Fulcrum Briefing Paper on GAFCON for Parochial Church Councils

Fulcrum Briefing Paper on GAFCON

for Parochial Church Councils

against the resolution suggested on the Anglican Mainstream site:

‘We stand in solidarity with the Jerusalem Declaration and Statement on the Global Anglican Future’

What is GAFCON? The ‘Global Anglican Future Conference’ was held at the end of June 2008 in Jerusalem and attended by over a thousand people from around the world – bishops, clergy and laity.

Who leads it? The chief leaders of GAFCON are Peter Jensen (Archbishop of Sydney), Peter Akinola (Archbishop of Nigeria), Greg Venables (Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone) and Henry Orombi (Archbishop of Uganda). It receives a good deal of support from conservative Evangelical groups and conservative Anglo Catholic groups.

What happened at GAFCON? Many have said that the teaching and worship refreshed them. There were some personal and, we believe, unfair remarks about the Archbishop of Canterbury. A strategy statement, including the ‘Jerusalem Declaration’, was issued calling on people to join a new fellowship of confessing Anglicans, under the authority of a separate ‘Primates’ Council’, and under the name of GAFCON. In the Anglican Communion, but separate.

How has the Archbishop of Canterbury responded? He issued a response on 30 June accepting the ‘tenets of orthodoxy’ in the ‘Jerusalem Declaration’ but questioning the authority of a self selected group of Primates taking on the decisive role of declaring who is truly Anglican and planning further interventions across provinces. He also criticised the accusations of a colonial mentality.

What happened at the Post-GAFCON meeting in London? On 1 July, a meeting at All Souls Langham Place was attended by Evangelical clergy during the day and Evangelical PCC members in the evening. The call was one of crisis. ‘There are two versions of Christianity in the Church of England’. Join GAFCON or fail. Although it was stated that English problems should be solved by the English, later conversations made it clear that interventions from Primates from other parts of the Communion would not be precluded.

What does Fulcrum advise? Fulcrum aims to renew the Evangelical centre of the Church of England. With the GAFCON leaders, we are conservative on issues of sexuality, however we consider their strategy to be very divisive indeed. We suggest that PCC members reflect seriously on, and pray about, the following points before making any rushed decisions to sign up to the GAFCON strategy statement:

• The Church of England is not in the same position as The Episcopal Church in the USA. The official documents and theological stance of leading bishops are thoroughly orthodox.
• There are not only two versions of Christianity. We do not agree that the choice is between GAFCON and a false gospel.
• Signing up to the GAFCON resolution now as a PCC would be like signing a blank cheque, for much of the strategy is still being worked out.
• Churchwardens have legal duties to represent lay people in the parish and act as bishops officers. They are formally and legally admitted to office each year and undertake a declaration of great gravity.

For further consideration see the Fulcrum response to GAFCON and the reflections of the Bishop of Durham. www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk