The First Assembly of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches – GSFA 9^th Trumpet, 11-15 June 2024, St Mark’s Conference Centre, El Khatatba, Egypt

“I Will Make You As A Light To The Nations” (Isaiah 49:6)

A.   Preamble

1. 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.

2. As at June 2024, 11 Provinces have become fully covenanted members of GSFA through their respective synodical processes. There are also 3 Associate Member dioceses and 14 Mission Partners comprising Anglican networks, theological colleges and mission societies. We were joined by special guests and observers. At the 1st Assembly, in total, there were 13 active Primates, 44 Bishops, 46 Clergy and 36 Lay leaders present.

3. As an Assembly, we expressed our deep appreciation to Archbishop Samy Shehata, the Primate of Alexandria, and to the people of the Diocese of Egypt for their outstanding Middle-Eastern hospitality extended to us during our stay in Egypt.

4. We also expressed our gratitude to the government authorities of Egypt for providing us a safe environment in which to meet as well as their readiness to process travel visas where needed.

5. We were tremendously blessed that our Primates, bishops and Assembly participants had a personal audience with Pope Tawandros II, the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church; and that Pope Tawandros II expressed keenness to build the fellowship with the GSFA as an expression of the ecumenical unity of the body of Christ.

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“People have made their stand for the gospel of Christ against false ideologies for the sake of their countrymen,” Archbishop Kanishka Raffel of Sydney preaches at Global South Assembly. “Bishops have sworn, along with presbyters, to drive away false teaching.” #anglican pic.twitter.com/y1fl3Wkc1s

— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) June 15, 2024

“The profoundly suffering people of Sudan continue to be in my prayers with each passing day. Following the return of the Bishops of Leeds and Bradford from the country last week, I am again in mourning for the millions of innocent people who have been killed, displaced or had their lives destroyed by this conflict. It is estimated that between 8 and 11 million people have been displaced, and that famine and other forms of insecurity are now inevitable. It is unconscionable that such immense suffering is allowed to continue, forgotten by most of the world. “As the violence intensifies with the siege and battery of El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces, I call on the countries supporting this destruction through weapons and financing to stop and channel their resources instead towards negotiations for peace. An honouring of the Jeddah commitments and UN Security Council’s call for a ceasefire is now of paramount importance. All those engaging in violence must cease. “The strong links between the Church of England, specifically the Dioceses of Leeds and Salisbury, and the Episcopal Church of Sudan are built on Christian solidarity with sisters and brothers in faith – and the conviction that all the people of Sudan are of infinite value before God. I stand in solidarity with my brother, the Most Revd Ezekiel Kondo, Primate of Sudan. We will continue to work and pray for peace and justice – and for a reconciliation that makes security and stability possible.”

Archbishop of Canterbury urges end to violence in Sudan | The Archbishop of Canterbury #sudan https://t.co/NgNOgc184h

— Sudan's Doctors for Human Rights (@sudan_doctors) June 17, 2024

By the time children born today are in kindergarten, artificial intelligence (AI) will probably have surpassed humans at all cognitive tasks, from science to creativity. When I first predicted in 1999 that we would have such artificial general intelligence (AGI) by 2029, most experts thought I’d switched to writing fiction. But since the spectacular breakthroughs of the past few years, many experts think we will have agi even sooner—so I’ve technically gone from being an optimist to a pessimist, without changing my prediction at all.

After working in the field for 61 years—longer than anyone else alive—I am gratified to see AI at the heart of global conversation. Yet most commentary misses how large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini fit into an even larger story. AI is about to make the leap from revolutionizing just the digital world to transforming the physical world as well. This will bring countless benefits, but three areas have especially profound implications: energy, manufacturing and medicine. 

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“AI is about to make the leap from revolutionising the digital world to transforming the physical world as well,” writes Ray Kurzweil in a guest essay. The futurist says amid countless benefits, there will be profound implications in three areas https://t.co/ty57b4HqrY

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) June 18, 2024

Since the sequencing of the human genome in 2003, genetics has become one of the key frameworks for how we all think about ourselves. From fretting about our health to debating how schools can accommodate non-neurotypical pupils, we reach for the idea that genes deliver answers to intimate questions about people’s outcomes and identities.

Recent research backs this up, showing that complex traits such as temperament, longevity, resilience to mental ill-health and even ideological leanings are all, to some extent, “hardwired”. Environment matters too for these qualities, of course. Our education and life experiences interact with genetic factors to create a fantastically complex matrix of influence.

But what if the question of genetic inheritance were even more nuanced? What if the old polarised debate about the competing influences of nature and nurture was due a 21st-century upgrade?

Scientists working in the emerging field of epigenetics have discovered the mechanism that allows lived experience and acquired knowledge to be passed on within one generation, by altering the shape of a particular gene. This means that an individual’s life experience doesn’t die with them but endures in genetic form. The impact of the starvation your Dutch grandmother suffered during the second world war, for example, or the trauma inflicted on your grandfather when he fled his home as a refugee, might go on to shape your parents’ brains, their behaviours and eventually yours.

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Latest resource : Can you inherit memories from your ancestors? (2024) article by Hannah Critchlow. Explains how what we do today cascades down across generations including in our physiology. #chaostheory #wecanhelpeachother #psychologyhttps://t.co/EarP0hwFTK

— Dr Andrew Perry (@coproductiveEqu) June 18, 2024

Beginning August 18, the people of Holy Trinity, Windemere will begin worshipping with the community of St. John’s Chapel on Hanover Street. The Revd David Dubay will lead the united congregations in discerning a new future together that will include outreach to the Hispanic community in downtown Charleston. The Bishop and Standing Committee have worked with all parties to discern a path forward that it is believed will lead to renewed and fruitful ministry for all.  Please keep them in your prayers as they begin this next season of life together.

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Almighty and everlasting God, who didst enkindle the flame of thy love in the heart of thy holy martyr Bernard Mizeki: Grant to us, thy humble servants, a like faith and power of love, that we who rejoice in his triumph may profit by his example; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Today the Church of England commemorates Bernard Mizeki, Apostle of the MaShona, Martyr, 1896

He became a Christian after attending night classes at an Anglican school in Cape Town run by the Cowley Fathers (SSJE) & was killed #OTD in 1896 while doing mission work in S Rhodesia pic.twitter.com/ZXk4hcOFro

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) June 18, 2024

Blessed be He Who in His love stooped to redeem  mankind!  Blessed be the King Who made Himself poor to enrich the needy!  Blessed be He Who came to fulfill the types and emblems of the prophets!  Blessed be He Who made creation rejoice with the wealth and treasure of His Father!  Blessed be He Whose glory the dumb sang with hosannas!  Blessed be He to Whom little children sang new glory in hymns of praise!  Blessed be the new King Who came that new-born babes might glorify Him!  Blessed be He unto Whom children brought faltering songs to praise Him among His disciples!     

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

Morning everyone hope you are well. After all the years I have lived here. A place in the Western Lake District I'd never visited. Very beautiful. It is also good to know it's not just landscape photographers who stand around for hours hoping to capture something. Have a great… pic.twitter.com/MwbPQkPUKf

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) June 18, 2024

For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”

–Romans 1:16-17

Poppies and Lupins#northumberland #photography pic.twitter.com/0vYfvrHTgQ

— Jim Scott (@jimscottphoto) June 18, 2024