“We long to share with you in fellowship and in celebration at Lambeth and, beyond that, we look to sharing with you in our common calling to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord throughout the world.”
Archbishop Peter Akinola has clarified the purpose of GAFCON, stating unequivocally that the conference is an alternative to Lambeth, and that they believe their purpose
I think that God is beautiful, and can be approached – best approached – by mortal men through beauty. Any sort of beauty. My experience is that good music takes people nearer to God than anything else, and quicker. It happens just like that, you feel him, right there. The fact that the Dean and the Archbishop of Sydney are brothers makes the situation for lovers of good music at Sydney’s Anglican Cathedral especially unfortunate.
The Chancellor of the Diocese on the Niger made it clear that no diocese would be created in an atmosphere of rancour and bitterness, adding that the recent press statements on the issue violated the constitution of the Church of Nigeria. The Chairman of the committee looking into the possibility of creating a new diocese emphasized that any diocese to be created out of the existing one should promote peace and unity of the church.
Today, even Church leaders themselves say the fire has died. They only differ on why. Gitari says: “We did not need Tutu to come all the way from South Africa to solve this crisis. We did not need Kofi Annan. The Church should have been able to solve this problem. But they are seen as partisan.”
Last week, Bishop N.T. Wright wrote a piece for the Church Times called “Evangelicals are not about to jump ship” and it is available on
The difficult question before the Anglican Communion today is thus: Can a historically mono-cultural, Church of imperial aspirations embrace a new Pentecost as a multicultural family of churches embodying wide differences yet called in unity to incarnate and extend God’s reconciling love in every corner of the world?
General Seminary in New York will be the site of conference to discuss the proposed Anglican Covenant. The conference is scheduled for mid-April and will
Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury have expressed concerns about the GAFCON “movement” scheduled to take place this summer. Bishop Wright in particular is concerned about bishops who are being pressured into not attending Lambeth by the leaders of the provinces.
Chesterton’s famous quote cuts in many directions, but it reminds us that the churches in which we worship, and the dioceses and provinces in which they are situated, are things we have received in trust and hope to pass on in trust. Aside from the absence of an impartial monitor for the plebiscite-like votes that have taken place of late, we also lack the crucial participation of that ‘most obscure of all classes’ and an honest commitment to honour legitimate outcomes.