Here is a June 13 press release from the Church of Uganda posted on Chelmsford Anglican Mainstream. It is also posted on the GAFCON website. It starts with GAFCON's three purposes:
Reading a little further, we find this little tidbit:1. To provide an opportunity for fellowship as well as to continue to experience and proclaim the transforming love of Jesus Christ
2. To develop a renewed understanding of our identity as Anglican Christians.
3. To prepare for an Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised and Christ-centred mission is a top priority.
It seems to me that if authority is the issue, then the good archbishops of Nigeria, Uganda, and the Southern Cone should not be crossing provincial lines in clear violation of one of the oldest "rules" of the Church.Is the crisis in the Anglican Communion about homosexuality?
No. The crisis is about authority. Homosexuality is only the presenting issue. All four Instruments of Unity in the Anglican Communion – The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Lambeth Conference of Bishops, The Primates Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council – advised against the American Church approving homosexual relationships. Yet, the American Church openly defied these resolutions and there was no disciplinary action taken against them. That is a crisis of authority in the Communion. Furthermore, the apparent lack of resolve to take
action manifests a deeper crisis, namely a crisis of confidence in the authority of the Word of God as the ultimate standard of faith and moral living.
Right below the Church of Uganda release on the GAFCON site is an article from the Daily Nation, a Kenyan newspaper. Note what Archbishop says:
The decision to boycott the Lambeth conference was due, he said, to the church’s failure to resolve the issue of the ordination of homosexual bishops within the Episcopal Church in the United States.
The worldwide Anglican Communion has been the focus of considerable controversy with its ordination of openly gay clergy, including the bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, sparking outrage from some of its members.
“We have made other plans to travel to Jerusalem to reflect on how best we can do the work of the Lord,” Archbishop Nzimbi said by telephone on Saturday.
The cleric said that for the past decade he and his African colleagues had tried to persuade the church’s leadership to revoke the ordination of gay bishops as the actions was not compatible with the Scripture.
While the Archbishop does not say that GAFCON is a result of the sexuality issue, the implication is pretty clear. And he is clear that the decision to boycott the Lambeth Conference IS due to the issue of sexuality.
Then there is the gem of a paper posted by The Lead. Nicholas Knisely, who posted it, gives this introduction:
He highlights what he feels are a couple of key quotes and then posts the paper in its entirety. For me, the most telling piece is this paragraph found almost at the very end (the emphasis is mine):The Lead has been passed along an essay entitled "Our Journey Into the Future" that is reportedly to be presented to the Global Anglican Futures Convention (GAFCON) which occurs later this month in Jordan. This is a new document and not the paper published by SPREAD that appeared a few weeks ago.
The essay attempts to explain why it is that GAFCON has been called, why it is at cross-purposes with other Anglican meetings such as Lambeth, and what the hoped for outcomes might be.
GAFCON identifies an area of public life today which is challenged to its heart by the gospel of the Lord Jesus. GAFCON is a statement that the truth of God can be known; that it is the gateway to fulfilling and fruitful life for men and women, in marriage or celibacy, and that obedience and witness to that truth cannot be confined to the space or the form that is offered by the powerful.There it is in black and white--no shades of gray here. GAFCON is about the expression of sexuality in a Christian context.
Peace,
Jeffri
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