Nairobi conference confirms major realignment in Anglican Communion
Opening news conference, Monday 21st October 2013
The second Global Anglican Future Conference, which opens today in Nairobi, is confirmation that the churches involved in the GAFCON movement are committed to the Anglican Communion and modelling how the communion should operate in the 21st century.
Organisers say the movement has grown since the first conference in Jerusalem in 2008.
“We have exceeded the first GAFCON both in number and reach” said the General Secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Dr Peter Jensen. “We have also surpassed all expectations here in Nairobi.”
Although initially expecting 1100, the final total is 1,352 Archbishops, Bishops, clergy and lay people, men and women, from almost 40 countries.
The number of bishops attending is 331, of whom 30 are Archbishops.
RE: “The number of bishops attending is 331, of whom 30 are Archbishops.”
Very significant.
By “Archbishops” are they talking “Primates of provinces of the Anglican Communion?” I am *very* interested in that latter number — how many provinces of the Anglican Communion are represented by the Primate at Gafcon?
Hi Sarah,
these are the Primates who are CONFIRMED in attendance based on emails, articles and photos today:
Daniel Deng Bul, Sudan
Henri Isingoma, Congo
Stanley Ntgali, Uganda
Nicholas Okoh, Nigeria
Onesphore Rwaje, Rwanda
Eliud Wabukala, Kenya
Tito Zavala, Southern Cone
and, Robert Duncan, ACNA whom the Global South leaders accept as a Primate, but who is not, of course, recognized as such by the ACO.
I’ll be eager to find out if any other Primates are there (Tanzania? West Africa?)
[see also the comments on this thread:
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/51056/#comments ]
Of real interest to me is the size (approx 1350 attendees) and truly global nature of this gathering 27 Provinces, 38 countries. I think it may be the largest [b]global[/b] Anglican gathering ever, (not counting things like bishops’ consecrations that draw 3000+ worshippers). Also, I would guess it is the most representative Anglican gathering ever.
In a comment over at SF, I just posted this snippet of information:
Upon reading that there are 400+ Nigerian attendees at GAFCON, I did a little math…
400/1350 = 30% (approx % of GAFCON attendees who are Nigerian)
18 million / 70 million = 26% (approx % of Nigerians in the Anglican Communion)
I’m increasingly excited about GAFCON, and expect to be blogging quite a bit at Lent & Beyond this week with some of my thoughts, and the themes / topics about which I believe it would be very good to pray this week.
Thanks, Karen.
While I’m also excited about how large and representative this international gathering is, it’s probably a pardonable exaggeration to call it “the most representative Anglican gathering ever.” What about Lambeth 1998? More provinces and theological viewpoints were represented there, although of course, Lambeth was limited to bishops in terms of the official delegates.
However, it’s worth noting that GAFCON II may represent a new level of fairness in representation in that so many of the attendees are women. That is, I’m assuming that the total count includes a lot of wives. Can anyone confirm or disconfirm that?
Finally, while the number of archbishops is impressive indeed (doesn’t Nigeria have five or six of them?), it was the high number of bishops, 331, that caught my eye. That is about 1/4 of the total, and it’s a signficant increase over the number of bishops who boycotted Lambeth in 2008. I don’t know the total number of bishops who are officially counted as part of the Anglican Communion by the ACO/ACC, but 331 would represent a very strong minority of them. Except, of course, that it’s almost certain that a significant number of the 331 bishops are outside the current structures of the Anglican Communion. That would not only include the ACNA bishops, but also the bishops from small Continuing Anglican groups. I suspect that a significant number of the “archbishops” present are from those little Continuing groups. Without a complete, detailed list of all the official delegates present, it’s impossible to know what to make of these sorts of figures.
David Handy+