Gafcon plan: Theological allies remain silent

Conservative groupings in the Anglican Communion are remaining seemingly tight-lipped about Gafcon's recently-announced plans for a complete denominational reset.

On 16 October, the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon), which represents many orthodox and Bible-believing individuals and churches, declared itself the "Global Anglican Communion" - as opposed to the existing Anglican Communion traditionally centred on Canterbury.

However, theologically aligned groupings, such as the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA), and EFAC (the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion), both of which share some overlap in membership and beliefs with Gafcon, appear to be maintaining a public silence about the plans, at least for the time being.

EFAC

In a statement on 28 October, Bishop Stephen Hale, EFAC Global General Secretary, spoke about "pain, confusion, cost and uncertainty across the Church of England and the whole Anglican Communion," resulting from the C of E's "Living in Love and Faith" discussions about sexuality.

These have "further impaired fellowship and caused significant pastoral damage to relationships, particularly with global south Anglicans," the statement also says. However, it makes no reference to Gafcon's recent announcement.

GSFA

Similarly, a communique from a GSFA Bishops' Formation Retreat on 20 October was silent about the Gafcon plans, as was a subsequent statement on 28 October about a GSFA Mission Partnerships meeting. The latter, however, did state that participants were seeking to "deepen partnerships and renew commitment to the mission of the Church within the Anglican Communion".

en contacted the GSFA Secretariat on 20 October asking for a comment about Gafcon's announcement, but has received no statement.

Kenya

Meanwhile, US-based website The Living Church (TLC) attempted to contact leader of Kenyan Anglicans, Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit.

"The Anglican Church of Kenya is likely a crucial bellwether for the [Gafcon] project’s success," it reported, adding: "The Global South’s third-largest church ... Kenya has long been an active participant both in Gafcon and the Instruments of [the Anglican] Communion."

TLC reported that the Archbishop "did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the Global Anglican Communion announcement (one of his staffers told our reporter that getting a response would be 'a Hail Mary pass')." A "Hail Mary Pass" is a term used in American football relating to a particular play which has a low probability of success.

However, the Bishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya’s Diocese of Garissa, Francis Omondi, is quoted as telling TLC: "Kenya will need a fundamental reworking to break with Canterbury. No archbishop can take Kenya away without changing the church’s law. This will be hard to achieve. Breaking with Canterbury may result in breaking the church locally, creating two provinces."

The Gafcon statement of 16 October said provinces in its new Global Anglican Communion should "not participate in meetings called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, including the Anglican Consultative Council, and shall not make any monetary contribution to the ACC, nor receive any monetary contribution from the ACC or its networks".

But according to TLC, Omondi said: “The position I take and which I advance is that we cannot and should not sever links with Canterbury. We are so culturally intertwined that these breakaway talks cannot work. I think the challenge is desire for power and control. In Kenya, we represent reasoning from both sides but have chosen to reconcile them in a united church.”

Congo

Another US-based website, the Episcopal News Service, stated that "of the Gafcon council’s... 12 members [in addition to its chairman, Rwanda Archbishop Laurent Mbanda], eight represent provinces that are recognized as members of the existing Anglican Communion.

"One, the Church of Nigeria, shared [Gafcon's announcement] online without additional comment, [but the] Episcopal News Service could find no evidence of any statements from the other seven provinces supporting the new Gafcon plan..."

It added that it had attempted to contact all the leaders of those provinces, but was met with silence, apart from one comment from Bishop Zacharie Masimango Katanda of the Anglican Church of Congo. He stated: "The call to disengage from the Anglican Communion needs to be made collegially through debate. The Church of Congo will not follow that call and remains a full member of the Anglican Communion, and also a member of the Global South.”

Sydney

Meanwhile, Gafcon's General Secretary, Bishop Paul Donison of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA, a body outside the existing Anglican Communion), told the Stand Firm podcast of the moment when Gafcon's announcement was finalised in Sydney, Australia.

“It felt like when we finally read what became the final communiqué, there was a most profound sense of God’s presence—the Holy Spirit in that room. There were alleluias and there was singing. There was just a sense that we were getting just a little touch of that Shekinah glory," he said.