GAFCON 2013, which met at the Conference Centre and Cathedral at All Saints Nairobi, can legitimately claim to be the largest worldwide gathering of Anglicans since Lambeth 1998 which was attended by all Anglican bishops and their wives.
331 bishops and archbishops and 1,358 delegates, including over 300 women, met together, among whom 120 were from England, Ireland and Wales.
Demise of the powerhouses
The chairman, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, welcomed them with strong words: ‘The nations which were once the spiritual powerhouses of worldwide mission have now become deeply secularised and even hostile to the Christian faith and the churches of those lands have more often than not been strongly influenced by the societies in which they are set. I am aware that for some of you, the threat of violence from Islamic extremism may be uppermost in your minds, and we have had a painful reminder of that reality recently here in Kenya, but that which really rots the fabric of the Communion is the much more insidious process by which weak churches are gradually taken captive by the surrounding culture.
‘There are powerful and well funded organisations working to see Kenya and other African nations adopt the same values which are causing so much havoc to faith and family and society in the West and we must confront these challenges together as a truly global Communion.
‘There are those who would like to see orthodox Anglicans allotted a reserve in which they must stay and not challenge false teaching. Orthodox Anglicans who feel themselves beleaguered should never settle to be thought of merely as an endangered species called “traditionalists” because our Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans links us together as what we are, a global majority.’
Welby on video
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said in a video message to the conference that he was ‘pleased . . . that you are meeting to be clear about where you stand’. GAFCON responded in its final commu-niqué by appreciating ‘that the Archbishop of Canterbury sent personal greetings via video and gave us the assurance of his prayers, and we likewise pray for him.’
The GAFCON 2013 communiqué identifies as a priority, ‘supporting genuine gospel initiatives, recognising that there are times when the maintenance of structures can constrain the proclamation of the gospel. In line with the Jerusalem Statement’s expectation that the Primates’ Council would intervene to provide “orthodox oversight to churches under false leadership”, the Primates’ Council will carefully consider working beyond existing structures as an obedient response to Jesus’s commission to take the gospel to all nations’.
It claims: ‘We believe we have acted as an important and effective instrument of Communion during a period in which other instruments of Communion have failed both to uphold gospel priorities in the church, and to heal the divisions among us’.
The Church Times reports that Dr. Peter Jensen said: ‘[GAFCON] will effectively provide for Anglican traditionalists the fellowship and support that provinces give to dioceses’.
For the Church of England, the Nairobi Commitment states: ‘We commit ourselves to the support and defence of those who in standing for apostolic truth are marginalised or excluded from formal communion with other Anglicans in their dioceses. We have therefore recognised the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) as an expression of authentic Anglicanism both for those within and outside the Church of England, and welcomed their intention to appoint a General Secretary of AMiE’.
The Rev. Rod Thomas, chairman of Reform, who was a member of the commu-niqué drafting group, told the Church of England Newspaper: ‘It sets a clear gospel priority for GAFCON. It is designed to carry forward the work of encouragement and faithfulness … I’m delighted’.
Canon Gavin Ashenden, a Queen’s chaplain from Jersey, welcomed the communiqué: ‘It was his hope that GAFCON would become a ‘non-geographic province’, Canon of England Ashenden told the Church Newspaper. ‘Not legally, but spiritually, psychologically supporting clergy and laity mar-ginalised by the existing order.’
Mrs. Susan Leafe, director of Reform, notes in the Church of England Newspaper: ‘There has been some suggestion in the media, both Christian and secular, that GAFCON 2 can be ignored as doing nothing new. Such commentators are profoundly wrong. Nearly 200 English incumbents will be meeting for two days to consider how we can best avoid the failings, of which we repented in the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Nairobi, being repeated in this generation’.
