Another announcement that broke over the holiday was that of conservative Anglicans organizing their own global event, as reported in a press release (which you can read here):
GLOBAL ANGLICAN FUTURE CONFERENCE IN HOLY LAND
ANNOUNCED BY ORTHODOX PRIMATESOrthodox Primates with other leading bishops from across the globe are to invite fellow Bishops, senior clergy and laity from every province of the Anglican Communion to a unique eight-day event, to be known as the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) 2008.
The event, which was agreed at a meeting of Primates in Nairobi last week, will be in the form of a pilgrimage back to the roots of the Church’s faith. The Holy Land is the planned venue. From 15-22 June 2008, Anglicans from both the Evangelical and Anglo-catholic wings of the church will make pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where Christ was born, ministered, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, sent his Holy Spirit, and where the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out, to strengthen them for what they believe will be difficult days ahead.
And what does the blogosphere make of it? Plenty, by our feeds both leftish and rightish. There’s Mark Harris’ link to the GAFCON website, and some highlights from the FAQ at his blog. His first commenter makes note of some observations from Stand Firm (most notably from Baby Blue) that there are no women among the top planners of the conference.
It’s also interesting to note that some folks didn’t pay much heed to rumors floating around before Christmas about a Lambeth alternative, as reported here. But according to a brief in the Washington Post, it’s not meant to replace Lambeth:
Theological conservatives and liberals have threatened to boycott the Lambeth Conference because of who was and wasn’t invited. Organizers of the conservative meeting insist their gathering is not an alternative to Lambeth.
We will update this post as more links become available, and feel free to refer your own in the comments.
Friday Update:
Marshall has some interesting thoughts here.
Mark Harris shares some additional thoughts about the makeup of the leadership team.