Reuters reports that Rebel Anglican summit hit by leader’s visa problem.
Fjeldstad said Akinola was not denied entry into Jordan but gave up after several hours’ delay at the border.
“He was kept in bureaucratic limbo,” he said. “They claimed that, as a diplomatic passport holder, he had to give advance warning that he was coming. He decided to go back to Jerusalem.”
Planned for four days, the Amman meeting “wound up early” when GAFCON leaders learned “that previously granted permission for the Jordan consultation was deemed insufficient”, Fjeldstad said in a statement late on Wednesday announcing the move.
Laurie Goodstein has Rival Conferences for Anglican Church in the New York Times. In her view, the cause of the split is not Robinson but Minns:
The conservatives decided to hold their own meeting after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, announced last year that he would not send an invitation for the Lambeth Conference to a leading conservative leader, Bishop Martyn Minns, a rector in a Virginia church who was ordained a bishop in the Church of Nigeria. The role of Bishop Minns is to minister to conservatives alienated from the Episcopal Church, but his ordination was seen by the Archbishop of Canterbury as a violation of established boundaries.
In a recent interview, Bishop Minns said of his exclusion by the Archbishop: “I didn’t’ feel it was a well-informed political move. Instead of removing the distraction, as he claimed to do, he’s actually created a massive distraction.”
The Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, declared that if Bishop Minns could not attend the Lambeth Conference, then none of his bishops would attend.
The Telegraph has a leader: The Anglican Church is divided, but not fatally.
On paper, therefore, the moment of schism in worldwide Anglicanism has arrived. Many of Gafcon’s members will boycott Lambeth, and the Archbishop of Canterbury will therefore preside over a ruptured communion. But, before Dr Rowan Williams runs up the white flag, he should take a closer look at the reality of Gafcon, as opposed to its self-important pronouncements. The truth is that the conference has so far been a shambles. Its leader, the belligerent Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, has been denied entry to Jordan. Other conservative church leaders are missing because they have chosen not to attend. Significant absentees at Gafcon include the Rt Rev John Chew, Primate of South-East Asia, and Dr Mouneer Anis, Presiding Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East and treasurer of the “Global South” group of conservative provinces. And even those leaders who are attending the conference make up a volatile compound. Gafcon, in other words, is far from the united force it claims to be, and it does not fully represent Anglicanism in the developing world.
And it also has this article by Tim Butcher in Jordan and Martin Beckford Anglican church schism declared over homosexuality.
The GAFCON document to which reference is made, entitled The Way, The Truth and The Life, is available as a PDF from this location.
Episcopal Café has some comments, on the book contents, and other aspects in GAFCON gaffes continue.
Paul Handley has a detailed discussion of this book in the Church Times at GAFCON and the parting of the ways.
And the full text of the opening plenary address that was to have been given in Jordan by Bishop Robert Duncan is available in a PDF over here.
“If we fail to act, we risk leading millions of people away from the faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures and also, even more seriously, we face the real possibility of denying Our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. “We want unity, but not at the cost of relegating Christ to the position of another ‘wise teacher’ who can be obeyed or disobeyed. “We earnestly desire the healing of our beloved Communion, but not at the cost of re-writing the Bible to accommodate the latest cultural trend. Peter Akinola deserves little more response (to this utter BS) than a “I know… Read more »
The key quotation in the leading article in The Daily Telegraph is: ‘Many of Gafcon’s members will boycott Lambeth, and the Archbishop of Canterbury will therefore preside over a ruptured communion. But, before Dr Rowan Williams runs up the white flag, he should take a closer look at the reality of Gafcon, as opposed to its self-important pronouncements. The truth is that the conference has so far been a shambles. Its leader, the belligerent Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, has been denied entry to Jordan. Other conservative church leaders are missing because they have chosen not to attend. Significant absentees… Read more »
As an aside… Jerusalem’s Annual Gay pride parade is Thursday June 26. When planners decided to ignore the Bishop in Jerusalem and Primate, did they consider that these folks might have some local insight that they didn’t? But the event is located at the 5 star Renaissance Hotel ($193 per night US), 5 Km out of the center of the city. Certainly these 5* accommodations are far superior to anything those in Kent will be enjoying…and a sight better than most of them would be enjoying at home. ….even if they miss the parade. But it does make you wonder… Read more »
Archbishop Akinola in the Telegraph: “‘We have arrived at a crossroads; it is, for us, the moment of truth.’ He said schism could only be avoided in the unlikely event that churches which tolerate homosexual clergy and same-sex blessings change their ways.” There it is once again for all the world to see: For GAFCON, truth is based on sex. All protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, it is sex – specifically gay sex – that defines GAFCON’s “crossroads.” No, Archbishop, you are quite wrong. Schism could be avoided in the unlikely event that your group abandon its obsession with sex… Read more »
EPH prompts me to wonder what Jesus would think of all this 5-star treatment. Very telling, no?
Is there a web site or attendees list anywhere for Gafcon?
Don
I know of no list of attendees. The GAFCON website is at
http://www.gafcon.org/
“We earnestly desire the healing of our beloved Communion, but not at the cost of re-writing the Bible to accommodate the latest cultural trend” As do we. It is even worse when the trend being accomodated is a 500 year old radical rewriting of the Gospel to accomodate European politico-religious realities that long ago ceased to be significant for most of us, but have been set in stone as somehow God given, and held up as the “real” faith once and for all delivered to the saints” from which it actually diverges in numerous significant ways. It is particularly galling… Read more »
The book/documents a cleverly ( cunningly ?) worded to keep the Anglo-Catholics on board. There is no reference to Cranmer’s revulsion of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and a quote frrom Cranmer which could be used either way is used.
Prayers for the dead, worship of the Holy Communion elements and invocation of Saints is not mentioned.
Anglican comprehensiveness is held up, as are different forms of worship.
Casual divorce is condemned not divorce per se.
Reverence is given to early Church councils , but no demarcation is given.
If Gafcon is based on sex, why is it that the GAFCON book makes no reference to the teaching of our Blessed Lord on marriage and divorce. Is it avoided because it asks more questions than it answers, and undermines their theory of the perspicuity of Scripture?
I like the Gafcon logo very much. Bold, simply and striking.
The words Unite and Veritas seem to be woven into the cross in the ‘o’ of Con. All works quite well, visually.
interesting combination of English and Latin. I’m surprised Swahili or some other widespread langauge wasn’t used as a gobal south signifier. Like at the Lambeth Walk / Conference this year.
The Dean of Sydney has just made a speech about the meltdown of the Anglican marshmallow, which includes an attack on female ordiantion and Anglo-Catholicism. ( read it on tne Anglican Church Lrague) …odd when you think GAFCON is inclusive of both!
“odd when you think GAFCON is inclusive of both!”
For now. At this stage, they are all obsessed with their moral superiority over the nonGAFFEPRONE. Once we are out of the picture, their own relative moral superiority will come to the fore. I am dying to see what Don Harvey will do the first time one of his parishes asks to be allowed to pratice, or goes ahead anyway with, lay presidency. We’ll find out whether sexuality or sacraments are more important to him.
“I am dying to see what Don Harvey will do the first time one of his parishes asks to be allowed to pratice, or goes ahead anyway with, lay presidency.” Well, he can hardly object, can he? After all, Don Harvey is a lay person himself, having voluntarily relinquished all “spiritual authority as a minister of Word and Sacraments conferred in ordination.” See Canon 19 of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, sections 1(d) and 3(a). Ontologically, Harvey is still a bishop, but juridically, for all canonical purposes, he is, and must be treated as, a lay… Read more »