See below for links to bloggers and reporters who are in Jersusalem covering GAFCON. We’ll keep this “sticky” until the GAFCON final statement appears. Look for new entries below this post.
We thought it might be helpful to round up a list of those who are providing first-hand coverage and blogging of GAFCON this week.
Anglican TV’s Kevin Kallsen is there and is providing live-streaming coverage of some of the sessions, as well as written diaries. All the AnglicanTV coverage is here. (This elf is currently watching such live stream coverage as I type this. You rock, Kevin. Thanks for your service!) (Note: Stand Firm should usually be broadcasting Kevin’s live feed.)
Stand Firm’s Matt Kennedy+ is there and will be sharing his impressions and insights, and showing off his amazing live blogging skills. Just keep an eye on Stand Firm for Matt’s posts throughout the day.. Matt’s wife Anne+ is also at GAFCON. You can follow her accounts at her blog, an undercurrent of hostility, here.
The London Times’ Ruth Gledhill is in Jerusalem and you can find her reports here.
Anglicans United’s Cherie Wetzel and her husband, the Rev. Todd Wetzel are there. You can follow Cherie’s reports here.
Scotland’s the Rev. David McCarthy is at GAFCON and blogging at his Gadget Vicar site.
The official GAFCON site is here.
If you know of others who are blogging and reporting from GAFCON, please post links in the comments. Thanks.
[b]Update[/b]:
Thanks to a tipster, we note that Fr. Russell Martin of St. Timothy & St. Titus parish (under the Southern Cone) in San Diego, is blogging. His entries are posted at San Diego Anglicans.
[b]George Conger[/b] is in Jerusalem. His blog is here.
[b]Sydney Anglicans[/b] has a dedicated GAFCON page here.
[b]Christianity Today reporter Tim Morgan[/b] is in Jerusalem. The CT blog is here.
[b]Five Delegates from Melbourne Australia[/b] are blogging here.
Some folks from [b]Reform Ireland[/b] are blogging. Their blog is here.
[b]Thinking Anglicans[/b] are in touch with those covering GAFCON for the Lesbian & Gay Christian movement and have posted e-mail from them as part of a GAFCON coverage roundup.
A Sydney attendee, Tony Payne, is blogging here.
Do keep us posted if you come across more links for first-hand reports from GAFCON. Thanks!
[b]Update 2[/b]:
[b]Father Lee Nelson[/b] (dio Fort Worth) has a GAFCON photoblog that is very nice, here.
A blogger from the Anglican Coalition in Canada, Pastor Barclay, has many excellent photos, here.
The Sydney Anglicans GAFCON page has news, pictures, videos, and also blog entries. We’ve noted three blog entries so far. Abp. Peter Jensen, Bishop Robert Forsyth, and Dr. Karin Sowada.
There is an excellent collection of daily photo albums from GAFCON set up at Picassa, here.
Fr. Russell Martin of St. Timothy & St. Titus Anglican Church (Southern Cone) in San Diego is attending. His blog postings are at SanDiegoAnglicans.com. – http://sandiegoanglicans.com/cms/
Thanks Branford.
Just saw this interesting tidbit from Matt Kennedy+ over at StandFirm:
[blockquote]I think Episcopal Life quoted some 815 functionary or perhaps the Presiding Bishop herself suggesting that GAFCON is merely a gathering of those who have departed from the Episcopal Church.
So far I have counted five active Episcopalian diocesan bishops. Those you would expect to be here are here: Bishops Iker and Duncan. In addition I have seen: Bishops Adams, Ackerman, and Beckwith.
I know from Brad Drell that Bishop MacPherson is here as well, though I have not seen him.
That is six diocesan bishops so far. I will do my best to give a running count.[/blockquote]
Ruth Gledhill turned “not a few are apostate” into “you are all apostates”. That strikes me as a fundamentally dishonest bit of yellow journalism.
Thanks, Words Matter…we should confront that kind of journalism….did you comment at her blog?
Matt Kennedy’s live blog of the press conference today reveals that [b]The Rev. George Conger[/b] is there. I’d forgetten that. Here’s Conger’s blog:
http://geoconger.wordpress.com/
Also, many of the [b]Anglican Mainstream[/b] leaders are there, but as they noted [url=http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2008/06/20/gafcon/]here[/url], is not likely that they will be posting blog-style entries. Here is the Anglican Mainstream link:
http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/
Finally for this batch of links, I recall that [b]Sydney Anglicans[/b] has been giving a lot of coverage since +Peter Jensen has played a big role in GAFCON organization. So, keep an eye on the Sydney Anglicans site:
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/
Oh, even better, after I hit send, I noticed on the Sydney Anglicans site that they now have a dedicated GAFCON page. Awesome. Here you go:
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/gafcon
I put a comment on her blog but it died in moderation. She did post another comment that said the same thing, which which she replied:
[blockquote]Ruth writes: headline an abbreviated version done in great haste – you are right I will change it. Ruth[/blockquote]
The new headline reads:
[blockquote]Archbishop Akinola on error and apostasy[/blockquote]
Well, there’s already quite a wave of coverage of today’s GAFCON news appearing in my Google news search.
Here are just some of the links on just page 1 of my search just now. Of particular note, I found it very interesting that Christianity Today is sending a reporter to Jerusalem to cover the conference. Very cool.
[url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4192831.ece]Ruth Gledhill, in the TIMES[/url]
[url=http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL22283172.html]Reuters:[/url]
[url=http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214132655979&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull]Jerusalem Post:[/url]
[url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2176487/Primate-of-Nigeria-vows-to-rescue-Anglican-church-from-crisis-over-sexuality.html]Telegraph:[/url]
Christianity Today (who will have a reporter onsite — COOL!)
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2008/06/brokenness_vs_s.html
[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7468065.stm]BBC[/url]
[url=http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23906579-5006506,00.html]The Daily Telegraph, Sydney Australia[/url]
For those who may not know, in addition to doing an internet search or a news search on Google, one can also do a blog search. Here’s the link to do that, searching on “GAFCON” with entries sorted by date (most recent first)
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=GAFCON&um=1&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d
Browsing through those links, I’ve found two more blogs providing first-hand reports from GAFCON. (I’m still browsing through some links, so there may be more…)
Here is a blog by five delegates to GAFCON from Melbourne, Australia:
http://masggafconblog.blogspot.com/
Here is the blog by folks from Reform Ireland:
http://reform-ireland.org/blog/
For a first-hand report of GAFCON’s opening day from a reappraiser perspective, I just noticed Simon Sarmiento of Thinking Anglicans has posted an e-mail he received from Iain Baxter, the “Media Participant for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement”
You can read that here:
http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/003166.html
There appears to be a link to the audio of today’s press conference now posted at the GAFCON site:
http://www.gafcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=59&Itemid=29
Thanks to commenter Obadiah Slope over at SF, a link to a blog by Sydney attendee, Tony Payne:
http://solapanel.org/
Three more news stories, then time for this elf to call it a night:
Anglican Media Melbourne:
http://www.melbourne.anglican.com.au/main.php?pg=news&news_id=12020&s=157
Haaretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995180.html
The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/23/anglicanism.religion
Holly Moses, O Elves! Have enough to do? I hope Kendall is paying y ou in the modest six figures. Impressed in Maine
LOL, thanks Larry! Actually, this elf has been slacking off for weeks, if not months, of late, so putting in a little time and effort compiling links last night was a small thing –nothing compared to the time day in, day out that my dear sister Elf Lady puts in monitoring comment threads.
In any case, it’s something I enjoy doing and found personally helpful as I’m wanting to follow GAFCON closely as time permits.
–elfgirl
One place it seems where you won’t find any news is the official Anglican Communion news service.
I’ve updated the post above to add Fr. Lee Nelson’s photo blog.
http://gafconphotoblog.blogspot.com/
A certain Pastor Barclay who appears to be from the Anglican Coalition in Canada is blogging from GAFCON here.
http://pastorbarclay.blogspot.com/
He too has lots of lovely photos of Jerusalem.
I notice there are several blog entries on the Sydney Anglicans GAFCON page:
Abp. Peter Jensen:
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/gafcon/prayers/
Bishop Robert Forsyth:
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/gafcon/the_audacious_conference/
Karin Sowada:
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/gafcon/gafcon_not_triumphant/
Some more video here:
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1624826151
Thanks to a blog entry at the Anglican Essentials Canada blog, I found this Picassa album with lots of great GAFCON pix
http://picasaweb.google.com/Gafcon
Fr. Michael Petty, Associate Rector for Adult Education at St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Tallahassee, Florida, has an entry in his blog here: [url=http://www.saint-peters.net/tracts]http://www.saint-peters.net/tracts[/url].
The Anglican Church League, Sydney has a lot of interesting GAFCON tidbits and pictures on their website.
http://acl.asn.au/
A great shot of Bishop Schofield with Bishop David Mulready (of Australia, I believe)!
Gafcon appears to be serving as a rallying point for conservative and more moderate provinces. This is a positive development and can serve to bring important influence at the Lambeth Conference, where we know that +Mokiwa, +Akrofi, +Chew, +Egypt, +Burundi, +Drexel, +Mtetemela, and the four Communion Partner bishops present at Gafcon (+Albany, +SC, +W-Kansas, +WLA), and the other Communion Partner Bishops will all be present. If reports are correct that Gafcon represents a kind of loose alliance for the purposes of being a ‘shadow communion’ (so +Peter Jenson), and if this serves to shift important power to the GS so as to bring salutary pressure on the work of the Communion (Lambeth Conference, Primates Meeting, ACC, +ABC), then this will be an important development. It is early and Press reports and ad hoc accounts are not a good way to know what is happening. I do look forward to George Conger’s reports as he tends to have a good international feel for the Communion.
Dr. Seitz (#25),
I appreciate your irenic comment. I hope both the ACI and Fulcrum will be able to rejoice in what is achieved at GAFCon after the dust settles. Let me just add that the presence of two primates who are not among those currently intervening in North America (i.e., the primates of West Africa and Tanzania) does reflect an important trend, the growing coalescence behind the lead of the provinces that are conducting the rescue operations in North America.
Note to the Elves, especially with reference to #2 above,
As Dr. Seitz has rightly noted, besides the six sitting TEC bishops you listed in #2, there are two others that he mentions: +Mark Lawrence of SC, and +Bill Love of Albany. You are trying to do so much, that it’s perfectly understandable that you can’t keep up with everything.
David Handy+
#26–seems to me the zealotry re:New Reformations and realignment/separate province is no longer front and center. I find that a positive development. The reasons for that are not yet clear, but I suspect it is a variety of issues: 1) Press putting the questions straightforwardly; 2) the presence of moderate Primates and Provinces, who intend to go to Lambeth; 3) perhaps a disconnection between problem-solving mentality of conservatives in the US zone, and the leadership of Gafcon, which prefers to move forward and form alliances. So you see things that are by no means clear at all. +MacPherson is the key Communion Partner leader and +Mokiwa met with the rectors in Houston in the Spring. He is firmly on board. I see no change in his position at all. Good for him and MacPherson and the other 3 Partner bishops being there. Perhaps this signals an important shift.
#26–you might have a look at the news coming from George Conger for Washington Times, and also Dan Martins. If correct, they confirm the judgment above re: a movement in the direction of working within to bring about change. Where that would leave those in favour of new provinces, etc, I cannot say and it is obviously too early to speculate given that we do not know everything yet. But obviously ACI has been working for this for over a decade now and so we would be heartened, if this is true. As I said, it is very good news that 4 Partner bishops are present, that +Mokiwa and +Mtetemela are positive toward the Partner Plan, that 13 Bishops and now over 35 Rectors are on board. I will pray that the news out of Gafcon confirms a positive new development, if that is what transpires.
Dr. Seitz (#27 & 28),
Methinks you are looking at the tea leaves and seeing what you want to see. Yes, I read George Conger’s brief piece for the Washington Times, but I don’t think GAFCon represents any slow down of the inexorable movement toward what Archbishop Kolini called “a second Reformation.” Just take a look at the long manifesto put out by the 25 member international Theological Resource Team, “The Way, the Truth, and the Life;” it’s abundantly clear that compromise or eucharistic fellowship with the purveyors of the false relativist gospel is impossible. Or check again +Bob Duncan the Lion-Hearted’s stirring and programmatic opening speech to the select gathering in Amman Jordan last week. He could hardly have been more clear. What he called “the Reformation Settlement” is obsolete and passe and is rapidly coming to an end. A whole new “Global (Post-Colonial) Settlement” will arise to take its place. It will just arise from within.
Yes, ++Akinola firmly insisted that there was going to be no schism and that “Anglicans we are. Anglicans we will remain.” But that doesn’t mean any backing down from pressing forward with creating a new “separate ecclesial structure” in North America. After all, look at all the non-AC bishops present by invitation at GAFCon. The old Instruments of Unity and Communion have, alas, become Instruments of Disunity. New means of binding together the various provinces will therefore have to be created. And this audacious conference is an unmistakable sign that there is the determination and ability to carry out such a bold plan.
The presence of prominent Anglican leaders from England and elsewhere in the English-speaking world outside North America tells me that the fracturing of provinces around the world is actually accelerating. Bp. Nazir-Ali WON’T be going to the Lambeth gathering next month, and he won’t be the only evangelical bishop in the CoE boycotting the event. To me, this represents the early stages of the necessary and inevitable breaking up of the mother church as well as the American and Canadian provinces. Australia is strongly represented at GAFCon because of the large Sydney delegation; it is breaking up too. This is sad and tragic, but unavoidable.
It seems clear to me that the “disintegration” (+Duncan’s term) of the beloved old AC as we have known it will continue unabated. But that is because of the intransigence of the heretics on the left and their refusal to repent, not because of the impatience or rebellion of those of us on the orthodox right. And it is especially because, as Bp. Nazir-Ali said, we simply can’t go on having decisions made by the current Instruments of Communion that don’t stick.
When Cantaur unilaterally aborted the implementation of the Primates’ hard-won agreement at Dar es Salaam and thus caused it not to stick, that was a DISASTROUS move. You yourself movingly wrote desperate appeals for it to be implemented despite the refusal to go along with it by the HoB and the Executive Council in TEC (until ++Rowan Williams made it clear that he didn’t support the plan after all). This can’t go on. Lambeth Resolutions like 1998’s Res. 1:10 can’t be flouted the way both TEC and the ACoC have flagrantly done with impunity. The impasse must be broken. And GAFCon represents a strong new initiative that refuses to let the broken down state of the current Instruments dictate what can and can’t happen. The stalemate is over.
The current Instruments are hopelessly compromised and ineffectual. So they will simply be bypassed and ignored. Loyalty to them is NOT what counts as loyalty to Anglicanism. Doctrine trumps polity, not vice versa.
But we are only half way through the week. We will see what unfolds as this unprecendented event continues to unfold. All I can say, is that this passionate advocate for the New Reformation is mightily encouraged by what I’m seeing. I’m more convinced than ever that the best days of orthdox Anglicanism are yet to come.
David Handy+
#29–it would take a special indefatigability to engage with you (your hours of involvement are quite something!), and my schedule does not allow it. Plus, I don’t think lots of speculation a particularly good idea. I was simply suprised to see you indicating a direction that–at least so far as I can tell–Gafcon is not going at all. And for that I am thankful. God bless, and enjoy your hours on the internet commentary. Don’t know how you do it!
As TIME notes, a bit of a fizzle. Just check out the list of TEC bishops: the usual suspects, but not all. Where are Duncan, Stanton, Howe? Not to mention others? If some wish to find a new home, God bless them. We will continue to wonder about their generosity of spirit. Church history is replete with those who have sought what they believed to be a purer way. Some have made a bright witness to the Faith, however narrowly conceived. Anglicanism will plod on, however depleted by the new Cathari. We will be poorer; they will be eventually lonely, but probably feeling pretty good about their witness. So it goes, so it goes.
Phillip Cato
New Reformation Advocate, you mentioned the new “separate ecclesial structure in North America.” That structure is in its formative process at this writing, and there is, nor can there be, no turning back!
While I am certainly in favor of the reformation within the Communion, I don’t honestly think it will be allowed to happen. It won’t be allowed, because the forces which now are in control…..namely the faction controlled by The Episcopal Church and their allies…..won’t agree to it. No amount of back room dickering and horse trading will bear the results that the moderates want.