Appeals to scriptural authority and the urgency of a revival that spread across East Africa characterized the opening session of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday. The evening spotlighted the experience of Global South Christians who are both hosting the conference and leading the renewal movement.
“If you are to get anything from East Africa at GAFCON 2, revival begins with an individual,” shared Dr. John Senyonyi of Uganda Christian University. “Revival doesn’t begin with the church, it begins with me when the Holy Spirit convicts me, I bow and say ‘Lord, may you begin with me.'”
Senyonyi was one of several speakers who came to faith through the 1930s-1970s revival, but warned of danger in talking of it as though it were a relic of history when it was a “lived experience” that could be shared in.