After it was reported that “almost a dozen” parishes of the Church of England planned to meet this week in Tunbridge Wells to share their support for its Jerusalem Statement, GAFCON was quick to shine a spotlight on the idea of a “shadow synod.”
Signed by the Chair of the GAFCON UK Task Force, the statement reads
GAFCON UK warmly commends the initiative of Rev Dr Peter Sanlon and others from a number of parishes in the Home Counties to set up a ‘shadow synod’ as stated in John Bingham’s article ‘Parishes begin Church split’.
This is a grass-roots initiative by local congregations which is representative of the views of many across the country, and is in line with the concerns of Anglicans from the GAFCON movement worldwide as expressed in the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008 and subsequently.
The message being clearly conveyed is that: there are Church of England churches that hold to the unchanging truths of the gospel and the formularies of the Church of England; these churches oppose the relentless slide towards revisionism in the Church of England structures; these churches are prepared to take action to protect their congregations.
GAFCON UK exists to promote faithfulness to the gospel and provide fellowship for those who share this commitment, and it is for these reasons that we warmly commend this initiative.
The Church of England’s latest statistics report 16,000 churches serving a population of over 54 million people, including 32 million Christians.