The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) will effectively provide for Anglican traditionalists the fellowship and support that provinces give to dioceses, Dr Peter Jensen, a former Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, told the Church Times at the close of the GAFCON conference in Nairobi last week….
GAFCON had 1400 attend, including 330 bishops. Lambeth 2008 had 800+ bishops attend plus spouses. So the conferences were roughly the same size.
Lambeth Conference concluded with a debt of 1.2 million pounds ($2,298,196.56). I haven’t heard a word about debt from GAFCON. Was there any?
In the North American session to review the draft, nothing was said about women bishops, nor were there any comments opposing women’s ordination. George Conger, could you be more specific about where that input was coming from?
I hope we will be very cautious about women bishops.
George Conger certainly puts words in the mouth of Bishop Iker that do not appear in either his interview with David Ould or his own words written about the conference (nearby on T19). Conger seems have moved from a “pro-Evangelical” position to one that is increasingly “anti-Anglo Catholic”, in what he writes. If he wants to quote words that +Iker actually said, all well and good, but to quote “Sydney contingent” and “concerned” and then string it together with a lot of Conger’s own take on what +Iker meant (which is pretty clearly contrary to +Iker’s spoken and written words) strikes me as borderline defamatory. Certainly, any Anglo Catholic sentiments within the Gafcon Statement are a result of respect for the millions of Africans with an Anglo Catholic heritage, and not as a result of the handful of western Anglo Catholics at the conference.
Likewise, to make up some sort of supposed controversy about women bishops within the writing of the Gafcon statement also strikes me as journalistic pot stirring. Do we know that there are a some delegates within Gafcon that support women bishops, and indeed a movement by some Evangelicals within ACNA to impose this on the Catholic and Reformed elements within ACNA, yes, indeed we do know that. However that might be, do any of the current Gafcon Primates come from provinces that consecrate women bishops? I believe the answer to that is “no”, as the first woman bishop in Africa was recently consecrated in South Africa, which had a few delegates there, but certainly its primate does not sit on the Gafcon council. As far as I know, no Gafcon province (ie- one where the primate and majority of bishops participate) has women bishops. So, do some delegates support women bishops, no doubt some do. Is this some major controversy among the Primates, I very much doubt that it is.
tjmcmahon you do not know of what you speak. I was at the conference. I interviewed Bishop Iker. He told me these things. I spoke with the delegates. I saw the Ugandan cleric vote no to the statement over the issue of women’s leadership in the church. I spoke with members of the various factions present. You may not like what you read, but that does not make them untrue.
Fr. Conger,
You are correct that I cannot judge whether what you wrote is true or not. However, it is also true that the interview with Bishop Iker done and webcast by David Ould, and Bishop Iker’s own written and published statement appear to contradict what you wrote. If you would publish, in its entirety, your interview with Bishop Iker, I would be happy to read it and it would prepare me better to argue with you (or not) over interpretation of what he said. However, in the piece we are talking about, you actually quoted a total of 3 words from Bishop Iker.
I certainly am not challenging you over there being one Ungandan cleric voting “no” on the statement, but one out of over 1300 is hardly the basis for a controversy. The consensus of the delegates remains clear.
I do want to thank you for going to Nairobi and filing your reports. I may not always agree with you, but have enjoyed reading many of your pieces over the years. Your report on the 2 sermons given by the ABoC on Sunday preceding the conference was very valuable. No other media I am aware of even reported the first sermon (with its equating “border crossing” to TEC’s gay marriage liturgies and other tearings of the fabric), except those directly quoting you. Pity that wasn’t recorded, it would be interesting to compare the two sermons word for word.
I thought it was an intriguing report, and rang pretty true about three big issues that I’ve heard rumbled about unceasingly in the underground railroad of communication for years now.
tjmcmahon you have mistaken what you want with what is. Bishop Iker responded to my direct question with a direct answer. Your not liking the answer is immaterial to the fact that he gave this answer.
And, there is a divide within the Gafcon movement between those who support and those who do not support women priests — and women bishops. The Church of Uganda will likely consecrate its first woman bishop next year. That will pose a problem for some parts of the Gafcon constituency and it will be interesting to see how it works it self out.
The fact that those who support women bishops were nonetheless able to stand in support of the final statement speaks to their forbearance, not to the absence of controversy.
Don’t shoot the messenger, worry about the message instead.
The ACNA does not support women in the episcopate, and their ordination and consecration is not permitted in our constitution and canons.
#9, I believe women are still eligible for ordination to the priesthood in some ACNA jurisdictions. I don’t know how many have been ordained. The constitution and canons require male bishops.
Yes, that’s true. I know that the issue of continued ordination of women…..especially to the priesthood…..has been under discussion by the College of Bishops, but I haven’t heard anything more since midsummer. I’m not sure of how many bishops are now not ordaining them, but I do know that our own Bishop Menees has said that this diocese will continue the late Bishop Schofield’s policy of not ordaining them to the priesthood. Bishop Iker, of course, does not ordain them at all. I’m not sure of whether or not this indicates a growing trend.
The issue of women bishops does have some troubling aspects, and could present problems within the African provinces.
Cennydd13, I simply don’t know anything about how many women are serving as priests in ACNA parishes outside of San Joaquin, Quincy, Ft. Worth, the Forward in Faith parishes and the REC. I do know that in the recently-formed Diocese of the Carolinas (ACNA), women may not serve as rectors of parishes. This is consistent with the evangelical theory of male headship, whereas the higher-church conviction is that women are not called to the priesthood at all.