Lambeth Palace has issued this press release:
Archbishop to visit Kenya to offer solidarity
Monday 7th October 2013The Archbishop of Canterbury will visit Nairobi on 19 and 20 October as a guest of the Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Revd Eliud Wabukala.
The purpose of the visit, which has been arranged at short notice, is to be in solidarity with the Kenyan people following the attack on the Westgate shopping mall last month.
The programme of the visit is not yet confirmed.
The Archbishop was invited to speak at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which takes place between 21 October and 26 October in Nairobi.
He was unable to attend because of long-standing diary commitments, including the baptism of Prince George. He will, however, record a video greeting, which will be broadcast to delegates at the start of the conference.
The Archbishop is also continuing to hold in prayer the people of Peshawar, Syria, and all those in troubled parts of the world.
Earlier today GAFCON had issued this press release:
GAFCON and the Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury will visit GAFCON primates just before the opening of GAFCON 2013 in Nairobi.
GAFCON Primates are holding a two day meeting, then 1200 leaders and lay people from the UK, Asia, Africa, the Pacific and South America will fly in to Nairobi for the Global Anglican Future Conference starting on Monday, October 21st.
GAFCON Chairman Eliud Wabukala invited Archbishop Justin Welby to send greetings to the conference and he indicated he was unable to do so in person because of commitments during the week. His office has since confirmed he will make a flying visit to speak with the Primates.
The general secretary of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Dr Peter Jensen, says “The Archbishop’s decision to come to the Primates meeting is a recognition of the importance of such a large and significant gathering of Anglicans from around the world and he will be made very welcome.”
Posted October 7, 2013
He was unable to attend because of long-standing diary commitments, including the baptism of Prince George. He will, however, record a video greeting, which will be broadcast to delegates at the start of the conference.¨ Lambeth Palace
I hope his video is quite like the greeting and quite the same challenge he presented us with in Guatemala City recently…¨the Church will be destroyed if WE don’t hold our differences in prayerful tension¨ (or something very close to that)
This ABC speaks bold truth/fact (and seems to bypass the codependent pampering of blatant ¨excluders¨ at Church).
The Ex-Archbishop of Sydney (now Secretary of GFCA) is already trumpeting the fact that he sees this visitation by the Archbishop of Canterbury as a sign of his approval of the GAFCON Primates’ meeting together at Nairobi.
Many of us who are not GAFCON afficionadoes will be most interested in what Archbishop Justin will have to say to these disaffected Primates, whose disapproval of the Church of England’s move to accept the episcopal ordination of celibate Gay clergy was made known by Archbishop Eliud Wabukala the current Chair of GFCA.
It would be lovely if in his video message the ABC had the courage of the Dean of the National Cathedral in Washington:
http://www.towleroad.com/2013/10/national-cathedral-dean-speaks-out-against-homophobia-shaming-people-for-whom-they-love-is-a-sin-.html
if only to see the Gafcon pharisees in their gilt robes fall over in a dead faint.
Archbishop Justin certainly seems to like living dangerously! The easy thing would have been to stay away. On the one hand, if he praises GAFCON this will seem to encourage those who disparage much of his own church, and dishearten liberals who are still hoping to give him the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, if he calls them to account for some of their actions, this could further increase division. Perhaps, though, clear leadership is what is needed. The GAFCON “Primates” are certainly decisive people and must have found Archbishop Rowan completely incomprehensible as he tried to… Read more »
The last Anglican clergyman to enter the lion’s den was the famous Rector of Stiffkey – the Rev’d Harold Davidson. May God go with you – Archbishop Justin.
Perhaps he will sign the Jerusalem Declaration. After all, with God all things are possible.
Maybe he could ask Gafcon to focus on the heterosexual abuse of Holy Matrimony, with no fault divorce and serial polygamy widespread, even in ACNA!
“Perhaps he will sign the Jerusalem Declaration. After all, with God all things are possible.”
Jerusalem Declaration, Art. 8. “…the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family … abstinence for those who are not married”
It’s possible he could sign on to this, William. Just not (IMO) “with God”.
As a known Reconciler, it may just be that the ABC will counsel the Gafcon Primates to attend to their own cultural concerns, allowing the rest of us to consider ours – while remaining in a sort of Unity that may be uneasy, but not impossible.
Father David. Didn’t the Vicar of Stiffkey get eaten by the lion1
Joseph – The Rector of Stiffkey was mauled by a lion at Skegness but not eaten. I think you may be confusing him with young Albert Ramsbottom who was eaten by a lion at Blackpool, the same seaside resort where the Reverend Harold Davidson spent some years in a barrel, after he was deprived of his ministry, pleading his innocence – a modern day Diogenes.