Iain Baxter, who is writing about GAFCON for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, joined the gay pride parade today in Jerusalem. He writes:
We are the lucky ones, we are free to march and live our lives. In many, many, countries around the world, including many in which Anglican church leaders are powerful politically, as well as religious leaders, such as Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya, people are still harassed, arrested, tortured and killed for their failure to love the right person; their failure to be a “real man” or “real woman”. We are all real people, made in the image of God. That is why it is such a privilege for me to march in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Reuters has this succinct summary of the week’s events:
Conservative Anglican leaders meeting at a rebel summit expressed frustration with the church’s leadership on Thursday but indicated that an outright schism might be avoided.
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a week-long convention of hundreds of conservative bishops and clergy, opened on Sunday amid talk that it was a first step towards a split between conservative and liberal wings in the 77-million-strong Anglican Communion.
The Communion is divided over issues such as homosexuality and biblical authority.
But mid-way through the conference, conservative leaders spoke only of making GAFCON a “movement”, without indicating how such a process would be handled and if there was enough support among the bishops to initiate a split.
UPDATE – BBC: Anglican rebels clash with gay march
to the evident consternation of the organisers of the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) they had travelled all this way to the Christian Holy City only to find the streets taken over by Jerusalem Gay Pride.
It was a noisy – you might even say brazen – celebration of homosexuality by the descendants of the very people who gave Christianity the Old Testament of the Bible.
As 3,000 gay and lesbian marchers gathered in a park in the centre of Jerusalem, guarded against attack by 2,000 police, back at the conference hotel contingency plans were being laid to contend with any gay raiding party sent out to beard the traditionalists in their redoubt.