Year: 2008

TIME: The secession it threatened to bring to the 78 million-member Anglican Communion looks like a confused bust. This all comes as a bit of surprise to the press, which — with ample encouragement from the Church’s right — had been framing GAFcon as a decisive step toward schism….GAFcon seems to be falling apart on several fronts.

There are two. Brothers, Peter and Phillip. Together they form the backbone of agressive low church conservatism in the diocese of Sydney.

They were first noticeable on the Mount of Olives, where the Primate of Nigeria was flanked by two guards, complete with Raybans and curly wires leading to ear-pieces. This was trumped by the Bishop of Rochester, whose press conference was staffed by three attentive guards. Journalists were left wondering whether this said more about about the Bishop or about them.

Said in 2004 in an interview where his aim was to improve his image: “It would still be a little hard to say that if one stumbled on a country that was doing that, that it is inherently immoral, to stone people for these things.”

These rows are missing four key ingredients – an understanding that ‘top-down’ models of the Church are dying, that the world needs examples of reconciliation and peacemaking rather than animosity, that many want to affirm gay Christians on deeply traditional grounds, and

that disagreement without courtesy and love is destroying the credibility of the Church’s message.

– Simon Barrow