Global South Anglican

By George Conger, CEN

GAFCON will prove to be “one of the most important events in the next two or three decades” of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Sydney has predicted, and will set the future course of the Church. In an interview with Anglican Media Sydney before his departure for the June 22-29 gathering in Jerusalem, Dr Peter Jensen said the 1,000 delegates —- including 280 bishops —- will be “working out where [Anglicans] go from here.” He dismissed suggestions that Gafcon was a stalking horse for a conservative schism, saying evangelicals “are Anglicans and intend to remain so.”

Gafcon, the Global Anglican Future Conference, will work towards shaping an “Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised and Christ-centred mission [is] a top priority,” Dr Jensen, the chairman of the conference’s programme committee, said. He denied charges the conference was a shadow Lambeth Conference, saying the delegates meeting at the Renaissance Hotel near Israel’s Knesset in West Jerusalem were not going to “ape” Lambeth. “This is a conference about he future and we’ve deliberately invited lay people, clergy and others” to ask what it means “to be Anglican,” he said. “How can we best serve God, how can we honour his word and how can we best make his message known? They’re the big themes we’ll be looking at,” Dr Jensen said.

However, Dr Jensen, along with bishops from amongst the largest provinces of the Communion: Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, will boycott the Lambeth Conference, attending Gafcon in its place. “We have made other plans to travel to Jerusalem [instead of Lambeth] to reflect on how best we can do the work of the Lord,” Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya explained last week, citing conservative disquiet with its agenda and guest list.

In a June 13 statement, the 10-million member Church of Uganda said it too would skip Lambeth for Gafcon “because the purpose of Lambeth is for fellowship among Bishops, and our fellowship has been broken with the American church.” “We are not going to pretend by going to Lambeth that we are in fellowship” with the Episcopal Church. “We are not. What they have done is a very serious thing, and what the Archbishop of Canterbury has done in inviting them is grievous and we want them to know that,” the Ugandan Church said.

Jockeying amongst conservatives for control of the Gafcon message has been intense with some Americans calling for a Canterbury- less Anglican Communion, Ugandans and Australians pushing for a reformed Communion, as well as supporters of federal central executive ranged against those seeking a looser confederated polity. However, a three-day pre-conference meeting at a Jordanian Dead Sea resort beginning June 19 will seek to smooth over the cracks in the conservative façade, allowing the main conference to focus its work.

From the Church of England, the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazi-Ali and the Bishop of Lewes, the Rt RevWallace Benn will attend the gathering, as will bishops, clergy and lay leaders from 25 other countries.