Divisive as it all may sound, conference organizers are quick to reject the charge that they are trying to upstage the upcoming Lambeth Conference, the official meeting of Communion bishops held in England every 10 years under the auspices of the archbishop of Canterbury, now the Most Rev. and Right Hon. Rowan Williams.
But many attending the Jerusalem meeting, including the Most Rev. Peter Akinola of Nigeria, have said that they will not attend the Lambeth gathering in mid-July. And GAFCON attendees admit they have lost patience with Anglican and Episcopal church leaders, who conservatives say have refused to take clear or decisive stands on such issues as gay marriage and openly gay clergy.
“The traditional power brokers of the Communion are being challenged,” says the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a group of about 60 American congregations that have cut ties with the U. S. Episcopal Church and are now incorporated under Archbishop Akinola’s Nigerian province. Minns charges that the Communion’s leadership in the global north continues to ignore demographic and theological reality: that the church in the global south is not only the largest part of the Communion (with more than 40 million of the 70 million Anglicans and Episcopalians) but also the most committed to orthodox Christian teaching.
“”I think it [GAFCON] is a symbolic event, with no real substantive content,” says Kirkpatrick.” the article quotes. However, substantive content is in the eye of the beholder. (John 3:3) Those with eyes to see and ears to hear will find and receive plenty of ‘substantive content’ at GAFCON.
As they seek to follow The Way, The Truth and The Life, may they be like Gideon’s army, assisted in their battles by the unseen forces in heavenly places… (II Chronicles 32:7).
Thy Kingdome come, Thy will be done…at GAFCon, at Lambeth, in Anglicanism, in Thy entire Church. To Thee only be glory in Thy Church, now and forever. Amen