Global South Bishops to Meet Archbishop of Canterbury to Discuss Presenting GSFA Resolution on ‘Lambeth 1.10’ at the Anglican Communion Plenary

“This morning, GSFA Primates held a Press Conference in which they announced they would table their own ‘Resolution’, confirming’ Lambeth 1.10’ as the Communion’s official teaching on marriage and sexuality. They would also give all bishops gathered at the Lambeth Conference an opportunity to confirm their agreement by the end of the Conference.

Archbishop Justin Badi, Chairman of the GSFA, is grateful to the Archbishop of Canterbury for agreeing to meet tomorrow (JULY30), to discuss the possibility of Archbishop Badi presenting the need for ‘Lambeth 1.10’ to be central to the life of the Communion, at the Anglican Communion Plenary session for bishops on Monday 1 August.

Archbishop Badi will be joined at the meeting by other GSFA Primates, including those from Indian Ocean, Chile, Congo, and others. …”

– Statement from the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, 29 July 2022.

See also the first GSFA press conference at Lambeth (video via Facebook).

Orthodox bishops to offer their own ‘Lambeth Resolution’ — won’t receive Holy Communion with gay-partnered bishops

Here’s a Press release issued by the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches:

Press Release

For Immediate Release 29 July 2022

ORTHODOX BISHOPS TO OFFER THEIR OWN ‘LAMBETH RESOLUTION’ RE- AFFIRMING LAMBETH 1.10 & WILL NOT RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION ALONGSIDE GAY-PARTNERED BISHOPS

ORTHODOX bishops at the Lambeth Conference – representing 75% of the Anglican Communion – announced today (29JUL) that they will be tabling their own ‘Lambeth Resolution (Call)’. They will invite fellow bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, to re-affirm Lambeth Resolution 1.10 as the Anglican Communion’s ‘official teaching’ on marriage and sexuality.

The bishops also want the Communion to impose sanctions on Provinces which ordain bishops in same-sex relations, and conduct same sex weddings – something which has led to schism in the Church. They have also revealed that at the two Conference’ Eucharists at Canterbury Cathedral, orthodox bishops will not receive Holy Communion alongside gay-partnered bishops, and those who endorse same-sex unions in the Church’s faith and order. They shall remain seated.

Speaking at their opening Press Conference of the Lambeth Conference, leaders of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) said they had taken the move after extensive requests to the Archbishop of Canterbury for a stand-alone resolution and, following the inserted reference to Lambeth 1.10 was withdrawn, on Tuesday, from the ‘Human Dignity ‘Call’. GSFA leaders claim that the Conference organisers have failed to recognise the foundations of ‘Lambeth 1.10’ which, they say, “is not just about sex and marriage, but fundamentally about the authority of the Bible which Anglicans believe to be central to faith and order”.

The GSFA will now table their Resolution and invite primates and their bishops to ‘sign up’. On Monday, senior GSFA representatives will seek to address the issue in the Plenary session on the Anglican Communion, making available the text of their resolution to all bishops, and providing secure means by which bishops can affirm their support. The GSFA is confident that leaders representing the majority of Anglicans across the globe will sign up. They will then present a signed copy by GSFA Primates, and others, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, inviting him to add his signature.

Lambeth 1.10 [1] was formally passed at the Lambeth Conference in1998, at which the majority of bishops agreed that marriage is between one man and a woman for life, and that sexual abstinence outside marriage is the Bible’s clear teaching. The Resolution also committed bishops “to listen to the experience of homosexual persons, and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ.” It also called on all churches to “minister pastorally and sensitively to all, irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals.”

Since then, provinces such as the Episcopal Church in America (TEC), the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, The Scottish Episcopal Church and The Church in Wales, have either ordained gay, married bishops, or opted to conduct gay weddings. This, despite the Resolution stating that the 1998 conference bishops “cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions, nor ordaining those involved in same gendered unions”.

Following the election of a partnered gay bishop, Gene Robinson in the United States in 2003, and subsequent breaches of moratoriums requested in the Windsor Report of 2004, orthodox provinces in the Global South have been contending for the upholding of Lambeth 1.10 across the Communion. These orthodox provinces have adopted a Covenantal Structure [2] among themselves that enhances ecclesial responsibility across member provinces.

Archbishop Justin Badi, Chairman of the GSFA and Archbishop of South Sudan said: “We have taken this action as if we are to ’walk together’ as a Communion, it must be on the based on a shared commitment to Holy Scripture.

“To us in our provinces, this is not primarily about gay sexual practices and unions, but rather that Anglicans look first and foremost to be guided in their faith and order by Scripture, and not by the passing cultural waves of Western society. Sadly, some provinces are adapting the teaching of the Church to try to appear relevant, and to make discipleship easier as a way of reversing fast-declining church attendance. But as disciples, we are not told in Scripture to mould Jesus into ‘our’ image, but to be continually transformed by the Spirit into ‘His’ image.

“For too long the Anglican Communion has been driven by the views of the West. We often feel that our voice is not listened to, or respected. We invite each primate and bishop to sign up to our resolution, and then with the majority of the Communion in favour, for the Instruments of the Anglican Communion to find ways to put faith and order back at the heart of what the Archbishop of Canterbury describes as ‘walking together’.

“Today in Canterbury, we may be ‘gathered together’, but we most certainly cannot ‘walk together’ until provinces which have gone against Scripture – and the will of the consensus of the bishops – repent and return to orthodoxy. The Communion is not in a healthy condition at present, and only major surgery will put that right.”

Archbishop James Wong, Archbishop of the Province of Indian Ocean added: “At this conference, we are being asked to look at the needs of our broken … world, and to offer hope. But we cannot mend a broken world when the Anglican Church is so broken and fractured. All provinces must remember that they are part of one body, and one Communion. Unfortunately, some provinces put emphasis on being autonomous, and forget the necessity of being interdependent.”

Commenting on the two joint services at the cathedral – which will now include the spouses of gay bishops – Archbishop Badi concluded: “GSFA primates will be discussing the services with their bishops, but all orthodox bishops will be encouraged to remain in their seats when others go to receive the bread and wine. This will be the start of a number of ‘visual differentials’ as we move forward from this conference.”

GSFA leaders are keen to stress that they have no intention of being a ‘breakaway group’ from the Anglican Communion. The Fellowship sees itself, and seeks to be part of, the ‘holy remnant’ that God has preserved in the Anglican Communion. The four-fold objectives of GSFA bishops attending Lambeth are: the unity of the orthodox, biblical faithfulness, non-separatist – but a holy remnant, and a commitment to world mission.

ENDS

Source: Global South Anglican Press Release (PDF file).

Global South Bishops to seek reaffirmation of Lambeth 1.10

In a video posted on the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches website, Chairman Archbishop Justin Badi calls the orthodox bishops at Lambeth to seek the reaffirmation of Lambeth 1.10 as the official teaching of the Anglican Communion on marriage.

This might not go well with the Scottish Episcopal Church.

The Limitations of Lambeth

“In less than a week’s time Anglican bishops from around the world will gather for what is usually a decennial Lambeth Conference in London.

This year, a sizeable number of bishops will not be attending the conference in protest at what they see as departures from biblical truth and standards of behaviour by a growing number of provinces in the Anglican Communion. They hold little hope that these departures will be addressed by the conference since so many of the bishops who will be attending have promoted them or have refused to speak against them.

It is important to manage our expectations as the conference approaches. …”

– Moore College Principal Dr Mark Thompson reminds us where the true authority lies for the churches of the Anglican Communion.

LAMBETH 1998: Diary from the Last True Lambeth Conference

“This is the 24th anniversary of the historic 1998 Lambeth Conference, which is remembered for its Resolution I.10 on Human Sexuality.

I was present there, representing the American Anglican Council (AAC). In this capacity I filed a three-week ‘Diary’ of the Conference. I am posting this diary without revision, except for the final week.

Lambeth 1998 was the last Conference convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury to attempt to resolve anything of substance. The 2008 Lambeth Conference left behind a undigested glob of ‘indaba.’ The 2022 Conference promises much of the same with a series of indistinct trumpet ‘calls.’ It may be said that the Conference is already all over but the photo op, which no doubt is exactly what the planners intend.

The mantle of serious Anglican discourse has now passed to the Global Anglican Future Conferences, especially those in 2008 and 2018. …”

– The Rev Dr Stephen Noll has published his first hand account of Lambeth 1988 – what he calls “the last true Lambeth Conference”.

Fascinating and sobering. And thank God for GAFCON!

“God has called us… to stand for the true gospel witness”

“The Global South grouping of the Anglican Communion is moving away from being based on geography to being founded on doctrinal orthodoxy.

This is a significant move for the group, which – at its first meeting in 1994 –  gathered churches from all parts of the Southern Hemisphere including Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas. …”

– At SydneyAnglicans.net, Russell Powell reports on last month’s 8th Global South Conference and its Communiqué (“The Eighth Trumpet”) from the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches.

See also:

A Hope and a Future for Anglicans – Phil Ashey.

A Hope and a Future for Anglicans

“It is an understatement that Anglicanism is not always neat and tidy.  The very nature of our decision making in councils, as ancient as it may be, is messy.  Things don’t always go as planned.  Sometimes people don’t respect what the whole decides together in scripture, prayerful study and discussion, and waiting on the Lord’s timing.  Sometimes a part demands that the whole adjust to it and runs ahead rather than waiting on the counsel of the whole church.

That seems to be at the heart Bishop Michael Nazir Ali’s decision to leave the Church of England to join the Anglican Ordinariate in the Roman Catholic Church. …

We have included a few articles in today’s weekly newsletter responding to his departure, but I want to offer some good news with some cautious optimism.  On Sunday, October 17, the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) issued their Communique (“The Eighth Trumpet”) after a four-day conference on Zoom attended by 90 delegates from 16 Provinces and one diocese (Sydney), including the Anglican Church in North America.

In the words of the Communique, the purpose of this GSFA gathering was to “address the unchecked spread of revisionism” among all the Churches of the Anglican Communion by enacting a “covenantal structure” that will “enhance ecclesial responsibility” and mutual accountability among the churches of the GSFA …

Now there is an ecclesial body, a Communion to which the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) can bring distressed, biblically faithful, orthodox Anglicans from heterodox dioceses and provinces for membership.  GAFCON can authenticate and recognize those in distress and gather them for membership in GSFA—just as St. Paul gathered Gentile converts into churches that enjoyed communion with the established church in Jerusalem under St. Peter.”

– In his weekly newsletter from the American Anglican Council, Canon Phil Ashey sees hope for a genuinely orthodox Anglican communion.

He mentions the just-concluded 8th Global South Conference and its Communiqué (“The Eighth Trumpet”) from the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches.

The Seventh Global South Conference held in Cairo, Egypt

“The 7th Global South Conference opened on the 8th of October 2019 with an Eucharist Service followed by a welcome dinner at the All Saints Cathedral, Cairo.

Slightly more than a hundred delegates and observers from 19 Provinces and other parts of the Communion were present for this 4-day Conference. …

Bishop Rennis Ponniah, who chairs the Study Group on Enhancing Ecclesial Responsibility, presented the proposal for an enhanced ecclesial structure to guide the work of Global South. …

A new Steering Committee was appointed:

Chairman: Archbishop Justin Badi (Sudan)
Vice-Chair: Archbishop Tito Zavala (Chile)
Secretary: Archbishop Samuel Manhkin (Bangladesh)
Treasurer: Archbishop Foley Beach (ACNA)

Members:
Archbishop Stephen Than Myint Oo (Myanmar)
Archbishop Masimango Katanda Zacharie (Congo)
Archbishop James Richard Wong Yin Song. …”

– From Global South Anglican.

See also:

The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSA) Covenantal Structure. (PDF file)

“This Proposal on Enhancing Ecclesial Responsibility of Global South Churches sets out a clear basis and a coherent structure for constituting The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSA).”

American Anglican Council Canon Phil Ashey’s hopes for the Anglican Communion. – Youtube.

Photo credit: Revd Canon Andrew Gross.

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