogated in a new article in the Spring 2024 edition of The Global Anglican, written by Andrew Atherstone, an Oxford historian and member of the Anglican Consultative Council (one of the four so-called “instruments of Communion”). He argues that our Anglican textbooks should be re-written, and that the time has come for Canterbury to be removed as the guardian of the entrance door to the Anglican Communion. …

Church Society has made Andrew Atherstone’s article available for free download as a PDF file. Well worth reading and pondering.

(Emphasis added.)

Riding the wave of significant growth — with Indian Ocean Archbishop James Wong

From The Pastor’s Heart:

“Gospel ministry in the Indian Ocean is growing rapidly.

Anglican Primate James Wong leads the ministry in Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius and is visiting Sydney, on a speaking tour of the Church Missionary Society Australian Summer Conferences.

Archbishop Wong charts a course for further growth in ministry in his region.

Plus he outlines the detailed back room work taking place to reset the Anglican Communion, following the failure of the Church of England leadership to repent, ahead of the significant Global South meeting in Cairo in June.

Archbishop Wong is an advisor to the Gafcon Primates Council and serves on the leadership group of the Anglican Global South Fellowship.”

– Watch or listen here.

Reformational Anglicanism and a New Global Communion — Dr. Ashley Null

Dr. Ashley Null gave the Inaugural John H. Rodgers Lecture at the Trinity School for Ministry in Pennsylvania on Reformation Day 2023.

“At the first Gafcon conference in Jerusalem in 2008, the Rt. Rev. John Hewitt Rodgers, Jr., in whose beloved memory this new, annual lecture series is now held, gave a landmark address entitled Where do we go from here?

In his Zoom Memoirs, recorded with the Rev. Dr. Stephen Noll, who is with us tonight, John commented that he considered this address to be the high point of his ministry in the wider Anglican Communion after retirement. High praise indeed for its message to which we should pay attention.

John began by noting a need to define what authentic Anglicanism actually is. Here is his brief description …”

The American Anglican Council has now published his address here.

Photo: GAFCON.

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