In a his Easter letter, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Primate of Kenya and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council writes of his recent trip to Australia to be present for the formation of a branch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, saying;
last week it was my privilege as Chairman of GAFCON to share in the launch of the Australian branch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. I believe this is a new beginning for united gospel witness across the continent, sharing the same determination and passion for the gospel as that of the pioneering Anglican chaplain and missionary, Richard Johnson, who led the first recorded act of Christian worship on Australian soil on Sunday 3rd February 1788. It was also a great privilege to meet delegates from New Zealand and they are deeply concerned that their Church may formally accept rites for the blessing of same sex unions next year.
Then near the end of his letter, he mentions that the Gafcon Primates will be meeting in London next week;
The GAFCON Primates Council will soon meet in London, from the 13th to the 17th April, and we shall take counsel together so that our movement can grow strongly and be equipped to fulfil the vision of restoring the Anglican Communion’s commitment to biblical truth. It will also give us a special opportunity to meet with leaders of the British and Irish branch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and the Anglican Mission in England. Please uphold us in prayer during this time.
Writing at Anglican Ink, George Conger reports that the Archbishop of the ACNA is one of the expected primates to join the meeting and further that;
Next week’s London meeting is expected to discuss the issue of whether to support a parallel Anglican jurisdiction akin to the Anglican Church in North America for England, and how such support should be shown.
In his 23 September 2014 pastoral letter to the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), the group’s leader, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya wrote: “It is becoming clear that we must see the once missionary nations of the West as now themselves mission fields.” He further stated “the focus of the struggle for biblical faithfulness has shifted from North America to England.”
To achieve this end, the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) had been “authorised by the GAFCON Primates to work within and, where necessary, outside the structures of the Church of England as a missionary society”.
Peter Carrell, blogging at Anglicans Down Under wonders whether or not the Anglican Communion is at last at the inflection point where it begins to either incorporate differing views on human sexuality or marriage or formally divides.
Fast forward to 2015 and we have the Anglican Communion at the crossroads. Will this Communion which has neither resisted nor incorporated the (alleged) movement of the Spirit within TEC find a ‘way forward’ which clarifies the Communion’s approach to same sex marriage? Will this Communion which so far through nearly 150 years existence has resisted becoming overly institutionalised find new momentum towards being an institution in the sense of a ‘global church’ rather than a communion? Or, will the next few years see the Communion quietly evolve into a series of Anglican movements, ungoverned by prelate or constitution? It is already evolving in that direction but it is not yet determined that we will end all desire to be a global church.
Archbishop Of Canterbury Justin Welby, and the newly appointed Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Office, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, seem to want very much to square this circle, but exactly how remains unclear. It should be noted that both have been participants at GAFCON gatherings in the past, yet it is hard to imagine a sitting Archbishop of Canterbury willfully participating in or condoning the creation of an alternate Anglican church within England. So what solution is there? And is there sufficient energy at the roots of the Episcopal Church for salvation of the frayed bonds of the Anglican Communion?
posted by Jon White