According to Chris Sugden writing in Evangelicals Now August 2008 edition
Gafcon takes off…. [emphasis added]
…A preparatory Conference for 140 was held in Jordan from June 17. However on June 18 the Jordanian authorities announced that sufficient high level permission had not been granted for the conference to take place. the conference hall was shut and no meeting allowed. At the same time Archbishop Akinola, travelling on his diplomatic passport was denied entry. So on June 19, the 140 people relocated early to Jerusalem. the hotels concerned, in the chain, transferred the costs. A miracle…
This doesn’t seem to have been mentioned anywhere else before.
So what many of us suspected (Jordanian authorities being less-than-thrilled to welcome this collection of Christian, and likely anti-Muslim, fundamentalists) turned out to be true after all!
I was not at GAFCON but from reports it seems clear that bishops from Pakistan and Sudan and from other muslim majority countries could only go to the Amman pre-GAFCON conference. This was because of the choice of Jerusalem as the location for the main conference. Their countries would never grant visas for a conference in Jerusalem. So, it seems that voices of bishops from muslim majority countries were not heard properly. Then came the strange decision to abandon the Pakistani and Sudanese bishops in Amman as the pre-GAFCON conference was abrubtly halted, almost before it got started. Chris Sugden… Read more »
Anglican Mainstream has published an ‘EFAC commitment’ following the meeting of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion at Trinity College, Bristol, 8-10 July 2008. It gives the headline ‘Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion ‘heartily endorses’ GAFCON declaration’. In reading the ‘commitment’, this headline is misleading. The ‘commitment’ ‘heartily endorses’ the Jerusalem Declaration (of GAFCON) but does not mention at all the rest of the Statement of GAFCON, which surrounds the 14 points of the Jerusalem Declaration, and which goes on to outline the strategic way forward of alternative episcopal oversight. The commitment states: ‘We heartily endorse the fourteen… Read more »
Graham Kings: “…it seems clear that bishops from Pakistan and Sudan and from other muslim majority countries could only go to the Amman pre-GAFCON conference.”
And yet this blogger claimed to have met two Sudanese bishops in Jerusalem:
“Of the 1200 delegates here at GAFCON, somewhere between a third and a half are from Africa. I’ve already met Bishop Bernard and Bishop Paul from Sudan…”
http://solapanel.org/article/gafcon_day_1_a_second_reformation/
But, Graham, many others are not evangelical, and will continue to hold their liberal views. Imposing one set of doctrinal approaches upon the entire church is not feasible.
The only question is, given that people are absolutely not going to shift their position, is whether they can co-exist, and to what extent, given that there will have to be acceptance that some are going to think and do differently from others.
Hi Merseymike:
The Church, even in the Anglican context, has always (or at least repeatedly) faced the “breadth” of allowable doctrine and practice question. The instant circumstance is no different from others in that respect. Decisions will ultimately be made. However, I no longer believe that a break-up need be inevitable, as long as the right lines are drawn.
Steven
GAFCON’s misfortunes continue after they have left Jerusalem.
It turns out that their critique of the St Andrew’s draft Covenant for backsliding on the St Nassau draft was actually based, not on the St Nassau draft Covenant, but on a totally different document prepared by the leading lights of the GAFCON movement themselves in 2004.
http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/forum/thread.cfm?thread=7847
Greg Venables has disassociated himself from the GAFCON latest, saying that he never saw it, and also appears a bit shaken to discover that “actions have consequences” and he is experiencing a lack of warmth amongst his fellow bishops at Lambeth.
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/blog_post.asp?id=60572
Two other signatories (the Primates of West Africa and Tanzania) are also at Lambeth – doubtless experiencing a similar stand-offishness from some of their colleagues.
Given the long-standing practice the schismatics have of appending peoples’ names to documents without their permission, I rather suspect that neither of these Primates signed off on the latest document either.
This isn’t the first time – nor even the second or third – that the “conservatives” have done this.
Isn’t it time someone called them on it?
ANOTHER GAFCON FRAGMENT>>> Chris Sugden in the same article ( Evangelicals Now, August 2008) also asserts that: ” the movement ( gafcon) is Global, including 291 bishops who declare they have no intention of leaving the Anglican Communion.” Sorry more distortion..over a hundred of these are bishops who are not members of the Anglican Communion nand repressent miniscule sects who’s proportion of bishops to laity is considerably higher thatn the TEC and Cof E proportion! In fact notice how GAFCON has been very coy in releasing the names of who was at GAFCON and who signed! Plus Chris gets his… Read more »
Simon wrote: “This doesn’t seem to have been mentioned anywhere else before.”
But can this be verified, per chance?
(Record of truthiness does non seem impressive on the whole)
Robert Ian makes some very good points. There is a clear attempt to deceive. Ruth Gledhill has already told us that the one piece of information that she, our media representative Iain Baxter and probably all the other serious journalist at GAFCON wanted to know was A LIST OF THE BISHOPS ATTENDING. This information was not forthcoming. In the circumstances – the claims that 291 bishops attended cannot be substantiated or independently verified. Yet it is the claim of such a large number that is THE NEWS. Even then, as Robert Ian shows, the number is misleading. In the light… Read more »
Just watched the GAFCON documentary….shocked that Archbishop Akinola took the Lord’s name in vain twice…otherwise he came across as a very sincere man, with a keen sense of humour. Archbishop Kwashi also impressed me. With leadership like that, I don’t think you liberals have much to fear. I wonder which American millionaire bought his Mercedes. I was impressed by the good pastor burnt out of his Church though., Archbishop Jensen played the anti-colonial theme.. I liked his joke about people thinking he was Jimmy Carter..by the way he sent his auxiliary bishop to meet the Pope rather than attend himself.… Read more »