What's going on at Gafcon

This is a rare photograph ofthe millionaire Howard Ahmanson, pictured here at Gafcon in Jerusalem. He has made a name as a funder of the conservative Anglican cause in the US, as revealed by Jim Naughton in Following the Money. He has a delegate's badge around his neck, but has to my knowledge played no public role in the conference. I can't help but feel that his presence here is significant however. He is a friend and prayer partner of the chief executive of the American Anglican Council, David Anderson, who is also at Gafcon, and has a history of funding Christian right missions with an anti-gay objective.

This week was my turn to do a column for the Church of England Newspaper, so my contribution, which mentions Ahmanson in passing, is below.

I'm in Jerusalem at Gafcon but there is so much in the papers and on the blogs, including my own, that I thought I'ld offer  instead a brief reflection on the press out here. Often I've been tempted to abandon the faith of my father, and especially recently. A frequent question I am asked is: 'Has writing about religion for a national newspaper weakened your faith?' In God it has strengthened it, but in the Anglican entity that is dominating this summer, it has had the opposite effect. It is not always pleasant, being exposed to the inner workings of this deeply conflicted being that mirrors more a human than a Godly profile. Especially in Jerusalem, the call to return to our church's mother religion, Judaism, becomes particularly strong.

But as a journalist, it is crucial, especially when abroad, to learn to detach the personal from the objective. In this I am learning much from the newcomers on the scene, the Telegraph's Martin Beckford but especially from the Guardian's Riazat Butt. Sitting next to her in the front row while the Bishop of Rochester delivered an address with asides about Muslims was enlightening. He made no apology for proselytism and included a jokey: 'That's not all I'ld like to do with Muslims', which he later clarified by saying he was referring to interfaith work and the like. The comment aroused a conference-wide chuckle from the audience, but I don't think Riazat found it very funny. 'What is it exactly that you would like to do with me, Bishop?' she wanted to ask him later, but he pre-empted the question with his justification.

That same day, we had a press conference with Chile's Dr Cesar Guzman, a leading evangelical
theologian. He asked if anyone spoke Spanish, his first language. Riazat proceeded to have a lengthy
dialogue with him in Spanish while the rest of us there, largely English and US, listened on in
incomprehension. Riazat also speaks a number of Asian languages and is about to start learning Arabic.
She comes from Southampton, where my own Anglican mother and sister now live. I can absolutely
guarantee that had we both remained in Southampton for our entire lives, we would never have met.

I like to think of myself as up with new technology, but Riazat is ahead by a mile. She writes stories
'web-first' across many 'platforms'. She's done podcasts and videocasts already from Gafcon. She understands that writing about religion is now an international job, not a national one, and has been abroad half a dozen times already in a year, including to Mecca on Haj. Still, The Guardian hasn't had the sense to give her a Blackberry yet, or GPRS for her laptop, so we're ahead there, but not for long I suspect. With
the dodgy wireless in this part of Jerusalem, a journalist really needs both of those, or a sat phone. But
Riazat has not complained once. She's too jolly. With memories of the last Lambeth still in my mind, this is the most important lesson I am learning from her. Whatever the difficulties, I Must Not Complain.

Along with this newspaper's Matt Cresswell, she and Beckford, a tall, gangly good-humoured chap with a
quick intelligence and dry sense of humour, represent a new generation of journalists and it is exciting and fun, working with them and learning from their fresh approach. Even Paul Handley, here as editor of the
Church Times, seems be enjoying himself, although he has sprained his ankle. West Jerusalem, where we are based, is a building site and I have also stumbled many times, walking around. It is all quite different from when I was last here a decade ago.

The press operation is being run by Arne Fjeldstad, an evangelical Lutheran minister and a benign, cheery
man with a cool understanding of how we work. Even when his tolerance is pushed to its limits, as it was
by me when I obtained a copy of the sheet listing the Gafcon 8, those 'not allowed in' to the conference, he has remained polite and helpful.

Some mistakes have been made by the organisers. Having a 13-year-old boy manning the registration
desk was not a good idea. He tried to deny me entry because my name wasn't on his official list and looked mortally stricken when I asked to speak to an 'adult'. But really, do Gafcon organisers truly fail to understand the necessary restrictions that journalists today work under when it comes to engaging with minors while doing our professional work?

But that is a minor issue. Here is a snap from the press room, cold enough to freeze hell over. We are all silent. But don't think this means we are not communicating. In virtual reality, we are all talking to each other, via our computers, Blackberries and mobiles. The conservative blogger David Virtue sits behind me tapping passionately into his laptop. An email pops into my box. I learn from a liberal source on the other side of the same room that my 'Gafcon: The Banned' blog has earned even me a place in his latest commination of the evils of the liberal press.

I also learn that upstairs, the millionaire Howard Ahmanson, named as a funder of conservative evangelical
groups by The Episcopal Church's James Naughton in his expose Following the Money, has been spotted
with a Gafcon delegates card around his neck. I turn to talk to Virtue about both these things but he's
disappeared so I go too, to the bar, for a cup of tea. Lo and behold there is Virtue. He hasn't spotted me yet, so I catch the last few words of his conversation with a fellow conservative, excoriating the rather
un-Telegraphy liberalism of its latest recruit, Fleet Street curate Rev George Pitcher. Were he not wealthy
enough already after selling off the PR agency he helped found, Pitcher would certainly sue were I to record here the full text of what Virtue said about him.

I wander back down, rather dazed, to see a corner seat now occupied by the schoolboy-like George
Conger, who also writes for this newspaper. His  'Just William' demeanor is deceptive. This is a man who
knows what is going on. I am glad to see him, and skulk across the room to have a whispered conversation with him about something I've overheard, as there are some rumours that just cannot be trusted to txt or email. Rivals pretend to write stories but watch carefully around the screens of their laptops as this exchange takes place. Is there a story? No, there isn't. Just more gossip.

On the far side of the room, some true Gaconites are hard at work, typing out the transcript of Roffen's address as he speaks always without notes. I beat them to it, and it is up on my blog while they're still checking literals.

The final commique has yet to come out  but, with the exception of a few increasingly-desperate Americans, there is less and less talk of schism. It is clear that, with Common Causes's Bob Duncan not even here, but celebrating his 60th birthday in Italy instead, and with threats and actual litigation hanging heavy over the US conservatives, the mantle of leadership is moving to Australia.

Gafcon's chairman is Nigeria's Peter Akinola but after his opening address his profile is surprisingly low.
Kenya's Archbishop Nzimbi and Uganda's Archbishop Orombi are as impressive and deep as always.
They seem happy to work with Sydney's Dr Peter Jensen. There is a new mood of hope among the
Africans, who have been distressed to learn how many of the US conservative bishops are in the end going to Lambeth when their own Martyn Minns has not been invited. Most of them really do not want to walk away.

Where this leaves the US conservatives is uncertain. And quite what I am going to write for the
newspaper, now the schism story is receding, is also not yet clear. I make a note to try and find Greg Venables, who is rumoured to have just flown in and to have been spotted in the dining room, from which the press is barred. But it seems there was true, if perhaps unintended, symbolism in our
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.

I sit here, typing this article, pondering all this taking place in an extraordinarily beautiful city, subsisting in an unearthly realm where the sky meets Land and nothing in between. Another email pops into my box:'Hear the sound of the saw cutting off the limb on which all these faithful folk are sitting.'

Comments

[No to Ahmanson]

This guy is a real low life. He is a bigot and discriminates against the GLBT Community. He has given more money to prop 8 than any other person. This guy is a nothing.

[Malcolm+]

You've caught nothing at all.

I've simply decided that playing silly games with a [snip] person is a waste of bandwidth.

[David Cohen]

Still waiting, Malcolm.

But I have caught you red-handed.

[Malcolm+]

I won't play your game [snip].

The books of the Episcopal Church are open - unlike the books of the GAFCON conspirators.

[David Cohen]

So, where are these financial statements, Malcolm? Bishops from TEC are also looking for them. They keep writing in to ask to see them. But no reply from the Presiding Bishop, not even a teeny weeny little link to a web page.

You are clearly so expert at unearthing these things. Perhaps you can put us out of our misery and tell us how she is funding the lawsuits? The links - where are they? Please? Pleeeeease!

[Malcolm+]

More false witness, David? Why is it you must resort to outrageous and unsustainable accusations every time your "arguments" (such as they are) begin to fail.

The financial statements of the Episcopal Church are a mater of public record. You can easily find them for yourself. You seem to have a modicum of computer literacy.

The financial statements of GAFCON (and its new semi-schismatical offspring) are well hidden.

The records of who the attendees and decisionmakers are at Episcopal Church General Conventions and Anglican Church of Canada General Synod are likewise a matter of public record, easily obtained by requesting such from the respective national offices. (They may or may not be available online.)

By contrast, the GAFCON list is a top secret document.

One side operates in the open, the other in secret.

I don't trust secret conspiracies.

Nor do most sensible people.

[David Cohen]

I am impressed that you are so well-informed about the sources of money being used by the presiding bishop for her lawsuits, Malcolm. Perhaps, if these are a matter of public record, you could provide a link?

How curious that she won't tell the bishops from her own church who have been asking for the information!

[Malcolm+]

The money TEC uses to finance its legal actions comes from its income and its reserves. These financial statements (and the financial statements of all dioceses) are a matter of public record.

Ahmonson's financial support for schismatics in several denominations was well hidden -until the extensive forensic work of Jim Naughton.

Ahmonson is free to support whatever antidemocratic and reactionary causes he chooses. However, there seems to be public interest in the fact that he is trying to split several Christian denominations.

[Nersen]

Shock, horror....someone uses their money to support causes they believe in! And....they even go to the conferences!

Not impressed by how much money was raised in Nigeria?

There is integrity in people supporting causes in which they believe.....but liberal clergy with dwindling congregations (in TEC and the CofE) who live off the money given by people long dead who would not have imagined their heretical ideas lack integrity.

[F Guiness]

Riazat Butt says "oh and btw I don't require salvation"
Mohammed said he had seen hell and it was full of Muslim women so
I think you do.
However you also have the privilege of free will to reject Christ but He will wait for you. 2 Peter 3.8

[Mark]

The darkest post I've ever read. So much sadness Ruth, I'm worried to read your comments as none of them can tell the difference between the darkness , and the light of Christ's love and support.

[John Waldsax]

Thank you for sustaining your professional enthusiasm through this long conference year! I have never been moved to pray for any journalist before, but your comments have got you on our family prayer list! Our frailities and sins betray us daily, but it will be the passions of those who love Jesus who hold out the only hope to those who don't yet realise there is any. Please keep on showing the skill, patience and dare I say, love for those with whom you mix in your search for truth.

(rg writes: heartfelt thanks to you John.)

[Bene D]

Ahamason is connected with the Chaledon Foundation and The Institute of Religion and Democray - an organization set up to split denominations.

They've been successful, less so now that one denomination UCC has fought back. They are reconstructionists with a strong Catholic presence on their board. The history of this group is available, promoting destruction of liberal denominations under the guise of renewal.

This article mentions the tip of that iceberg of the Foundation and Institute.

[Soreofhing]

"Quirky millionaire Howard Ahmanson Jr. is on a mission from God to stop gay marriage, fight evolution, defeat "liberal" churches--and reelect George W.Bush".
Max Blumenthal

You just need to add to that list "and commands the tide to retreat like King Canute" and we have a really clear picture of this man.

[David Cohen]

What a curious piece of propaganda by the Episcopal Church!

It is apparently perfectly OK for the Presiding Bishop to spend $millions on punitive lawsuits against conservative clergy, parishes, and even retired bishops, the sources of which she steadfastly refuses to disclose.

But when a wealthy Christian chooses to spend his own money supporting Christian campaign groups (in a society which supposedly guarantees free speech) he is to be reviled and demonised for doing so.

TEC reeks of a militant student union culture of the 1970s. It is not interested in promoting the Christian faith but a secular ideology.

[Riazat Butt]

"Gafcon is not the Green Lane mosque" - oh really? oh and btw I don't require salvation, just some aspirin and a holiday.

[David Palmer]

"A frequent question I am asked is: 'Has writing about religion for a national newspaper weakened your faith?' In God it has strengthened it, but in the Anglican entity that is dominating this summer, it has had the opposite effect. It is not always pleasant, being exposed to the inner workings of this deeply conflicted being that mirrors more a human than a Godly profile"

Good for you raising this issue Ruth.

I was in my late 40s when ordained in a conservative, evangelical denomination. Prior to that I had from my teens been very much involved in local congregational life with all the usual ups and down, occasional scuffles, etc.

I was really surprised by some of the antics of some of my fellow ministers, some senior men, but then not surprised because it is part of our religion, the acknowledgement of human sinfulness, it really does run deep and the clergy are not free of this deep strain of sheer self-centredness and even bastardry that runs through every human being. Scratch us hard enough, and wow! (One of the reasons the new atheists miss the mark is their failure to acknowledge this issue of human cupidity whether one is the ABC, the Dalai Lama, Ruth Gledhill, Malcolm+, David Palmer, Fr Mark, Dr Mike Homfray or Richard Dawkins).

The point of the Christian Religion is that our human condition was and is so dire because of our rebellion that God came into his own world at a certain time and place in the person of His Son to take our frail sin prone human flesh upon Himself in order to bring it into conformity with his own righteous God centred and other human centred, world and life embracing way of life (and make satisfaction for sin, but that’s another and vital part of the story).

And so, He (Jesus Christ) uniquely is the truly godly person and any godliness that any of us might demonstrate comes by way of our association with him, and never through any ephemeral accumulation of virtue in us through our own puny endeavours. As Luther so pungently put it "the believer is both saint and sinner at the one and same time"

So, Ruth you are mixing with some very great saints and sinners there in Jerusalem, and they are not different classes of people!

Of course, that's not the whole story because Christianity is also about right views about God, ourselves and the world we live in; how we morally deficient people find forgiveness with God and one another; and what constitutes the godly way of life - all things which get back to what Gafcon is on about.

Apologies if I sound pompous or whatever.

I think Gafcon has some way to go and maybe has some surprise yet to come.

Cheers

[Shaun Clarkson]

"Riazat also speaks a number of Asian languages and is about to start learning Arabic."

Is that right Ruth? I always took for granted a life long Muslim would typically learn Arabic from an early age, even if it wasn't their mother tounge.

(rg writes: no they don't. I've become quite close to many Muslims in London, and few speak Arabic, although several know and understand passages of the Koran in Arabic by heart.)

[Richard Duprey]

If the folks at GAFCON fail to even define a process with which to deal with the schism that is in fact taking place .... well, more of us are ...well to coin a phrase from an old Jane Fonda movie or was it a song ... these boots are made for walking ...

[Leslie S.]

I loved this. I really felt low after reading Akinola's opening remarks. I felt he really isn't Anglican. I was at Dar-es-Salaam as a missionary posted in Tanzania. The primates were open to meeting the ECUSA PB. Akinola tried unsucsessfully to turn them to his ways. Martin Mimms (of Truro in Virginia)was handing out "talking" and "voting" points to the African bishops. (Talk about new colonialism!) This is all about a power grab - not faith. Thank you, Ruth. I knew the news wasn't all bad from Jerusalem.

[Kevin]

Ruth,

I think you've lost it this time. How does Area 51 and the Kennedy assassination play into this?

Also, which side are you on! The one who think the Apollo landings were a hoax or that they found alien roads but hushed up by NASA.

[An American Observer]

It is well known in the U.S. that the hardline movement in the Episcopal and other mainline churches is being bankrolled by right-wing foundations, such as the Scaife Foundation. The reason lies not in any abhorrence of homosexuality on the part of these funders but on a desire to split and therefore weaken the denominations whose leaders have made statements against the Iraq War, for the environment, and against the exploitation of the poor. By harping on sexual issues, the ones that people take most personally, they hope either to splinter the mainline churches into public ineffectiveness or bully them into remaining silent in the face of unprovoked war, environmental destruction, and business owners who act like Marxist stereotypes.

[st. anonymous]

Ms Gledhill,

thank you for this. At least no one now expects professional, objective journalism from you. Now, do carry on with your propagandizing.

(rg writes: I would be quite interested to know whether you are writing that comment from a liberal or conservative perspective, or neither!)

[Fr. Van Windsor]

Thank you for this facinating insight into certain journalists, and the tensions that exist.Your comments about Riazat Butt were most interesting, what depth she seems to bring to her field. By the way, I have laughed and laughed about the revelation of "banned" folks at Gafcon. Thanks.

[David G.]

S[nip] in The Flesh!!

[F Guiness]

"I don't think Riazat found it very funny. 'What is it exactly that you would like to do with me, Bishop?' she wanted to ask him later,"

She is quite safe - Gafcon is not the Green Lane Mosque and we do not behead unbelievers. He would like to expose her to the possibility of salvation through Jesus Christ.

[Roger Mortimer]

Fine post, thank you very much. A year or so back (Dar es Salaam and all that) I would, from time to time, be "smart" at your expense elsewhere on the internet. You make me eat my words. Thanks again.

[Fr Mark]

Did you say Ahamson is the partner of David Anderson...?

(no, I said 'prayer partner'..... ! rg)

[James F. Warren]

Ruth

Before you give up on Anglicanism and return to your Jewish roots, remember that they have their discontents and differences too. Even St. Paul found that churches tended to be disputatious places.

James