Subject: Opportunity to support a Bishop to Jerusalem
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008
From: Chris Sugden
To: Chris Sugden
Dear Colleague
We are writing to request your help in securing financial support to enable the participation of Bishops and their wives from Africa, Asia and Latin America in the Global Anglican Future Conference and Pilgrimage (GAFCON) in Jerusalem June 22-29.2008. Details are on www.gafcon.org.
GAFCON is organised to enable the Anglican Orthodox to think, discuss and pray about the future of the Anglican Communion.
Many Anglican Orthodox leaders have come to the conclusion that the 2008 Lambeth conference as it is structured and led is fundamentally compromised and will not provide the environment and process to struggle with the challenges threatening the future of the communion.
The GAFCON gathering does not mean schism. It seeks to set out a clear biblically faithful and orthodox vision for the future of the Anglican Communion, share with the rest of the communion in all available forums and work towards shaping the communion towards that end.
The Conference and Pilgrimage will identify the biblical and theological truths that unite and empower us, work on ways of equipping the whole church for ministry and mission, identify approaches and resources for the economic empowerment of the Church in the Global South, share experiences and resources of churches in their work addressing poverty, HIV/Aids, human rights, engagement in advocacy and policy and ministry in contexts of religious hostility and plurality.
Your support will enable Bishops and with their wives to join with others not only in addressing the issues facing the future of orthodox witness in the Communion but particularly to chart a new path for developing enterprise solutions to poverty with its important implications for their future well being
The cost of hotel, board, local travel, visits to holy sites and conference registration is set at £1300 for a couple. Each participant is encouraged to provide their own travel costs but in some cases help will be needed also for travel costs that will average £1100 per couple.
As many as 300 Bishops with their wives are expected to attend. A small number will need full subsidy of costs. Most will need up to 50% subsidy, so we are seeking a significant total in all. Do not hesitate to be in touch if we can provide any further clarifications – 01865-883388.
Cheques may be made to: Anglican Mainstream ( a charity), 21 High Street, Eynsham, 0X29 4HE. Please designate your gift to GAFCON.
Sincerely in Christ
Canon Vinay Samuel
Canon Chris Sugden
for the Leadership Team
Archbishops Peter Akinola (Nigeria), Emmanuel Kolini (Rwanda), Donald Mtetemela (Tanzania), Benjamin Nzimbi (Kenya), Henry Orombi (Uganda), Greg Venables (Southern Cone),
and
Archbishop Peter Jensen (Sydney) , Archbishop Nicholas Okoh (Nigeria) , Bishop Bob Duncan (Anglican Communion Network and Common Cause USA.), Bishop Martyn Minns (Convocation of Anglicans in North America), Bishop Don Harvey (Canada) , Bishop Bill Atwood (Kenya) Canon Dr Vinay Samuel (India), Bishop Michael Nazir Ali (Rochester, England) and Bishop Wallace Benn (Lewes, England), Canon Dr Chris Sugden (England).
Church Society are having a conference in May…under the banner Evangelical apostasy.
In the flyer they talk about evangelicals tolerating ideas that their forefathers would have rejected. Hope they make the connection with the GAFCON inclusion of Anglo-Catholics, and denounce Jensen and all his works!.
Surely those American right-wingers whose largesse so delights Archbishop Orombi will be happy to pony-up for GAFCON as well. Curious that GAFCON attendance, which as originally announced was to be broadly-based, encompassing clergy and laity, is now down to “bishops and their wives”. Priests and laity are dispensable, but not wives?
Now where have I placed all my wooden nickels?
I propose that we here at TA raise money to send either Rochester or Lewes (possibly both?) as an act of good will to our departing bretheren.
Would Simon act as treasurer? I offer £50.
You’ve got to be kidding, right?
They should go and see Mr. and Mrs. Ahmanson.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but there are sixteen names listed, of these seven are from and work in English speaking Western countries, two others (Nazir-Ali and Samuel work in England) and yet another is a Westerner working in the parish of the Southern Cone. That makes ten of the sixteen who essentially inhabit Western frames of discourse – mainly in opposition. Not very global, really, is it?
“The GAFCON gathering does not mean schism.”
Difficult to avoid, I would say…
This must be a hoax. The leadership of the Episcopal church has maintained from the beginning and repeatedly stated that all the dissent is funded by right wing political organisations, and in particular by one wealthy businessman (whose name escapes me) known to be associated with causes on the religious right.
They therefore undoubtedly have endless funding (as otherwise they would not be dissenting) and would not need funding for this conference,
I’ll gladly contribute the price of a one-way ticket. Unfortunately I’m sure they’ll find their ways back.
I’ll make the obvious joke: did they send this letter to Gene?
Surely 18 million Nigerians, 8 million Ugandans and 5 million Kenyans if they gave 10p per head would cover it!
Those are the Church numbers Doctor Sugden is fond of quoting!
_From: Chris Sugden
To: Chris Sugden
Dear Colleague_
Is the message to himself? Does his left pocket know what his right pocket is doing?
“Would Simon act as treasurer? I offer £50.”
I’m with Martin.
Margaret:
But to admit to that funding would be to give away the game, hence the call for contributions.
Would it be possible to underwrite a one way ticket?
Maybe they can hold a bake sale to raise money. Anyone have recipe suggestions?
Pat
Yeah — spot on — and I am sure that they will also make sure there is no chicken on the menu.
Good laugh !!!
To my knowledge, Howard Ahmanson, previous deep pockets for the Anglican conservative right has changed denominations. He is now Presbyterian (PCA), a right-wing spin of PCUSA, the Presbyterian Church USA. He has, in the past, provided funds through his charitable foundations to both Angcan Mainstream (Chris Sugden’s group, and coordinating GAFCON) and to the American Anglican Council, +David Anderson’s group. +Anderson had been his pastor at St. James Newport, CA (now Anglican and one of the three CA churches appealing the 4th div. 3rd district ruling to the CA Supreme Court). I would suggest that the conservative right’s access to… Read more »
Lapinbizarre, The very subject of the memo is “Opportunity to support a Bishop to Jerusalem.” The conference is meant to be *primarily* for the Bishops to meet together in fellowship, discuss, and pray. It is, however, open to priests, deacons, and laity– all of which are encouraged to attend. Your attempt to deflect and twist the meaning of the memo to some sort of anticlericalism wasn’t very deft. I’m afraid there isn’t any anti-lay sentiment present, nor is anyone organising GAFCON suggesting that laity are “dispensible.” Your words, not theirs. The proverbial genie is out of the bottle now, and… Read more »
Pluralist
It was an email sent to a list of names which were bcc. So nothing sinister about showing the sender’s name as a recipient.
>>>Priests and laity are dispensable, but not wives?
How will they prove how formidably heterosexual they are without their wives hanging on their arms?
Daniel, experience indicates that a hotly, not to say rudely worded response, shows that a nerve has been hit. Thanks for the tip.
Yes but it is funny (Simon).
I came up with a cartoon and other comments. Personally I think they can cut the cost of all this by leaving the men at home.
http://pluralistspeaks.blogspot.com/
“Would Simon act as treasurer? I offer £50.” No sense “receiving your reward already” by showing off HERE…go ahead and anonymously send your contribution to exclude, demonize and abominate others At The Body of Christ directly to GAFCON: Cheques may be made to: Anglican Mainstream ( a charity), 21 High Street, Eynsham, 0X29 4HE. Please designate your gift to GAFCON. Egos are disturbing especially when they are roam FREE to publicize the persecution of others while pretending to be righteous and holy. Thanks anyway. I’ll pass, as THE quest is to “Love God and Love OUR neighbors” and not isolate,… Read more »
At least they had the good sense not to let Don Armstrong handle the money!
The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) was raising money from church members 2 or 3 years ago to pay for 5 people from every diocese to attend the Lambeth Conference with the intention of domination by numbers. A bishop, bishop’s wife, priest, lay person and young person from each of 120 dioceses would have totalled 600 people. Raising funds from the 19 million members of the Church of Nigeria wasn’t continued because (Changing Attitude understands) the money was provided from American sources. The target was reached, and it is this fund which is now available to pay for the Nigerian… Read more »
Amazing, these lose “cannons” actually invite us to assist in putting a bullet in our own head…mil gracias, pero NO…best to send a donation to ANY local “suicide hotline” and SAVE an outcast or marginalized/ridiculed LGBT teenager from a demoralizing self-inflicted death.
Sending money to help overly smug Bishops/wives and hostile clergy “gad about” and plot against fellow Christians at The Anglican Communion is as spiritually sick as it can get!
These folks need to take up a collection to get emotional AND spiritual help.
“Clearly dollars intended to accomplish the purpose of creating an “orthodox” Anglican province in the US or replacing TEC can be better spent than providing an outing for African bishops and their wives in the Holy Land this Spring? Or so donors whose interst was entirely, or nearly entirely, political might believe?” An excellent analysis by EPfizH, in response to Margaret’s inability or unwillingness to acknowledge the financial support by US ultra right wing forces, including Ahmanson, for any ultra conservative religious groups, such as those who would try to punish TEC. But for EPfizH I would suggest that it… Read more »
“The GAFCON gathering does not mean schism. It seeks to set out a clear biblically faithful and orthodox vision for the future of the Anglican Communion, share with the rest of the communion in all available forums and work towards shaping the communion towards that end.”
Does this mean the GAFCON bishops will be coming to Lambeth?
That Ahmanson has reportedly converted from a particularly fundamentalist form of Anglicanism to an equally fundamentalist form of Presbyterianism is irrelevant. Even as an Anglican, he had been funding campaigns to undermine a number of mainline American denominations, including the Episcopal, Presbyterian and United Methodist churches. If Ahmanson has decided against funding this jolly for pointy hats and their wives, I suggest that it has nothing to do with any change in denominational focus, but rather with the clarity of his condign designs. Ahmanson’s goal is to destabilize any Christian denomination which does not actively support his far right political… Read more »
I wonder if this move happened because the deceitful fund-raising letter for Lambeth failed.
(Some might want to debate who the deceivers were, but we all know there were some somewhere).
Needless to say, with the deceitful Lambeth fund-raising letter exposed, some now have to “honestly” raise funds.
Malcolm+ and Jerry Hannon have points well-taken. De-stabilization of ALL the mainline was/is the intent (support of the IRD is a prime example of that) I believe Malcolm+ has hit the nail on the head when he asks us to focus on GAFCON as creating a new mini-denomination, not a replacement or new province and therefore unworthy of major donor US conservative support: Bad strategy, bad tactics, cut one’s losses and invest elsewhere. The most recent fund-raising letter I have reviewed from +David Anderson, (AAC), by contrast, promises that the AAC will be at Lambeth (and all other like such… Read more »
Looks like they are seeking to raise nearly £400,000. The booking conditions are a little scary: no full refund and possibly no refund at all if the event is cancelled, no refund if the participant has to cancel, a caveat that the plunging value of the dollar may mean that costs are increased. The appeal letter from Sugden costs the trip at £1300 for a couple excluding travel, but the website and authorised agent say £1200 for a couple doing the Jerusalem part of the trip alone (full board and including sightseeing trips). It’s quite a lot of money for… Read more »
“The appeal letter from Sugden costs the trip at £1300 for a couple excluding travel”
So, when I estimated $2000 minimum for travel and lodging (on an earlier comment thread about GAFCON), I was actually being quite conservative (as it were)? For bishops from areas where the per capita income is probably under $5 per day?
As my Jewish friends would say, what chutzpah!
‘Looks like they are seeking to raise nearly £400,000. It’s quite a lot of money for a layperson from the Global South, I would have thought. Maybe not so much for a reasonably affluent US conservative but you would have to be pretty sheepish to sign up for a conference where the big discussion was, to your knowledge, going to take place in Jordan before you were allowed even to check in.’ Not necessarily. Playing the numbers game, as the Conservative evangelicals love to do, we are constantly reminded that membership of the Anglican church is 17 million in Nigeria,… Read more »
Don’t count on any money from Duncan. He made cuts in the diocesan budget and blamed the Calvary lawsuit for costing him 300,000 grand for soliciter services. I can’t imagine who’s going to foot his bill. He’ll more than likely be going to GAFCON and Lambeth (wouldn’t miss the opportunity to dredge up dissent and discord there too). I’d like to know how much these bishops get for travel allowances? I’m sure my Diocesan (Bob Duncan) has spent a gold mine in the last few years flying all over the place. One thing, Some of the folks should’ve racked up… Read more »
Also have a feeling that some of the stuff promoted by Anglican Mainstream may well affect their charitable status. I am going to collect some examples – please let me know if you have any which cross the line….
Mr. Sugden, by his appeal for funds to finance the Dissidents on their ‘Pilgrimage to Jerusalem’ – without the approval of the local Bishops – is surely exacerbating the present tensions within the world-wide Anglican Communion. His personal involvement with such a clandestine enterprise – together with certain conservative Bishops of the Church of England – must surely be seen as a desperate bid for some sort of ‘Job for the Boys’ within the Global South Elect? What will happen to him and to the archbishop of Sydney, the bishops of Rochester and Winchester, when Archimandrite Akinola declares all of… Read more »
You are assuming, Fr. Smith, that it is Akinola rather than Sugden who is pulling the strings.