The conference aims were described by our founding fathers as follows:
1. To meet, to know and to encourage one another in our faith and mission as Christians of the ‘South’.
2. To listen to God and to listen to one another.
3. To share our stories, our needs, our resources, our vision.
4. To explore and encourage ways of offering ourselves and our unique gifts as Christians of the South for the enrichment of the whole Church and for world mission.
5. To discover our unique identity as Anglican Christians of the non-western world.
6. To encourage qualitative and relevant leadership development for our rapidly growing churches so as to secure the future of the Church in the South and worldwide. To enable partnership, both South to South and South to North on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
7. To explore ways of being authentically Christian in our cultural milieu while remaining universally connected to the global Anglican Communion.
I particularly relished the powerful concluding paragraph of ++Akinola’s welcome speech. It displays the fiery passion for the gospel so typical of that great successor of the apostles.
“[i]There is a battle going on in our beloved Communion…[/i] (an almost British understatement!),
[i]and so there is a desperate need for an authentic and passionate proclamation of the truth of God.[/i]”
(yes, a truly desperate need, for preaching that’s both theologically authentic and also passionate, which doesn’t sound very British at all).
“[i]PEOPLE ARE PERISHING and we dare not remain silent. We MUST proclaim the Word that gives life and hope![/i]”
Amen. So true. So eloquent. So clear and compelling.
And so refreshing. I’m very glad that +Mark Lawrence is one of the few Americans invited to be there in Singapore.
David Handy+