”˜And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, to be with you for ever, – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.’
John 14:16,17
My dear brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you at Pentecost as we rejoice in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God.
This is my first pastoral letter since the meeting of the GAFCON Primates Council last month and I continue to thank God for the gracious leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit. We reaffirmed our commitment to see biblical truth restored to the heart of the life of the Communion and agreed a range of measures to develop our work with communications and theological education being given priority. All this we seek to do in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth.
One of the great lessons of the East African Revival was that a genuine movement of the Spirit will impress on our hearts that the Scriptures really are the inspired and authoritative Word of God. We cannot separate the Spirit from the Spirit-inspired Scriptures. The gift of the Holy Spirit is given to enable Christians to grow in biblical holiness and to equip them with gifts to build up the church in a hostile world. It is therefore a tragedy when Christian leaders whose minds have been captured by the spirit of the age commend the values of the world to the Church and claim they are led by the Spirit of God.
This is the challenge we face. On the day of Pentecost, Peter’s preaching makes clear that the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to those who repent, but the continuing crisis of the Anglican Communion has come about through a failure to call to repentance those who are systematically grieving the Holy Spirit by claiming that what Scripture calls sexual immorality is in fact new truth revealed by the Spirit.
Since GAFCON began in 2008 with our historic gathering in Jerusalem, the place of Pentecost, I have been convinced that we are caught up in a transforming movement of the Spirit of God. Despite our lack of institutional resources, this movement has grown and the Holy Spirit is using us to gather the Anglican Communion in a unique and unprecedented way…
“It is therefore a tragedy when Christian leaders whose minds have been captured by the spirit of the age commend the values of the world to the Church and claim they are led by the Spirit of God.” Amen to that. This whole concept of the ‘spirit of the age’ need to be examined in greater detail. A good book would suffice. Anyone?
Fair point Fr Dale. I suspect C. S. Lewis has already written the first instalment, but an update would be very helpful…. 🙂
its a very positive message, encouraging the work of ACNA contributing to the earthquake relief in Nepal, and focussing on the troubles in Burundi.
[blockquote] Since GAFCON began in 2008 with our historic gathering in Jerusalem, the place of Pentecost, I have been convinced that we are caught up in a transforming movement of the Spirit of God. Despite our lack of institutional resources, this movement has grown and the Holy Spirit is using us to gather the Anglican Communion in a unique and unprecedented way. [/blockquote].
FWIW, I agree. I have been so pleasantly surprised and blessed by the wonderful things going on because of GAFCON and its ministry for revival and renewal of the WWAC.
In ‘Pilgrim’s Regress’ C.S. Lewis has a female warrior character called Reason turn up as the means for John to escape imprisonment by the spirit of the age. So to avoid capture by the spirit of the age and to escape its clutches when imprisoned by it will require people who are able, equipped and prepared to think matters through rather than simply going with what happens to ‘feel’ right to them.
There are many who are able to do just that and have written and explained many times to those who refuse to hear. The sad thing is when those who have done what you are wanting are simply ignored or labelled hateful homophobic bigots you know hard times are ahead. Eventually those people will no longer care enough to do anything about it and the spirit of the age will have fully enmeshed TEC in its destructive net of deception and lies.
I agree. There are many who have exercised reason and can discern the difference between the voice of the spirit of the age and the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is those who refuse to hear and who are unable to hear who need to exercise their reason rather than just uncritically going along with what the wider culture believes. I’m not holding my breath until they do. Sadly, I think we are in an Isaiah 6:9-10 kind of territory. The truth seems to make peoples’ ability to reason even duller. But like Isaiah we must go on speaking the truth because that is our calling even when it doesn’t have the effect we would wish. And just maybe by the grace of God blind eyes will be opened and deaf ears unstopped.