FiF NA deputation reflects on GAFCON

FiF NA’s pilgrims see GAFCON as not unlike the Fort Worth Congress of 1989, where there was an international presence and a clear sense of the consensus which brought us together, issuing in a call for the lead bishops to establish a structure that could further the cause. What was different here is the fact that several of the Primates who matter have already acted, and the great energy and urgency apparent both in the conference as a whole and in its leadership. What was begun here will not drag on. Its effect can already be seen in the strong reaction of the Episcopal establishment. And the BBC has announced that it will air a documentary film on GAFCON on the eve of the Lambeth Conference.

We did not meet to talk about something we hope will happen someday. We met to talk about something that is already happening, and to plan its direction for the future.

The Lambeth Conference of 1998 called on the Communion to reach out to those who are Anglicans, but outside the Communion. FiF NA was the first body in North America still tied to the Anglican Communion to recognize churches of the Continuum as fellow-Anglicans, and enter into full communion with them.

Your delegation rejoices in GAFCON’S decision to ask its Primates’ Council “to authenticate and recognize confessing Anglican jurisdictions, clergy, and congregations”. While not all Continuing bodies are interested in a relationship with the Communion, GAFCON is the first on-the-ground effort within the Communion to reintegrate those which do. About two-thirds of Continuers were represented at GAFCON.

GAFCON’s final statement endorsed FiF NA’s vision for a new province in North America, and identified the CCP as the vehicle for carrying it out. The GAFCON movement recognizes the ordination of women as one of the issues which divides it, as it does the CCP, and is committed to seek the mind of Christ together on these issues.

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