Kenyan Bishop Thomas Kogo said the church had decided to forbid homosexuals from going to their churches if they could not repent and stick to biblical teachings.
The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, has spoken out against FOCA, “accusing them of ‘ungracious’ behaviour. Dr Sentamu said he had been ‘deeply grieved’ at reports of criticism and ‘scapegoating’ by the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans of the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams,” from a news report.
Readers probably remember hearing talk of Akinola being denied entry to Jordan for the pre-GAFCON meetings that were being held there. While readers may remember this being downplayed in press releases coming out of GAFCON at the time, turns out Akinola believes it was an act of Satan himself intervening with Jordanian affairs of state in an effort to undermine the conference.
Or so states the headline in an Australian newspaper that reports on the reaction of some other bishops in Australia to the recent actions of Bishop Jensen of Sydney.
In his response to the GAFCON statement. Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury urges his readers to accept the good faith of bishops wo have begun attempting to colonize other churches. Given their track record, this is difficult to do.
GAFCON’s ideas are “ridiculous” and “deeply offensive” says the Bishop of Durham, the Rt. Rev. N.T. Wright in a BBC radio interview. “To be told that I now need to be authorised or validated by a group of primates somewhere else who come in and tell me which doctrines I should sign up to is not only ridiculous it’s deeply offensive.”
One salutary effect of GAFCON is that it has awakened the British public to the fact that conservatives attempting to take over the Anglican Communion mean business. The British press has been simultaneously hyping and decrying the right wing’s campaign, and support for an inclusive Communion has come from unlikely quarters.
Every Ephraimite seeking to cross the river is questioned by the Gileadites. If they cannot pronounce the word “shibboleth” correctly, thus proving themselves aliens, they are slaughtered, and the Scriptures recalls that 42,000 Ephraimites are killed as a result.
I do not believe the Anglican Communion is paralyzed by a false gospel. While we recognize that our relationships are bruised and broken the gospel calls us to be reconciled, to pursue healing and to seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit. It calls all those in leadership to use their authority “not to hurt but to heal, not to destroy but to build up” and “to unite the church in a holy fellowship of truth and love.”
Listen as Stephen Crittenden of ABC radio’s Religion Report interviews Thomas Oden of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, Jim Naughton, editor of Episcopal Cafe and others for a program on the roots of the recent GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem and its implications for the Anglican Church in Australia.