[Bishop Bill Atwood] Some Commentary on the GAFCON Communique

Keep in mind, there are also many dioceses that are fully on board with GAFCON even though their whole Province has not joined. Without even counting them, GAFCON’s presence in the Communion is:

48,202,000 ÷ 56,000,000= 86 % of the Active Communion

In addition to that, most of the members of the Global South are in complete agreement with GAFCON in terms of Biblical faith and theology. The solidly orthodox Provinces of the Global South add many more millions. In fact, a reasonable guess of the orthodox majority in the Anglican Communion is about 95% of the active Anglican in the world, or perhaps as many as 53 million out of the 56 million active Anglicans.

Of course, people will point out that there are many more Provinces not in GAFCON than are in GAFCON, but many of them are very small.

For example, exact numbers are difficult to get to, but my best estimates are that:

Ӣ There are more people in the Youth Group of All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi than there are in the Province of Mexico.
ӢOn an average Sunday there are more people in each of the Cathedrals of more than fifty Dioceses in Nigeria than there are in the Province of Scotland or Wales.
ӢThe Anglican Church in North America has more people in Church on a Sunday than the Church in Canada, Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, or Korea.

The point is that the presence of GAFCON in the Communion is huge. There is no need for GAFCON Provinces to leave the Communion; they are the Communion. This is certainly true when viewed together with most of the Global South Provinces. Their numbers and influence just aren’t reflected in the old structures of the Communion.

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, GAFCON II 2013, Global South Churches & Primates

One comment on “[Bishop Bill Atwood] Some Commentary on the GAFCON Communique

  1. MichaelA says:

    “That statement reflects, I believe, the [Gafcon] Primates’ desire to welcome and incorporate more Anglo-Catholic Anglicans into the movement.”

    Great to hear. In recent years I have discovered that there are anglo-catholics with whom I have far more in common than many who call themselves evangelicals.