Peter Jensen: We should not be naive
The Sydney Morning Herald today publishes an op-ed by Archbishop Peter Jensen –
“We should not be naive about the slow and steady influence of revisionist teaching and why the seven men who lead some of the largest Anglican churches in the world have decided to stand up and be counted. …”
– Read it in The Sydney Morning Herald. (Photo: Joy Gwaltney.)
GAFCON final press conference video online
Anglican TV’s Kevin Kallsen has now posted online the full video of the last GAFCON press conference.
Not only are the answers helpful, but the video gives an insight into how journalists seek to report on something like GAFCON. Russell Powell is heard as he facilitates the briefing.
In the light of near-hysteria about GAFCON in some circles, this is well worth watching. It runs for 36 minutes and can be seen here.
(Incidentally, Kevin Kallsen, who has provided this very helpful resource, is looking for financial support so he can report from Lambeth.)
CANA Bp. David Bena writes about GAFCON
David Bena, Bishop in CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) writes to his clergy about GAFCON and the Jerusalem Declaration –
“It… spells out what you and I have always believed but was yanked away from us by radical professors and church leaders: Primacy of Scripture; Jesus as Incarnate and the only way to salvation; the Creeds said without crossing our fingers at certain phrases…”
– Read the full message via Transfigurations. (Photo: CANA.)
Confessional fellowship will ‘reassert Bible’s authority’
Three archbishops who participated in the recent Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem addressed hundreds of Church of England clergy July 1 about a newly formed network they assert will bring needed authority to the Anglican Communion.
“There are moments in the church where authority has to be taken, and this is one of those moments where the most senior people available have decided to come together to take their authority to do certain things which they have the capacity to do,” said Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney in remarks reported by the London Telegraph. …
Archbishop Jensen dismissed as mythological the idea that the Archbishop of Canterbury exercised legal or juridical power over the Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s power is largely moral, he said, adding “that the last five years have seen a diminution of the moral authority that he is able to bring to this role.” The loss of moral authority was not Archbishop Williams’ fault, Archbishop Jensen said, and probably would have happened to “whoever had been the archbishop.”
– Report from The Living Church. (Photo: GAFCON media team.)
Canadian Primate claims all is well
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has challenged the statement issued by a global group of conservative Anglicans accusing the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church in the United States of proclaiming a “false gospel that has paralyzed” the Anglican Communion. …
– Story from the Anglican Journal (of the Anglican Church of Canada).
See, however, Archbishop Hitlz’s full statement, with interspersed commentary from Anglican Essentials Canada.
GAFCON is vital for the Anglican Communion
If the current dispute is merely a matter of different perspectives and emphases, as the Archbishop of Canterbury suggests, why are the bishops who are promoting this different gospel driving people out of their churches and removing licences from priests such as Dr Packer?
Gafcon became necessary following the persistent failure of the current authorities in the Anglican Communion to do anything about this deliberate flouting of Christian teaching and decisions of the whole Anglican Communion and its leadership. …
– Canon Chris Sugden writes in The Guardian.
Bishop Peter Brain endorses GAFCON statement
The Bishop of Armidale, Peter Brain, was among the Anglican leaders who endorsed an historic document that addresses the crisis gripping the church over scriptural authority. …
Bishop Brain said … “It was a clear statement and I believe many, many Anglicans will agree with it, especially people in the pews,” he said.
“For people in the Armidale diocese, it would be exactly what they would agree to.”
– Report from The Armidale Express. (Photo: Russell Powell.)
British media misses GAFCON message
In all my years as a journalist, first working on large city dailies, then Christian magazines, a brief stint as an Episcopal Diocesan Managing Editor and now as an Internet Online news writer, whose website annually draws more than 4 million readers from 172 countries, I have never encountered such appalling spin, outrageous lies, pure mendacity and gay-baiting towards a group of godly men and women of orthodox faith as I encountered recently in Jerusalem by the secular press. …
– David Virtue, who reported from Jerusalem during GAFCON, comments at VirtueOnline.
(See also this comment from Chelmsford Anglican Mainstream on one newspaper report.)
Anglican Church League President: Statement on GAFCON
ACL President, Rev. Dr. Mark Thompson, has released this Statement about GAFCON:
“Nobody present last week in Jerusalem wanted to split the Anglican Communion. No one wanted to leave the Anglican Communion. All wanted to see a robust and authentic Anglicanism which could courageously play a part in God’s great mission of reaching out to lost men and women with the gospel of redemption in Christ.”
Full text —
I have just returned from the GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem. It was a time of rich fellowship, clear thinking and firm resolve. It was also a time of very deliberate dependence upon God. Authentic Anglican doctrine, grounded in the Scripture, reflected in the Thirty-nine Articles and joyfully embraced by the majority of the world’s practicing Anglicans, was once again on centre stage. The Lordship of Christ, who is the only Saviour of men and women, the supreme authority of the teaching of the Bible for Christian faith and life, and the urgency of mission in a world lost in rebellion against the living God, were all unambiguously proclaimed in fresh ways which encouraged God’s people and nourished faith. The Conference statement offered hope and order where time and again official Anglican pronouncements have only given further cause for disillusionment, confusion and disarray.
GAFCON has provided us with a way forward that is sober, serious and faces the realities of global Anglicanism in the twenty-first century. It has addressed directly the crisis brought about by various departures from biblical teaching and faithful Christian living in parts of the Communion and exascerbated by ineffective leadership. It has issued a call to biblical faithfulness and effective mission in the face of overwhelming need.
One further thing is beyond doubt. Nobody present last week in Jerusalem wanted to split the Anglican Communion. No one wanted to leave the Anglican Communion. All wanted to see a robust and authentic Anglicanism which could courageously play a part in God’s great mission of reaching out to lost men and women with the gospel of redemption in Christ. In the words of the Primates from almost six years ago now, the Communion has been ‘torn at the deepest level’ and we are now seeking God’s wisdom for how we are to live in the light of this new reality which is not of our making.
Gospel minded men and women all over the world will rejoice when they read this conference statement, just as the assembled crowed burst into spontaneous applause and rejoicing when it was first read to them last Sunday. Here at last is the leadership we have been praying for. The Primates who called this conference are passionate and biblically faithful. They are humble and bold at the same time. And they will not flinch when faced with the hostility of the revisionists, who continue to prosecute, depose and defame men and women who will not accept their false gospel.
We have much to thank God for as we reflect on the GAFCON and its outcome. Of course there will be opposition and it is likely to be intense. You cannot challenge such entrenched self-interest and it be otherwise. Yet there is every cause to hope and pray that many, many others will join with us in getting on with the most important job of all: testifying to God’s saving mercy in Jesus Christ and living transformed lives in the light of that good news. To that end I trust the GAFCON documents will be very useful indeed.
Mark Thompson
ACL President
1st July 2008.
Peter Jensen: Primates Council a body of integrity
Media Release – 1st July 2008
The Archbishop of Sydney Dr Peter Jensen has described the Primates Council, which has emerged from the Global Anglican Future Conference, as a body of integrity and one which fairly reflects the majority of the world’s practising Anglicans.
“The conference proceeded with the spotlight of world media upon it, it was not done in a corner. Its conclusions cannot be dismissed as the work of only a few.”
“The seven primates are significant leaders within the Anglican communion and they approach this work with appropriate seriousness and solemnity.” Dr Jensen said.
The Archbishop says the lack of restraint by some revisionist church leaders in North America and the indecisiveness in response to it has made their task more urgent.
“No good can come from questioning the legitimacy of these men or their clear commitment to the church’s mission. Rather we must commend their willingness to provide clear leadership and to help bring order to this chaos.”
As to GAFCON’s influence in Australia, Dr Jensen told a news conference at the weekend that Australian leaders might not applaud it initially, but he was hoping that as it is explained they would eventually see it as very useful.
He described the GAFCON statement as ‘a very Anglican document, bringing Anglican order out of turmoil.”
– Media release from the Diocese of Sydney.
(Photo: Joy Gwaltney – taken at the final GAFCON session.)
Post-GAFCON meeting at Langham Place
John Richardson was at yesterday’s Post-GAFCON briefing at All Souls Langham Place in London – where Archbishops Henry Orombi, Greg Venables and Peter Jensen as well as Dr Jim Packer spoke.
John has posted his notes after each session. Bear in mind that these are his summary notes – however they are very helpful. Read them at The Ugley Vicar.
Direct links to John’s notes on each session – Archbishop Henry Orombi, Archbishop Greg Venables, Interview with Dr Jim Packer, Panel discussion, Archbishop Peter Jensen.
Report of the meeting from The (UK) Telegraph.
No split in Anglican marshallow
“Like all old style bureaucracies, the Anglican denomination worldwide moves at about the same pace as the friendly slugs on the morning kids’ programme my youngest daughter likes to watch. But at long last, it looks like something may actually be happening within the normally staid and stodgy Church of England. …”
– The Daily Telegraph in Sydney published this opinion piece by Gordon Cheng.
(Photo: Joy Gwaltney)
‘Archbishop confronts Anglican rebels’
“The Archbishop of Canterbury last night directly challenged the rebel Anglicans who have launched a breakaway faction within the global communion. In unusually forthright language, he accused them of lacking legitimacy, authority and, by implication, integrity. …”
– Report by Riazat Butt in The Guardian.
Also, see Sarah Hey’s brief analysis of Archbishop Rowan Williams’ response to the Jerusalem Declaration – at Stand Firm. (hat tip: Sydney Anglicans.)
(Photo credit: Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.)
TEC Presiding Bishop responds to GAFCON ‘emission’
TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has responded to the Global Anglican Future Conference with the following statement.
“Much of the Anglican world must be lamenting the latest emission from GAFCON. Anglicanism has always been broader than some find comfortable. This statement does not represent the end of Anglicanism, merely another chapter in a centuries-old struggle for dominance by those who consider themselves the only true believers. Anglicans will continue to worship God in their churches, serve the hungry and needy in their communities, and build missional relationships with others across the globe, despite the desire of a few leaders to narrow the influence of the gospel. We look forward to the opportunities of the Lambeth Conference for constructive conversation, inspired prayer, and relational encounters.
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church”
Source: Episcopal Life Online.
(Dr J I Packer’s talk, “Lessons to be learned from the Canadian church experience”, given last week in the UK, provides a very helpful analysis of liberal strategies and tactics.)
Canterbury responds
“The Final Statement from the GAFCON meeting in Jordan and Jerusalem contains much that is positive and encouraging about the priorities of those who met for prayer and pilgrimage in the last week. …
However …”
– From the Archbishop of Canterbury.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…