Gafcon: a longer look

Our story today follows up the press conference yesterday with Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya. He confirmed that Gafcon will today and on Sunday firm up plans for the new "church within a church" that he said was being referred to in the committee as 'Gafcon' but which I've temporarily christened the Global Anglican Communion. Below I've tried to take a longer look at the whole thing, as much for my own benefit as anything, to have as a reference when writing about this in future. It is clear that Gafcon is not a one-off but going to be a permanent structure. Another conference of this nature will probably take place in Jerusalem in two years, after the pilgrims received a warm welcome from the Israeli tourist authority. A senior Israeli representative actually told delegates on their pilgrimage to the garden at the foot of Temple Mount that Jewish and Christian people must stand together against the 'common enemy'. And no, that 'enemy' is not homosexuality...

Dr Jensen's role in this is key. He is a hugely influential figure on the conservative evangelical wing of the Church of England and will be a main speaker at the London conference on 1 July, at the evangelical flagship All Souls Langham Place. Up to 600 Church of England parishes are expected to be represented at the conference, when they will discuss how to take forward in the UK the action plan  being drawn up in Jerusalem this week.The final proposals from the Jerusalem meeting will be published on Saturday night.

Organisers believe the Jerusalem gathering is the most significant event in Anglicanism in their lifetimes and will lead to a new "movement" that will herald a "new reformation".The movement could be akin to the Anglo-Catholic and evangelical revivals that revived a moribund Church of England in the 19th century. It will possess its own bishops, clergy and theological colleges, and eventually its own structures, but will be constructed entirely within the legal constraints of existing Anglican institutions.

Two theological colleges in England, Oak Hill in north London and Wycliffe Hall in Oxford, are earmarked as  institutions for the training of evangelical clergy of the future. Ultra-conservative parishes such as St Helen's Bishopsgate in the City of London, one of the largest and wealthiest in the diocese of London, represent the shape of the new movement that will emerge from the Jerusalem conference this week.

That the Global Anglican Future Conference has taken place at all represents a triumph for the organisers, who conceived it barely six months ago.The conference was prompted by the "failure", as conservatives see it, of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to "discipline" the 60 US bishops who took part in the consecration of Gene Robinson in 2003 by not inviting them to next month's Lambeth Conference.

The initial plan was to hold the entire event in Jerusalem, to represent the rebirth of a traditional Anglicanism in a city with deeper historical roots in Christianity even than Canterbury. One of the main movers behind the event, Archbishop Akinola, who retires later this year, has already led his province to delete all reference to Canterbury from its constitution. He has said: "You don't need to go through Canterbury to get to Christ."

But the local Anglican bishop, the Right Rev Suheil Dawani, who has links with liberal wing of The Episcopal Church in the US and has just appointed an episcopalian priest as his new chaplain, objected strongly to the conference and begged the organisers to move it elsewhere. He was concerned that only trouble could come from a meeting that threatened to import Anglican divisions into an already divided region.Organisers acceded to his request and moved the conference to Jordan, where it duly began on
Wednesday last week.

But when Dr Akinola attempted to cross the border, he was held for three hours before being turned back into Israel. So the decision was quickly made to move the entire event to Jerusalem three days early, leaving the Bishop of Pittsburgh, Bob Duncan, the leader of the US conservatives, no time to deliver his keynote address.The address was emailed out worldwide, as if it had been delivered, but in fact it had been merely handed to delegates in printed form before they left last Thursday morning on buses for Jerusalem. Bishop Duncan stayed behind in Jordan to look after the Pakistani and Sudanese bishops, who were not allowed into Israel, and then flew off to Italy to celebrate his 60th birthday with his family, leaving the Jerusalem gathering without one of its most important figures.

So the whole thing represents a triumph of organisation over logistics. The conservatives at the conference arrived at the luxury Renaissance Hotel in West Jerusalem could not have been blamed if they had arrived feeling even more persecuted than they felt when they left their own countries but in fact they have been extremely good-tempered throughout. The anger remains located where it always has been. The Africans and Asians from the Global South consider themselves rejected and patronised by their former colonialist masters, who first supplanted their traditional religions by importing Christianity into their countries and then liberalised it into something barely recognisable to the Gospel fundamentals they still believe in with passion.

They are seething at the intellectual arrogance of Western Anglican bishops whose Christianity, to them, seems closer to the secularism of Richard Dawkins than the faith of the Church Fathers and who hint repeatedly that African evangelicalism is based on primitive understanding. But they are also upset by fellow conservatives who have encouraged them to take a stand against Canterbury and the West,  but who have themselves accepted invitations to next month's Lambeth Conference.

More than 100 bishops, including the entire provinces of  Nigeria and Uganda and the diocese
of Sydney, have voted to boycott Lambeth. The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, who spoke powerfully on the theme of reform from within, will also be avoiding worship and plenary sessions at the Lambeth conference. But living just down the road as he does, it is difficult to imagine he will be able to stay away completely, and a carefully-nuanced statement this week he was careful to leave open the possibility of attendance in some form.

His speech went a long way towards healing the hurt among the Global South delegates, but the US
conservatives remain angry and bitter.

It is they who are driving the talk of schism. Apart from Dr Akinola, who believes unity is already a sham, the Africans do not want to walk away.Instead they have offered havens to the Americans have sought to take entire parishes out of The Episcopal Church who are embroiled in difficult legal actions as a result, as the main Church attempts to get its property back. Adding to the US troubles, at least two more dioceses, Fort Worth and Pittsburgh, are expected to join San Joaquin this autumn in seeking refuge in Bishop Greg Venables' province of the Southern Cone.

To give an indication of just how complex this all is, Bishop Venables, based in Argentina, hails from Kent
and is a close friend and confidant of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop Venables is at the Jerusalem
conference and will also be at Lambeth, representing the conservative voice.

His action in offering refuge to US conservatives, thus helping to prevent outright schism, is being strongly
resisted by the US church which has already appointed a new Bishop of San Joaquin, meaning there are
now two men claiming title to be Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. The Archbishop of
Canterbury has invited both of these bishops to the Lambeth Conference. Sources tell me that canon lawyers are not yet certain about which bishop is the real bishop of San Joaquin.

Back in London, Lambeth Palace is "cool" about all this. Dr Williams understands that some of the bishops boycotting Lambeth would have liked to accept his invitation, but are staying away in line with the African principle of loyalty to their own "baba" or "father" archbishops.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who possesses far more political cunning than his appearance suggests, is not unduly concerned. He is playing a long game under the Gospel mandate of a united Church. He has
planned a three-week Lambeth Conference that has almost nothing on the agenda apart from "prayer" and
"fellowship" through unlikely-named "indaba" groups, taken from a Zulu word for meetings.

Dr Williams is aware that at the Jerusalem conference, the majority of  bishops and laity there care deeply about the church, which is why they are there.

Dr Williams' own theology is catholic.

This is a wing of the Church that is being largely overlooked in the current battle between the liberal left and conservative right, but it where I come from and in my view, the universality of traditional catholic thought goes a long way to explaining how the Archishop hopes one day to resolve it all.

With all this to play for and more, the delegates in Jerusalem at first was tense. There was much praying,
many frowning foreheads, little smiling, no cheer. Christian goodwill was in short supply.

Organisers were privately furious when a junior volunteer, acting out of misguided zeal, gave security staff a list of pro-gay activists "not allowed in" to the conference. This list, obtained by me, published on an earlier blog and featuring a cast of characters now known in the blogosphere as the "Gafcon 8", had the unfortunate effect of making the conference appear far more militant than it actually is. The Bishop of Jerusalem's new chaplain was one of those on the list.

When you get bishops saying things like this at press conferences, the suspicion among observers of homophobic militancy deepens. Asked why it is so bad to be gay, Bishop John Akao, a theologian bishop from Nigeria, said: "The gay movement and the practice we have found to be repugnant both to the Old Testament and the New Testament and we have the Bible as our basic tenet of faith. In the Old Testament it is prohibited unambiguously and in the New Testament it is forbidden. How do you practice that what is not allowed? [Those who do] don't believe in scripture. Whether you practice the very act that has been prohibited oryou support or encourage it, you are not the thief but anyone who steals must be punished. You encourage people to steal. I think you participate in another man's sin. That is participation."

Suspicions about the underlying agenda deepened among observers when organisers declined to give
details of who is funding the event or supply a full list of delegates, claiming that some of those present
would suffer persecution by the Archbishop of Canterbury were he to learn of their presence there.
But it is certain that of the 300 "Anglican" bishops attending, some are from so-called "continuing" Anglican churches that are already not in communion Canterbury.

These include bishops from the Church of England in South Africa, the Reformed Episcopal Church and several US clergy ordained bishops by African archbishops to minister to conservative congregations in the US.

Then Howard Ahmannson, a big player on the Christian right in California, was spotted among the
delegates. Ahmanson is a Dominionist, someone who believes all of God's laws as spelled out in  the Hebrew bible should have dominion over all the earth, a position otherwise known as a Christian reconstructionist. Commentators in the US call such people, influential on the Christian right, the "American Taliban". In a 1985 interview, he described his goal as "total integration of biblical law into our lives."  His links with the Christian right prompted Linda Lingle, then governor-elect of Hawaii, to return $3,000 she received from Ahmanson in 2002.

His presence has raised suspicions among US liberals because early on in the conference, the Archbishop of Nigeria told delegates that the total cost of the event was £2.5 million and that Nigeria alone had to raise $1.3 million in three weeks to send over all its many bishops and their wives. One donation alone amounted to $900,000. Archbishop Akinola said all his funding came from Nigeria.

Organisers told The Times that none of Akinola's cash was from Ahmanson and that the millionaire was
simply in Jerusalem as an interested, lay episcopalian. Many are long-term friends of Ahmanson and emphasised his integrity, also pointing out that his Tourette's syndrome and stutter mean he is shy of publicity. He has every right to be there as a lay episcopalian interested in the current debates, they pointed out, with justification.

It is no secret that Ahmanson's prayer partner is conference delegate David Anderson, and Ahmanson has contributed generously to Anderson's US church group that is seeking Anglican realignment. Anderson is also one of those consecrated to the church in Nigeria by Archbishop Akinola. His parish in California, embroiled in legal dispute, was one of the first to attempt to opt out of The Episcopal Church.

Other "players" can be spotted occasionally in plenaries, or during tea breaks. One such cleric encountered by me was the Rev Richard Coekin, who two years ago had his licence revoked by the Bishop of Southwark after he invited a bishop from an unrecognised Anglican church in South Africa to ordain three curates.

Mr Coekin won his appeal against Bishop Tom Butler and was reinstated. Both he and the bishops of the
Church of England in South Africa are in Jerusalem.

Charles Raven, who had his licence revoked by the former Bishop of Worcester Peter Selby, is also there, handing out the SPREAD tract urging schism that he wrote. Raven is now operating out of an independent church in the Wyre valley. I am hoping to do a separate post on him shortly.

And despite all the administrative hitches, as the conference progressed the mood changed from one of
anger to one of hope. The majority do not want a split. They want their Church back. They appear to have
decided that the best way to achieve this is not to start another one but to remain within the one they have got, and reform it from within.

That way, in the end, God will decide who has right on their side.

Delegates at the conference have spent most of their time closeted away from the press in group
discussions or on visits to pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land. 

There was true symbolism on Monday in the  pilgrimage to the Mount of Olives, where Jesus wept over
Jerusalem, and to the Garden of Gethsemane, the place of Jesus' betrayal by his friends. The Anglican
Communion might be in the throes of its own trial and crucifixion right now, but delegates here in Jerusalem have faith it will rise again.

Comments

[Fr. Van Windsor]

Thank you for this report. It is the first analysis I've read that hasn't been driven by a certain party mentality. I am interested to read their final statement, and then your take of it.

[anon]

Ruth

For a different perspective on some of those attending, try here:

http://reform-ireland.org/blog/

"Those who profess faith in Christ and are suspicious, or dismissory, or sceptical, or fearful, or downright hostile to GAFCON, should pause to think what exactly they are doing. Here at GAFCON are joyful, committed believers in Christ, faithful Anglicans, intensely loyal to the teachings of the Scripture as expressed in the formularies of Anglicanism: here, amongst the throng at GAFCON are some of Anglicanism’s best scholars and leaders; here are some of Anglicanism’s best evangelists; and here are people committed to godly living in Christ Jesus. What’s bad about that? Are those who sneer at or dismiss GAFCON jealous of the vitality and christian determination of the churches represented here? Do they feel threatened by the Gospel emphasis of GAFCON? If so, how then can they claim with any integrity to really have faith in Christ? They should be rejoicing at GAFCON, not keeping it at arm’s length!

GAFCON represents a movement that, under God, will renew Anglicanism and take it forward in serving Christ in the world. Isn’t that what those who have the Gospel at heart and the best interests of the Church of Ireland want to do? Then, if that is so, the decisions and statements of GAFCON should rejoice the heart and cause us in the Church of Ireland to want to align ourselves in joyful committment to the Gospel imperatives they reflect."

And many others here:
http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/13560/

Why find the most extreme participants you can and paint everyone with that brush? Where has the fairness in reporting gone?

[saint]

Thanks for this summary Ruth, (and for the one on Galcon that you should have written :-))

[robroy]

The sham of appointing the liberal Bp O'Neill as a "chaplain" is embarassing. He was plainly announced to be there to be the eyes and ears of for Katherine Jefferts Schori. The organizers put the kibosh on that silly game.

I am surprised that Dawani didn't particpate in the Gay Pride parade. Bruno and Sisk will be disappointed. They have no qualms about taking part in these parades.

[Lapinbizarre]

Re your indignation about "the sham of appointing the liberal Bp O'Neill as a 'chaplain'", Robroy, suggest you take the trouble to actually read Ms Gledhill's piece on the "Gafcon eight". The chaplain to Bishop Dawani who is on the list is the Robert D. Edmunds, recently appointed chaplain to B'p Dawani, not Bishop O'Neill. O'Neill is indeed there, one gathers, as "the eyes and ears of for [sic] Katherine Jefferts Schori". He is also there as house guest of Bishop Dawani.

[Susan]

I have to say that you do have an almost cartoonish view of what is happening on the American side of the Anglican Communion.

The fact is that property ownership in America is very different than in England ... even as it applies to religious institutions. The "break aways" in Virginia just won, and the judgement was scathing with respect to the legal arguments made by the Archdiocese of Virginia.

Most journalists have difficulty separating out personal opinion and prejudice when reporting, but the better one do try.

[LA Dave]

Ruth: Very nice job at Gafcon, working under severe pressure (some of it self-imposed -- you should know better than to go after an Evo icon like James Packer). I am pleased that the Times saw fit to send you there -- your reporting was excellent.

[David Crawford]

Gafcon is great. TEC & the COE and the reporters just don't get it. They wanted a split and wanted to report a split. Now we are going to be given a choice and we will remain Anglican. This is the worst news for the liberals and you can see the anger just building. The Lord is doing something new that no one counted on. The problem is not going away and Rowan Williams worst nightmare is about to come true.

[Michael Stevens]

Thanks for your calm and measured reports from Jerusalem Ruth. They've been useful and informative.

[Malcolm+]

Such paranoia, Robroy. Don't you know that "perfect love casts out fear?"

Normal people in the normal workaday world typically provide quite open access to observer status a their conferences. Indeed, just for one example, "conservative" hardliners are routinely credentialed at gatherings of Integrity in the US.

But then, Integrity does not fear transparency.

[Robert Ian Williams]

Yet the black hole of GAFCON, must be that a conference in Jerusalem
( where Christ ministerd), to protect the sanctity of marriage and naming it's handbook after Christ, " The way , the truth and the life " cannot arrive at the meaning of Christ's words on marriage and divorce! So they were left out!

This puts paid to their theory that the Bible is self interpretating and does not need an authoritative Church. That is why i left Evangelicalism and became a Roman Catholic.

Furthermotre lay presidency was represented if the Church of England in South Africa was represented at GAFCON!

How do you bridge lay presidency and Anglo-catholicism , in a Church within a Church?

Answer...just pretend it is not there!

[Robert Ian Williams]

The most telling thing about GAFCON is the hand book. Entiled "The Way the life and the TRuth " and published in the city of Jerusalem, it has nothing to say about what the Way , the life and the truth taught about Divorce and re-marriage!

By all means construct a Church within a Church, but how the lay presidency of SYDNEY and CESA ( Church of England in South Africa) will be reconciled to Anglo-Catholicism I do not understand!

Or the pro-women priests ordination provinces of Africa with the impossibilists of Sydney and the Common cause.

[David, Bedford]

Ruth,

Thankyou for this detailed and wide-ranging analysis of events at Gafcon. It is heartening to read of the real concerns for unity and adherence to orthodox belief and tradition rather than the all-too-frequent banner headlines which would suggest a single-issue (sexuality).

In your article you rightly refer to the "intellectual arrogance" which is abroad, and which has done, and continues to do so much damage to the Church and above all to the Gospel. This, surely, is at the heart of the issues which are dividing the Anglican Communion. It expresses itself in a lack of respect for those who hold different views (whilst claiming to be open and intellectually honest), it places reason above everything (where have we heard that before?)and seeks to relegate the Scriptures to a secondary (or even lower) place in determining acceptability. The consequence is revisionism and a lack of confidence in the Gospel as the Good News of Christ with its exclusive demands.

Finally, on this same point of exclusivism, there is an inevitability of conflict between Islam and Christianity as the two faiths are mutually exclusive (not to say that there is not common moral ground). I commend Bp Michael Nazir-Ali for being bold enough to say so. No amount of intellectual posturing will change this, and to allow the misaprehension that the two faiths are both true is dihonest and misleading, not to say a denial of the Gospel.

[Rosine Feghali]

Christ crucified every day by the Church, atheists and Christians

I am horrified by the way we are all crucifying the Christ every day. I am not judging anyone, as God only have this right. However, I am disgusted by the corruption of the church (especially Anglican and catholic), clergy fighting over money and power while their main mission is to bring people to faith and promote modesty, love and forgiveness. Christianity is humiliated every day by pornographic and false movies about Christ, pedophile clergy, gay marriage in the church, wars in the name of religion.
There are no rules or laws in Christianity, Christ’s only will was love and unfortunately I don’t see it anywhere, not in the Church or within Christians. We will all be damned at the end.
My only message to the clergy and the Christians: Read the bible, I am sure you have not!

[David Palmer]

Ruth,

I'm with La Dave - I think you have done a great job (your professional chagrin over dinosaur clerics got the better of you in respect of Packer, never mind) and I'm glad you saw the virtue of Jensen - I believe I alerted you to him before Gafcon started.

I look forward to your report from Lambeth.

The heat remains on the liberals, Gafcon has got it right - no schism, rather a church within a church, with special provision for orthodox Anglicans in North America. We evangelicals have a long history of surviving and prospering this way.

[Lisa Fox]

Thanks for taking the time to post this extensive analysis.

I wonder how the Africans and Asians are responding, as white Europeans (Jensen, Venables, Minns, maybe Duncan) seem to be assuming leadership? To me, it still looks like colonialism. Are the GAFCon participants experiencing any irritation or cognitive dissonance over this?

[Kate]

One had hoped the Irish communion might escape the blight and division of Gafcon. Clearly not so if Reform Ireland is successful in its dubious intent.

REFORM IRELAND is patently illiterate in the history of Irish Anglicanism; a sister organisation to Reform in England, it is composed of "mainstream Evangelicals" intent on gaining control of the Irish Church.

On its web site we find articles lambasting fellow clergy, plus Canterbury, the Archbishop of Dublin and Archbishop of Armagh, Alan Harper.

Reform Ireland's only links to Anglican debating forums are to the 'Christian Institute' and 'Mainstream Anglicans'.

This is a secretive, fundamentalist, sectarian organisation, with the usual self-interested ambitions; it questions the role of 'liturgy, bishops, Synods, robes and Prayer book" - too RC don't you know!!

Reform Ireland object to: "the inappropriateness of women presbyters exercising headship as rectors and bishops", and, of course, "doctrinal and moral error, especially bearing in mind the rightness of sexual intercourse within heterosexual marriage and the wrongness of such activity both outside it and in all its homosexual forms".

They are SO courageous in proclaiming Christ that NOT ONE identifying NAME appears on their web site or blog - apart that is, from the names of fellow clergy they seek to denigrate.

Reform Ireland are precisely the LAST thing required in a communion that has survived 30+ years of sectarian violence. I would ask 'ANON':

What did YOU do in the 'war' brother/sister?

'Saints and Scholars'? How unutterably arrogant and risible. A more appropriate appellation might be 'Blueshirts', signed by 'P. O'Neill'!

Those you demean and seek to displace 'anon' are, to a man and woman, distinguished by peacemaking. (Matthew 5:9). You should be ashamed.

[riazat butt]

Should the + and ++ in Jerusalem decide to name themselves GAC, they might like to know that this acronym is almost, but not quite the same as the street slang for cocaine, GAK. Regular readers of Popbitch will know this. I suspect, however, that Akinola is not a subscriber.

[saint]

Crikey Lisa, why not tell us Aussies about colonialism? Wanna tell a few journos just what colonies the US and Canada had in India, Africa, the West Indies and the Middle East? Or tell the Americans under African bishops about colonialism?

[David Cohen]

Is this journalism, Ms Butt?

[Bill Channon]

Thank you Ruth -great analysis. From everything that I have read over the past week, Gafcon was a rapidly evolving event and reporting on on this 'birthing' must have been very complex and at times frustrating.

The primates' council will form the initial leadership of Gafcon and this is not dominated by white Europeans, as Lisa Fox suggests, but by the primates of Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Southern Cone, Uganda and West Africa. Also the Anglican Church of Tanzania delegation to GAFCON may join the council at some point. I imagine that a primate of the new province in North America is likely to be someone 'white' (possibly +Duncan). +Duncan was not even present in Jerusalem for reasons that Ruth explained. ++Venable and ++Jensen may be white but they are certainly not Europeans in their outlook. I hope that, at some point the primates of the Middle East and SE Asia and the West Indies will also join the primates council -hardly white, but certainly Godly leaders.
I am very pleased at Gafcon's emphasis (in the Jerusalem Document) on Jesus' words on the subject of marriage and divorce.

[Alistair]

Jewish and Christian people must stand together against the 'common enemy'. And no, that 'enemy' is not homosexuality..."

So who is the common enemy then? Women who want to become bishops? Women who demand the right to control what they do with their own bodies? Secularists, as Nazir-Ali has claimed? Islam, as the Synod's Ruoff and Nazir-Ali has claimed? Crazed scientists creating zebras with human heads, as Catholics, supported by some Anglicans, have claimed?

For a faith that professes to promote tolerance, love and respect, Christianity seems to be busy identifying lots of 'enemies' that it must 'fight' - and that's not including the sects that see an enemy within

[Clifford Williams]

I'm afraid that the Archbishop of Canterbury, in referring to the 'scandalous behaviour' of some is begining to sound like a fish complaining about the water.

For the last 10 years the Archbishop along with two other Bishops have knowingly allowed a deposed liberal priest,(defrocked by a former conservative bishop of London) to exercise his preisthood, whilst denying the same privilage in an identical case to another priest. Welcome to planet Canterbury and the age of neo-liberal fundamentalism.

[Robert Bagwell]

Having been at the ESA Synod in Fort Worth in the late 80's, I do not think that the actions of GAFCON are decisive. Having come to a more inclusive theology of Scripture, Tradition and Reason, I find that much of what is being hailed as Biblical authority is selective interpretation that always avoids certain Biblical mandates and principles in order to achieve a desired agenda (i.e. power). I was once a well versed literalist, fundamentalist conservative. But that doesn't stand up under much examination and requires a rather dead exclusive theology more reminiscent of the Pharisees, scribes and Sadducees than of Jesus. Much of what is being touted as Biblical is actually culturally and PERSONALLY determined. The Bible does not definitively forbid women bishops (although much of what the Bible seems to condemn about women in the community of faith is ALLOWED by GAFCON) nor does it explicitly deny that people may be innately homosexual muchless condone violence or hatred against them (at least in the Newer Testament). If the Older Testament was designed to protect the line of Messiah, the Newer one expands the Royal Law to all the people of God and hopefully eventually all people. Why can't the Holy Spirit LEAD the Church into all Truth as Jesus said? Perhaps because everyone is so convinced they already have it. Isn't that the error of Rome, and we know how compassionate Rome has always been to the outcast and the "sinner." You do the math.